Opinion
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Are Syrians today free?
The fall of Assad may have ended a regime but not the deeper habits of fear, obedience, and exclusion that sustained it. True freedom requires dismantling the cultural and institutional roots of despotism itself.
11. April 2026
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We need to talk about corruption
Ask any Syrian about his daily experiences, and corruption will come up quickly. It feels all too familiar.
09. April 2026
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Buying a shirt in Syria is a lesson in mental arithmetic
What should have been a quick trip to buy a child’s shirt became a frustrating exercise in currency chaos. Welcome to everyday life in Syria, where everything is more complicated than it should be.
06. April 2026
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Larijani’s final dialogue
A Persian novel, a medieval mystic, and a final conversation between Ali Larijani and Alexander Dugin converge on Syria as a stage of recurring end times, where ancient metaphysics and modern geopolitics collide.
04. April 2026
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Of wine, whine and wounded virtue
An alcohol regulation in Damascus spirals into a culture war.
31. March 2026
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Drunk on freedom
In Damascus, a protest over alcohol becomes something far bigger: a moment where Syrians – many of them devout, many of them women – push back against state control and reclaim the right to define their own society.
29. March 2026
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How can trust be built between Damascus and the Kurds today?
Damascus may be closing the military chapter of Syria’s war, but without resolving detainees, displacement, and Kurdish political rights, the harder task of earning trust has only just begun.
28. March 2026
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Will the Syrian Army enter Lebanon before Qamishli and Suwayda?
Is Syria preparing to march into Lebanon before it has even stitched itself back together at home? As Washington flirts with outsourcing the difficult task of disarming Hezbollah, Damascus weighs the risks of a new entanglement.
25. March 2026
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Nowruz and Mother’s Day: a tale of two symbols
On 21 March, Syria marks Nowruz and Mother’s Day. The former was suppressed under the old regime, the latter publicly celebrated. In a sign of the times, the tables have now turned.
21. March 2026
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I fought Hezbollah in Homs. Seeking revenge in Lebanon is wrong
Scarred by the siege of Homs and mindful of the regional war, Syria faces a dangerous temptation: to settle old scores in Lebanon. But intervention now risks entangling a fragile state in Israel’s war.
19. March 2026