“I'm excited but I'm also delighted. It's an amazing feeling.” When Sawsan Abou Zainedin fled the regime of Bashar al-Assad more than a decade ago, she thought she might never return. Now, after the fall of the regime, she has gone to her home town in southern Syria to see her father for the first time in seven years. While scenes of celebration like this take place across the country, there is also concern about what is to come. “We cannot put down a dictatorial regime to subjugate another regime. These 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 put her there the problem, fleeing arrest. As part of the wave of six million Syrians who fled during the 13-year civil war, she sought asylum in the United Kingdom now in charge of a network of organizations that support legal and political rights for all Syrians. “Syria is ours and it does not belong to the Assad family. We will not rest.” until we regain our state of citizenship and democracy.” Abou Zainedin grew up here in the Suwayda region, home to a large Druse community, one of Syria's many religious minorities.It was also one of the first places where the revolution began. Assad's face in 2011. Many here want to see a secular state that protects the interests of the diverse population of Syria.In early December, rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, no HTS, from five decades of Assad family rule HTS is an Islamic group formerly linked to Al Qaeda.Since its takeover of the Assad regime, the group's leader, Ahmed al-Shara, has revealed that they are open to A more inclusive government. People in Abou Zainedin's hometown are still wary. At a meeting with the spiritual leader of the Druse, concerns about the new chapter emerged quickly. thought it was impossible to achieve. But we still have a lot of work ahead of us. We are certainly engaging with the interim government, and we hope they will be responsive to this.” It is not known what will happen next under the guidance of HTS, but for now the celebration continues.
