The Markaz Review:

Yasmin Fedda and Daniel Gorman

The rule in Syria always used to be that you  never talk politics in a taxi, as the taxi drivers were all thought to be in the employ of the mukhabarat. Now, everything has changed. Taxi drivers told us of being imprisoned in Sednaya Prison under Hafez Al Assad, of their thoughts of Hayat Tahrir Ash-Sham, of their hopes and concerns for the future of Syria.

And of course, it’s not just in the taxis. In Syria right now it seems like everyone is talking. We visited for three short days in early January, it was our first time going back in over 14 years. The Syria border officer asked why we were there – a Palestinian with a western passport with deep family links to Syria, her Irish husband who in the past had lived in Syria, and a Dutch friend, who had also resided here. The old border computer system was the same, and the old family address came up. Friends we later met told us that when their names were inputted into the system, the border officers could see which security branch they were wanted by. One month previously there would have been an interrogation, torture or death, but now, they just laughed about it with border officials.

Driving the familiar road from Jordan to Syria, through Deraa province, with its red brown earth and black basalt rocks piled up, was emotional and unbelievable — had we really just crossed this border that we haven’t been able to for so long?

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