To my cousin and best friend Abrar, who showed me resilience in the face of hardship
Growing up as a Syrian once meant being exposed to vibrant history, especially in my home city Damascus, the oldest inhabited city in the world. But for me and many others, growing up also meant witnessing a ruthless regime tear apart my homeland and become synonymous with despair and violence. Over the past 51 years, despite the Assad regime’s control, liberation and a promise of a free future persisted. Syria’s civil war has left trauma and scars that will likely take generations to heal, but its recent liberation has left the world standing in awe of human resilience, courage and the continued fight for freedom.
The idea of returning to a peaceful homeland is bittersweet. To witness its liberation is to witness the dreams I have held onto for years, some of which will never come forth as a reality. My family’s history is now forever intertwined with the conflict; most are refugees to neighboring countries and some are lost forever. The idea of sharing a hug or witnessing a free Syria with them is also gone with their deaths. While I watched the news on Saturday evening of Bashar Al-Assad fleeing and the collapse of his authoritarian regime, I only thought about my cousin. He was a third-year mechanical engineering student who was killed in 2012. The dreams he had, the contributions he would have made and the love we would have shared are all gone, simply for standing against the injustice and brutality of Assad. Liberation does not bring him back, but it offers the chance to honor his sacrifices and to ensure that his death was not in vain.
Even thousands of miles away, here in the US, speaking out against the brutality of the Assad regime was under threat of consequences for relatives still living in Syria. Finally being able to go home and hug the people I’ve only heard about in stories is a surreal moment that I will never have enough words to describe. Having witnessed firsthand the constant fear of being watched, reported or arrested, suddenly being offered a taste of freedom is overwhelming.
There will undoubtedly be challenges while we heal from the trauma inflicted over 13 years of conflict and 51 years of dictatorship. While liberation offers a chance to rebuild, it also forces us to confront the pain of the past. Because of this, justice is more important than ever—not just for the Syrians living and those who died for the fight for freedom, but for the generations that come after. Without accountability, the wounds left by the regime cannot truly heal.
