Latest news with #Hafez
Al Bawaba
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Al Bawaba
Video: Man organizes a barbecue next to Hafez Assad's grave
Published May 27th, 2025 - 08:06 GMT ALBAWABA - A video circulated online showing a young man from the Qardaha city in Syria holding a barbecue party next to the grave of Hafez Assad. The man appeared in the video standing with a group of his friends next to Hafez Assad's grave in the Qardaha area of Syria, then he prepared a barbecue and placed the meat on it. In the clip, the Syrian man was heard saying: "I am doing BBQ over the grave of Hafez," then he tells the camera person: "Come and see the meat. I'm doing a barbecue next to Hafez's grave." Then he mockingly speaks to the former Syrian president: "Hafez, if you can hear me, come and grab a bite." Since the fall of the Syrian Assad regime, which lasted for over 50 years, on Dec. 8, 2024, Syrians have been destroying all the statues that have any ties with the ex-rulers, like Hafez Assad or Bashar Assad. They also tore down all pictures and posters from the streets and government institutions, or offices. © 2000 - 2025 Al Bawaba (
Al Bawaba
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Al Bawaba
Video: Syrians dig out Hafez Assad's grave
ALBAWAB - A new video circulating across social media sparked controversy after it showcased several unknown individuals who dug out the grave of Syria's former president and politician, Hafez Assad. According to several local reports, the grave, which is located in Qardaha in the Latakia Governorate, was dug out, including Hafez's bones, sparking widespread debate on the Syrian side of social media. Many social media users expressed their anger towards the incident, claiming that despite opposing political views, these individuals should've refrained from disrespecting a resting corpse. They called the move "vile" and "inhumane." On the contrary, several others commended the unknown individuals because Hafez Assad had a hand in the 1982 Hama massacre. Hama witnessed a clash between the Syrian Arab Army and the Defense Companies paramilitary force, which lasted 27 days, causing the deaths of tens of thousands of people. Hafez Assad ruled as the 18th president of Syria from 1971 until he died in 2000, after suffering from a sudden heart attack. He was born in Al Qardahah, Syria, and passed away in Damascus before being buried in his hometown. Hafez's son, Bashar Assad, who succeeded him as the 19th president of Syria, was recently ousted in 2024 by Ahmed Al Sharaa's rebel army and fled to Moscow, Russia, alongside his family, putting an end to the long reign of the notorious Assad regime.
Observer
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Observer
Opinion- An American's reflections on Oman, the Middle East
I have been immensely fortunate these past few months to be in Oman on a Fulbright Research fellowship as a PhD Candidate in history at Washington University in St. Louis. I am likewise lucky to be affiliated with the history department at Sultan Qaboos University—a vibrant and friendly academic community—that has helped further my research on the history of education and development in this lovely country. I first came here in 2019 to study Arabic at the Sultan Qaboos Institute for the Teaching of Arabic to Non-Native Speakers in Manah during a very hot, but enjoyable, summer. I instantly fell in love with the country and found its history so interesting that I changed the topic of my dissertation from Yemen to Oman. In the intervening years, I was able to visit several times for research and tourism, and I am blessed to say I now have many good friends in the Sultanate of Oman. My path to Oman has been a long one. I spent several years working in the private sector before returning to school for advanced studies. I had enjoyed parts of the jobs that I had, but I missed intellectual labour. In truth, I felt the inquisitive side of myself dying. During this time, I had developed an academic interest in Islam and the Middle East and had started taking Arabic at my local community college while I applied to graduate school. In the first weeks of my master's programme at the University of Chicago, I realised that I could spend the rest of my life studying this region. As someone who had previously studied the West almost exclusively—in part because my educational institutions offered few courses in anything else—learning about the Middle East opened my eyes to a vibrant and vast side of the human experience of which I had been ignorant. Studying the history of the translation movement and the philosophical and scientific efflorescence during the Abbasid Caliphate; the architectural wonders of Fatimid Cairo; reading the Shanameh of Ferdowsi, the poetry of Saadi and Hafez, and the novels of Tawfiq al Hakim and Jokha al Harthy, I realised that most of us in the West do not learn this side of history. In the formative period of my studies, and sometimes even today, when I told people what I worked on, they would widen their eyes and look confused. They might ask things like: 'Why would you want to study that?' or say: 'I can't imagine reading just squiggles'. When I would mention a specific location, they would say, with just a hint of unease in their voice: 'that's a Muslim country'. On the one hand, considering the absence of Middle Eastern history in our education system, I do not blame these people for their lack of knowledge and understanding. However, this kind of ignorance can, unfortunately, lead to bigotry. On the other hand, I realised I could use my knowledge to be part of the solution to this problem. I could contribute to my chosen field through research and scholarly monographs, and I could share my insight with students as a teacher-scholar. The teaching aspect of academia has always appealed to me. Research is rewarding, but it is a slow, iterative, and often difficult process whose results may take years to come to fruition. By contrast, teaching and working with students offers the chance to benefit someone's life almost immediately. Students grow from being introduced to new ideas, and from the process of interpreting and applying new knowledge and skills. Yet, teachers are also rewarded in their hearts by facilitating this growth. Knowing that they have taught a young person a new concept, a new way of thinking, or a new skill, fills the educator with a great sense of gratitude. Moreover, teacher-scholars can perform kinds of public service using their knowledge. While I was an adjunct at a small college between my MA and the start of my PhD, I helped organise, and participated in, a teach-in entitled: 'Everything You Wanted to Know About Were Afraid to Ask'. The series brought together scholars from religious studies and anthropology and included the participation of the Muslim members of the college community. After I leave Oman and complete my PhD, I will continue to implement educational programming that draws on my academic expertise and personal experiences at whatever institution I am employed. If I am able to help my fellow Americans learn about this region and appreciate not only its unique and illustrious history but also to see it as an integral part of human history as a whole, then I will have accomplished my mission.
The National
01-04-2025
- Politics
- The National
Apple flags change in Syria emoji for iOS 18.4
Among the various emoji updates in Apple's iOS 18.4, users might notice that Syria's flag emoji has been changed to reflect the rapid developments that have taken place since December. The new flag emoji now has three red stars in the centre on a white backdrop and a green stripe at the top. The older flag emoji had a red stripe at the top and featured two green stars on the centre white stripe. Former president Bashar Al Assad's fall from power in December prompted many at the time to display what was widely considered to be the country's opposition flag, which features three stars and green, white and black stripes. This has led to calls for the flag, first used in the 1940s after independence from France, to officially replace the country's current banner, which was adopted in 1980 under former president and Bashar Al Assad's father, Hafez. Those calls spilled over into the digital world, with many Syrians pushing for the flag to be available as an emoji on their phones. Calls were so strong that the Unicode Consortium, the authority charged with standardising emoji codes and digital characters across billions of smartphones and mobile devices globally, had to clarify its role. Unicode told The National at the time that the design and colours of emojis are up to smartphone and mobile device makers, not Unicode. Unicode also referred The National to a blog post from 2022 titled The Past and Present of the Flag Emoji, in which the consortium announced that it would no longer be accepting flag emoji submissions. 'The inclusion of new flags will always continue to emphasise the exclusion of others,' the blog entry reads in part. "And there isn't much room for the fluid nature of politics – countries change but Unicode additions are forever – once a character is added it can never be removed. 'We realise closing this door may come as a disappointment – after all, flags often serve as a rallying cry to be seen, heard, recognised and understood,' Unicode added, while also pointing out that 'font designers can always update the designs as regimes change.' Unicode also stated that despite being the largest emoji category, flags are some of the least used, with a few exceptions such as the rainbow flag. It said it can be cumbersome and time-consuming to encode more flag standards across the board. Several years before Unicode's 2022 flag emoji freeze announcement, Nato tried unsuccessfully to convince the consortium to lay the groundwork for the political and military alliance to have its own flag emoji. The Unicode Consortium does occasionally add new emojis based on ideas submitted to its subcommittee, but the responsibility is on the submitter to prove there is justification for the new design. Ultimately, how the emojis look is up to the operating system, smartphone and device makers. The former Syrian flag features horizontal stripes of red, white and black from top to bottom, common colours to represent Arab unity. Two green stars adorn the middle white section, representing Egypt and Syria as the founding nations of the short-lived United Arab Republic formed after the end of European colonialism. It was first designed in 1958, but the flag was modified several times before its adoption in the 1980s.
Al Jazeera
27-02-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Hama: A rebellious Syrian town that can finally mourn the Assad massacre
Hama, Syria – For more than 40 years, people in Hama spoke in whispers about the February 1982 massacre that then-President Hafez al-Assad unleashed on this city. Speaking about it could lead a Syrian to join the hundreds of thousands of their compatriots in al-Assad's prisons. Now, Syria's fourth-largest city can commemorate and mourn in public the massacre of tens of thousands of people because Hafez's son Bashar al-Assad was overthrown in December after an uprising and subsequent war that lasted 13 years. A history of revolutions Hama has been rebellious for generations, its historians say, with a sizeable chunk of its population having been expelled from other parts of Syria centuries ago and harbouring a distrust of central government diktats. 'For 600 to 700 years, Hama has had a history of revolutions,' Suliman al-Suliei al-Hiraki, a historian from Hama, told Al Jazeera. During the Mamluk period (11th to 14th centuries) alone, al-Hiraki says, he counted more than 30 revolutions, some of which ended in bloodshed. Then, in 1964, one year after the Baath party – which Hafez al-Assad would later take over – took power in Syria, a landmark uprising took place there. Unrest and periodic violence continued until February 1982, when Hafez al-Assad ordered the full force of the Syrian army and regime-affiliated militias to crack down on a years-long Muslim Brotherhood-led uprising. There was no quarter for the Hamawis, especially the Sunni Muslims who were targeted in the regime's predominantly sectarian killings. Piles of bodies Abdelrahman Bilal was 11 years old at the time – the memories haunt him to this day. 'They martyred three of my relatives at the same time,' he said from the office of his car dealership in Hama. One of the three was only 14 years old. Another one was arrested and later died in prison. Even among the litany of massacres committed by the Assad regimes – including the tens of thousands killed in the recent war – the Hama massacre stands out. By the time they stopped, the army and militias, led by Hafez's younger brother Rifaat, had killed thousands, the exact number unknown but estimated between 30,000 and 40,000 people, including entire families, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights. Locals say young men, some merely teenagers, were rounded up, lined up and shot. They recall seeing piles and piles of bodies. 'They took out entire neighbourhoods, all the men, and executed them at the door of their homes,' Bilal said. The Assad regime also besieged the city while bombarding it, sometimes targeting the Muslim Brotherhood's armed faction but often indiscriminately, and carrying out summary executions and torture. 'For a period of about 10 to 15 years, I didn't see any young people,' Bilal said. 'People from the ages of 15 to 45 or 50, were all killed.' 'The walls have ears' The massacre seemed to shatter Hama's rebellious nature. Instead, a new culture of silence took hold as Syrian forces, including the notorious intelligence, watched it closely. '[We told ourselves to] be careful and be quiet and don't say anything,' Bilal said, adding that people were so scared that they did not even tell children what had happened for fear of repercussions. For years, Bilal hid the portraits of his murdered relatives. A common refrain across Syria under al-Assad was: 'The walls have ears.' 'For the generation of '82 … any talk about politics was forbidden,' al-Suliei al-Hiraki said, adding that Hama shuttered its prestigious publishing houses that were known across the Arab world. '[T]he arrests continued and the raids continued,' al-Suliei al-Hiraki said. 'The city took on [a completely different] character.' Rising again, but briefly In the early days of the 2011 revolution, Hama was the scene of anti-regime protests that were so large they drew the attention of foreign diplomats. It was also one of the places where the regime responded with quick, lethal force, killing more than 100 people. Still plagued by the traumas of the 1982 massacre, Hama seemed to largely go quiet after that. Then, on November 28, 2024, a shock rebel offensive liberated Aleppo to the north. A week later, they took Hama, then Homs and Damascus, forcing Bashar to flee and ending nearly five decades of the Assad dynastic rule. Finally rid of the Assads, Bilal brought out the portraits of his slain family for the first time and hung them on the wall in his office. The young men in the photos have contemporary hairstyles and clothing, not the religious dress associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. For decades, he said: 'We didn't look at their pictures.' 'Hurry up before they take us!' Nofal Nofal was also able to share images from 43 years ago. Nofal, then 26, photographed the damage from regime bombardment on the city's houses of worship during the 1982 massacre. While the majority of victims were Sunni, the bombardment campaign destroyed every church in Hama. Nofal knew how great the risk was at the time he took the photos – so did Jihad Karbouj, who had gone out with him to photograph the scenes. The 73-year-old Karbouj stood next to Nofal, now 69, in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Hama's salon where an exhibition of the photos was being held in commemoration. Karbouj laughs as he remembers how nervous he was then. 'I told him, you better hurry up before they come and take us!' Nofal kept the photos hidden, the passing decades doing nothing to reduce his fear that they might be discovered. After the regime fell, he published them on Facebook for the public to see for the first time, then the exhibition was arranged during this month of commemoration and mourning, an event that would never have happened under al-Assad. In an echo of past worries, the police were stationed outside the church to make sure everything went smoothly. The church had been shot at by unidentified gunmen in the days after the fall of the regime, and nobody wanted to take any chances. Inside, Nofal's images showed the destruction of Hama's churches and its Great Mosque, wrought by Assad regime bombs in 1982. One set of before and after images shows a newly built – at the time – Greek Orthodox church side by side with a photo of the aftermath of a government attack that reduced it to rubble. The church had taken 20 years to complete and had never been prayed in. Absent the fear that once gripped them, the dozens of people gathered in the salon – including Christian and Muslim religious figures – were free to remember and mourn. 'Now, I'm living in freedom,' Nofal said.
