“I am very excited but also very shocked. It’s an amazing feeling.” When Sawsan Abou Zainedin fled Bashar al-Assad’s rule more than a decade ago, she thought she might never return. Now, after the fall of the regime, she heads to her hometown in southern Syria to see her father for the first time in seven years. While scenes of celebration like these are taking place across the country, there’s also concern about what’s to come. “We cannot topple one dictator’s regime to go under a different one. These few months are fundamental, not only in our lives as individuals but also in the life of this country.” Abou Zainedin says her political activism against the former government landed her in trouble, narrowly escaping arrest. As part of the wave of six million Syrians who fled during the 13-year civil war, he applied for asylum in the UK. He now leads a network of organizations that support the legal and civil rights of all Syrians. “Syria is ours and it is not the property of the Assad family. We will not rest until we reclaim the state of our citizenship and democracy.” Abou Zainedin grew up here in the Suwayda region, home to a large community of Druse, one of Syria’s many minority religious groups. It was also one of the first places where the uprising against Assad began in 2011. Many here want to see a secular state that protects the interests of Syria’s diverse population. In early December, rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, overthrew five decades of rule by the Assad family. HTS is an Islamist group formerly affiliated with al-Qaeda. Since the ouster of the Assad regime, the group’s leader, Ahmed al-Sara, has signaled an opening to a more inclusive government. People in Abou Zainedin’s hometown remain wary. In a meeting with the spiritual leader of the Druse in Syria, concerns about the new chapter quickly emerge. “We achieved something that we all thought was impossible to achieve. But we still have a lot of work ahead of us. We will certainly work with the interim government and we hope they will respond to this.” What will happen next under HTS leadership is unknown, but for now the celebration continues.
Ten years later, a political exile returns to a Syria in transition
