Can Syria’s new Islamist rulers win their broken nation’s trust?
While Syrians widely celebrated the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorial regime, many reserve judgement on their new Islamist leaders.
DAMASCUS — Amid the ruins of Daraya, the southern Damascus suburb that was barrel bombed and besieged by the regime of Bashar al-Assad and his Russian allies, Amira Hamsho, a 70-year-old seamstress, surveys her latest creation — a gauzy, sequin-studded wedding dress. Brightly colored gowns radiate hope from the windows of her small shop on the ground floor of a building dotted with bullet holes.
Hamsho, a Sunni, is among a bunch of former Daraya residents slowly returning to rebuild their lives in this dystopian landscape, after Islamist rebels — led by the former al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — overthrew Assad on Dec. 8, ending more than five decades of brutal dictatorship.
Surely she is overjoyed that Assad’s fiercest enemies are now in charge. “I am not going to answer. I will keep it to myself,” Hamsho said. Pressed for a response, she said, “I will not say anything before six months to a year.”
Hamsho’s reservations about HTS, a US-designated terrorist group, echo the disparate sentiments, from jubilation to mortal fear, aired by a cross-section of Syrians who spoke to Al-Monitor over the past week. The common refrain is, “It’s early times. Let us see what they do.”
