Syrian journalists on the fall of Assad
After more than half a century, Syria has finally been freed from the brutal dictatorship of the Assad family. We asked five journalists with Syrian backgrounds from RFG Media's network for their initial reaction to this historic upheaval.
Syrians celebrate in London, 8 December 2024. Photo: Steve Eason
Diana Al Mouhamad
When I left Syria, I was still a little girl. My biggest dream was to finish my studies and make my mother proud. Journalism was never something I thought about. But when the war started and we had to flee from town to town to escape the bombings, I knew I wanted to become a journalist.
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Hisham Arafat
The fall of Assad's regime marks a historic moment for Syrians. Yet, as a Syrian Kurd, my joy is mixed with sadness and concern. Many Kurdish towns in Syria still live under Turkish occupation, aided by factions that have brought nothing but instability and fear to our communities.
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Besan Zarzar
I emptied the middle section of the large wall cupboard in my room and left a few garments hanging because that counteracts echoes. I opened my laptop, put the microphone next to it and started to speak my first report. My voice was shaking, but I wanted to record in detail everything I had seen and heard in my village in the Damascus region.
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Alan Hasan
In Syria, we suffered decades of lack of public and personal freedoms. The mere utterance of the word ‘freedom’ could land you in a prison, where death was perhaps the least terrible option compared to torture, years of detention without trial and imprisonment in inhuman conditions.
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Salwa Zaher
Soon I will fly to Turkey. From there, I will travel on to my village in Syria, where my 83-year-old mother still lives. Finally, after 13 years, I can see and hug her again. I dreamed of visiting her all these years, but she did not want me to take that risk.
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