‘We are experiencing a taste of freedom’: Syrians react to President Bashar al-Assad’s downfall

Abdul Kafi Alhamdo, an English teacher, fled to Idlib in northwest Syria from his home in Aleppo eight years ago when President Bashar al-Assad’s forces closed in on his city and Russian airstrikes intensified.

He said that when rebel forces retook Aleppo about a week ago, he dropped everything and drove there immediately: “I went there to visit my friends who died before I [left] Aleppo. I went to their graves to … I told them that we’re back. Justice achieved.”

The group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham began its offensive from northwest Syria about two weeks ago. Over the weekend, HTS made it to the capital, Damascus, and retook the country. 

Assad has fled the country and, for the first time in two decades, Syrians say they are experiencing a taste of freedom. Assad brutally repressed a popular uprising, which started in 2011. His forces killed, tortured and imprisoned those who spoke out against the government. 

During the 13-year war, Assad used chemical weapons on his own people and besieged and starved people living in areas under opposition control. Now, after enduring more than a decade of harrowing loss, displacement and atrocities, Syrians are trying to make sense of what comes next.

On social media, people are sharing videos of emotional reunions between family members and friends. 

One video shows a woman embracing her son for the first time in years.

The sound she’s making is a sign of celebration.

“My life,” she tells him as she showers him with kisses. “All these years, may God bless you and keep you.”

The man is young, tall with a beard. His mother is sitting cross-legged on the floor. A blanket covers her legs.

Scenes similar to these are playing out in parts of Syria. Half of the population was displaced. In 2014, the United Nations stopped counting the dead. So many were dying so fast that it couldn’t keep up.

Ayham al-Hussain, a 24-year-old dentistry student in the city of Hama, said that he saw a lot of fighting.

He said that on Dec. 2, an airstrike hit the home of his girlfriend, killing her and her entire family — 10 people in total.

Hussain said that he tried to take her to the hospital but it was too late: “She died in front of me.” 

Some of what is still emerging from Syria is harrowing. Witnesses have filmed prisoners being set free in several cities. They look pale, dazed and emaciated.

Over the years, human rights groups documented mass hangings at the Sednaya prison near Damascus, giving it the nickname “human slaughterhouse.”

“Hundreds of people are coming, trying to reach the prison. They’re asking about their relatives,” said Dr. Mahmoud Mustafa, who rushed to the prison as soon as the government fell. 

He said that families are gathering in search of their loved ones.

Mustafa said that the prisoners need medical care: “They will have many diseases related to this. Malnutrition, skin diseases.”

Mustafa, an ophthalmologist, said that he’s going to be advising the prisoners who’ve been in darkness for a long time not to suddenly walk out into daylight. They can damage their eyes.

He said that there are still many prisoners trapped in underground cells; the prison is like a labyrinth, and the doors can’t be opened.

‘I will go back immediately’

It’s hard to find a Syrian who hasn’t been touched by the civil war. 

Sarah Huneidi was forced to leave Syria for her activism when she was 17 years old.

She said that she used her real name to write posts on Facebook in support of the uprisings.

“My friends were taken into custody and tortured and my ex was tortured for a month,” she recalled.

Then, she started to get threats, and she knew she had to leave.

Huneidi, who is now 29, moved to the US eight years ago, and she’s been working with families of those who disappeared in Assad’s prisons to document their cases. For a long time, she said, she felt that Assad was going to remain in power with impunity.

“This is the reality I have been telling myself that is never going to happen,” she said.

Huneidi belongs to the Druze minority in Syria, and she said that she’s excited, but is watching the rise of HTS with apprehension.

She said that she hopes the new Syria is a place for all Syrians.

When asked what she plans to do next, she said, “I miss home so much. I haven’t met my brother’s kids. They only know me through a screen. I miss our home, I miss our trees and my room and I miss our neighbors. I will go back immediately.”