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But what were the causes? President Bashar al-Assad assumed power in after the death of his father, Hafez, who had ruled Syria since Assad quickly dashed hopes of reform, as power remained concentrated in the ruling family, and the one-party system left few channels for political dissent, which was repressed.
Civil society activism and media freedom were severely curtailed, effectively killing the hopes of political openness for Syrians. The Syrian Baath Party is regarded as the founder of "Arab socialism," an ideological current that merged the state-led economy with Pan-Arab nationalism.
By , however, the Baathist ideology was reduced to an empty shell, discredited by lost wars with Israel and a crippled economy. Assad tried to modernize the regime upon taking power by invoking the Chinese model of economic reform, but time was running against him. Cautious reform of the remnants of socialism opened the door to private investment, triggering an explosion of consumerism among the urban upper-middle classes. However, privatization only favored the wealthy, privileged families with ties to the regime.
Meanwhile, provincial Syria, later to become the center of the uprising, seethed with anger as living costs soared, jobs remained scarce, and inequality took its toll.
In , Syria began suffering through its worst drought in over nine decades. Some 1. Water and food were almost non-existent. With little to no resources to go around, social upheaval, conflict, and uprising naturally followed.
Syria's rapidly growing young population was a demographic time bomb waiting to explode. The country had one of the highest-growing populations in the world, and Syria was ranked ninth by the United Nations as one of the fastest-growing countries in the world between — Unable to balance the population growth with the sputtering economy and the lack of food, jobs, and schools, the Syrian uprising took root.
Although the state media was tightly controlled, the proliferation of satellite TV, mobile phones, and the internet after meant that any government attempt to insulate the youth from the outside world was doomed to fail. The use of social media became critical to the activist networks that underpinned the uprising in Syria.
Whether it was a license to open a small shop or a car registration, well-placed payments worked wonders in Syria. Those without money and contacts fomented powerful grievances against the state, leading to the uprising. Ironically, the system was corrupt to the extent that anti-Assad rebels bought weapons from government forces and families bribed authorities to release relatives detained during the uprising.
Those close to the Assad regime took advantage of the widespread corruption to further their businesses. Black markets and smuggling rings became the norm, and the regime looked the other way. The middle class was deprived of their income, further fomenting the Syrian uprising.
Syria's powerful intelligence agency, the infamous mukhabarat, penetrated all spheres of society. The fear of the state made Syrians apathetic. State violence was always high, such as disappearances, arbitrary arrests, executions and repression in general. But the outrage over the brutal response of security forces to the outbreak of peaceful protests in spring , which was documented on social media, helped generate the snowball effect as thousands across Syria joined in the uprising.
Syria is a majority Sunni Muslim country, and a majority of those initially involved in the Syrian uprising were Sunnis. But the top positions in the security apparatus are in the hands of the Alawite minority, a Shiite religious minority to which the Assad family belongs.
These same security forces committed severe violence against the majority Sunni protesters. Most Syrians pride themselves on their tradition of religious tolerance, but many Sunnis still resent the fact that a handful of Alawite families monopolized so much power. The combination of a majority Sunni protest movement and an Alawite-dominated military added to the tension and uprising in religiously mixed areas, such as in the city of Homs.
The wall of fear in Syria would not have been broken at this particular time in history had it not been for Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian street vendor whose self-immolation in December triggered a wave of anti-government uprisings—which came to be known as the Arab Spring—across the Middle East. Watching the fall of the Tunisian and Egyptian regimes in early being broadcast live on the satellite channel Al Jazeera made millions in Syria believe that they could lead their own uprising and challenge their authoritarian regime.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Wendy Pearlman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Amid headlines about the Islamic State group and photographs of rubble, it can be easy to forget that the Syrian war began as a nonviolent uprising. Violent repression cannot create a stable solution, no less a just one. Their stories describe suffocating fear and silence under the authoritarian regime that Hafez al-Assad established in and his son Bashar inherited.
Read more: 5 ways the Syrian revolution continues. While security rule created fear, everyday corruption made indignities the norm. People with whom I spoke recounted their exasperation with paying bribes at every turn and watching regime cronies get rich while their livelihoods deteriorated.
Most demeaning was the sense that complicity was the only way to survive. In early , the Arab Spring galvanized millions in protest in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere. Outside analysts and many Syrians themselves judged that a history of state violence left Syrians too afraid to go out. When a new Facebook page called for revolution on March 15 , a few individuals broke the barrier of fear.
That Friday, larger protests formed in southern Syria and security forces opened fire, killing two unarmed protesters. A week later, tens of thousands joined demonstrations across the country. Syrians recall those demonstrations and the hundreds that followed, as creative celebrations filled with dance, song and a sense of rebirth.
A graphic designer described how her husband was the first of the two of them to attend a demonstration. Many felt that experience of protest was transformative socially, as well as personally.
Hundreds of neighborhood committees formed to organize protests, bringing together people of different backgrounds to exchange ideas and work together. This civic engagement defied the collective distrust that the authoritarian state had actively fostered in order to control society.
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