A motorcyclist passes in front of a building damaged during the Syrian civil war, in Harasta, a suburb of Damascus, Syria, on May 28, 2025. (Credit: Matthieu Karam/L’Orient-Le Jour)
Born in 1961 in Raqqa, Yassin al-Haj Saleh is a Syrian writer, essayist, and political dissident. Arrested in 1980 due to his involvement in the communist opposition, he spent sixteen years in the prisons of Hafez al-Assad's regime. After his release, he became one of the major intellectual voices of the Syrian revolution of 2011. Far from the beaten path, his writings offer a particularly innovative analysis of authoritarianism, political Islam, prison and exile, and imperialism in all its forms.In this article, the author argues that the crisis of reconstruction in Syria is above all due to the monopolization of power, mismanagement of resources, and the alliance between power, money, and sectarianism. The circular issued two weeks ago by the presidency of Syria’s transitional government, calling on public institutions to curb...
Born in 1961 in Raqqa, Yassin al-Haj Saleh is a Syrian writer, essayist, and political dissident. Arrested in 1980 due to his involvement in the communist opposition, he spent sixteen years in the prisons of Hafez al-Assad's regime. After his release, he became one of the major intellectual voices of the Syrian revolution of 2011. Far from the beaten path, his writings offer a particularly innovative analysis of authoritarianism, political Islam, prison and exile, and imperialism in all its forms.In this article, the author argues that the crisis of reconstruction in Syria is above all due to the monopolization of power, mismanagement of resources, and the alliance between power, money, and sectarianism. The circular issued two weeks ago by the presidency of Syria’s transitional government, calling on public institutions to curb...
