People celebrating the fall of the Assad regime in Aleppo, Syria, on Dec. 10. 2024. (Credit: Sameer al-Doumy/AFP)
On the first Friday of prayers after the fall of Assad, in a liberated Damascus, thousands of people filled the inner halls and open-air courtyards at Umayyad Mosque and spilled out into the nearby Umayyad Square. Women, men, and children prayed side-by-side, a noteworthy scene in a country that is still on its toes amid a delicate power transfer.The Assad family’s 54-year-long rule was toppled by Syrian rebel forces banded together under a coalition of factions characterized by varying levels of fundamentalism. The coalition has established an interim government with a three-month expiry date, meant only to oversee the transition toward a new Syrian government, but as the main opposition group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) consolidates control in post-Assad Syria, women’s rights advocates warn that without concrete guarantees, HTS’...
On the first Friday of prayers after the fall of Assad, in a liberated Damascus, thousands of people filled the inner halls and open-air courtyards at Umayyad Mosque and spilled out into the nearby Umayyad Square. Women, men, and children prayed side-by-side, a noteworthy scene in a country that is still on its toes amid a delicate power transfer.The Assad family’s 54-year-long rule was toppled by Syrian rebel forces banded together under a coalition of factions characterized by varying levels of fundamentalism. The coalition has established an interim government with a three-month expiry date, meant only to oversee the transition toward a new Syrian government, but as the main opposition group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) consolidates control in post-Assad Syria, women’s rights advocates warn that without concrete guarantees,...