Statue of Hafez al-Assad stormed by onlookers in Damascus' Umayyad Square, Dec. 17, 2024. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/L'OLJ)
They had grown accustomed to not saying his name not even within four walls. So, on the night of Dec. 8, when Leen burst into her aunt Rawad’s room in a frenzy, asking what was happening after being awakened by gunfire, his name still wasn’t uttered.“He’s fled!”“Who?”“Houweh! (Him.)”That night, no one managed to fall back asleep.Just a day before the regime’s fall, they would probably not have welcomed a journalist into their living room to discuss life under Assad. But just days after, multiple generations — the one that lived under the father, Hafez, and the one that knew only the son, Bashar — were finally speaking freely and jubilantly.“Syrians are a species of their own,” said Rawad Jarjoura, a journalist and writer, as she and her husband Souhail hosted her family. Her words tumbled out, describing the “psychological shock,” the...
They had grown accustomed to not saying his name not even within four walls. So, on the night of Dec. 8, when Leen burst into her aunt Rawad’s room in a frenzy, asking what was happening after being awakened by gunfire, his name still wasn’t uttered.“He’s fled!”“Who?”“Houweh! (Him.)”That night, no one managed to fall back asleep.Just a day before the regime’s fall, they would probably not have welcomed a journalist into their living room to discuss life under Assad. But just days after, multiple generations — the one that lived under the father, Hafez, and the one that knew only the son, Bashar — were finally speaking freely and jubilantly.“Syrians are a species of their own,” said Rawad Jarjoura, a journalist and writer, as she and her husband Souhail hosted her family. Her words tumbled out, describing the...