Thirteen years after the Syrian revolution, displacement camps in Idlib’s Atma look increasingly like towns, tents replaced by cement buildings. Has the dream of return been lost?
As Syrians mark the 13th anniversary of the March 2011 uprising, activists reflect on the state of the women’s movement after more than a decade of revolution and war. In the face of conflict, displacement and persecution, what remains of it today?
When Suwayda’s protest movement began in August 2023, it met with echoes on the Syrian coast, where “a chorus of individual voices” openly criticized the regime from a region considered Assad’s base. But while Suwayda’s uprising continues, the voice of the coast has waned. Why?
As anti-Damascus protests in Suwayda move into a second week, they are developing and becoming more organized, while Druze religious leadership appears divided on what kind of change is needed.
On the twelfth anniversary of the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in March 2011, “everything is different on the ground from what it was the first year,” its course far from the aspirations of those who took part.
Residents of al-Tah camp, an informal settlement named for the south Idlib village its residents fled, have lived without electricity for four years. Solar panels are too expensive, and diesel generators are a fire hazard.
Over the course of the war, internal and external factors have led to the erosion of the Free Syrian Army that was once the protector of civilians against the Assad regime forces.
Since the start of the Syrian revolution in March 2011, hundreds of thousands have been killed, arrested or forcibly disappeared by the Assad regime, and almost half of Syria's pre-war population has been displaced.
Women’s presence and role over the past decade reflect the course of the revolution: the militarization, emergence of separated areas controlled by different international, regional and local actors, as well as the rise of extremist groups such as ISIS and HTS.
