An idea called Daraya

Five years ago, in August of 2016, the remaining people of Daraya, Syria, were forcibly evacuated after a deal was reached with the Assad regime to end the siege and return the town to regime control.

The following was initially published on Al Jumhuriya on 9 December 2018.

By the time Huda was arrested by regime soldiers in 2013, the siege of Daraya, a suburb of Damascus, was entering its first year. Huda was arrested with two of her friends at a checkpoint and taken to a prison in Muadamiya, a town just south of the capital. This experience shaped her worldview, Huda told the Syrian media outlet Enab Baladi: “After being arrested I knew the meaning of injustice and I am more willing to ask for freedom.” Huda, like many other Syrians, reported feeling a sense of awakening upon witnessing the brutality of the Assad regime first-hand.

Fast-forward to August 2016. Daraya’s remaining people were forcibly evacuated after a deal was reached with the Assad regime to end the siege and return the town to regime control. They would follow the fate of the people of Homs before them and Aleppo and Eastern Ghouta after them. As the town was falling, a group of women from Daraya wrote an open letter stating: “We are demanding action from the international community” to prevent their forced displacement. No such action came, and so, Daraya fell.