In Syria’s Idlib, a protester is still going strong after 8 years
‘Words can be stronger than weapons,’ says Nahhas, of the change in protest over the decade
Nearly eight years after he joined his very first protest against Syria’s regime, Bahr Nahhas still demonstrates every week with unwaning energy, even if the slogans have changed.
Just as he has since 2011, the tile-maker, 45, carefully paints clever slogans on protest banners before each Friday rally in his rebel-held hometown of Maaret Al Numan, in Syria’s northwest Idlib.
But their tone has evolved, as popular demonstrations spiralled into active conflict, foreign powers got involved, and the area around him became home to diehard terrorists.
In his very first protest in March 2011, Nahhas demanded “freedom and dignity” in solidarity with other cities rising up against President Bashar Al Assad’s regime. “I’ll never forget those days for the rest of my life,” said the tall, oliveskinned father of five.
Protesters would kiss and hug each other, Nahhas said, exhilarated by the prospect of speaking out freely against Syria’s iron-fisted regime. “We hoped to bring down the regime in just a few days or weeks,” he said.
Instead, a drawn-out conflict has seen Russia-backed regime troops slowly roll back rebel and terrorist gains nationwide, until this summer they started to mass around the Idlib region.
That prompted residents of Idlib, including Nahhas, to protest once more in order to head off the assault. “By going down to the streets, we are telling people that we are a coexisting, peaceful people asking for freedom and dignity,” he said.
Now, a shaky buffer zone is keeping regime troops away from the region, more than half of which is held by the Hayat Tahrir Al Sham alliance, led by former Al Qaida militants.
‘Words over weapons’
But for Nahhas, hardliners do not represent all of Idlib. “We have gone out to protest again to tell the world that we are not terrorists,” Nahhas said.
Most days of the week, he makes floor tiles. But with the weekend approaching, he left his workshop to prepare banners for the town’s Friday protests. Inside a building under construction, he knelt over a long white sheet, brushing Arabic letters across it in paint.
Nahhas said he has lost many of his fellow protesters in Syria’s war, which has killed more than 360,000 people. “Some were killed, some were arrested and are being held in the regime’s jails, some were tortured to death, and some emigrated to Turkey or Europe,” he said.
Others picked up weapons to fight, but he decided not to. “Words can be stronger than weapons,” Nahhas said, preparing signs in Arabic and English.
The Friday demonstration gets underway after prayers. Nahhas melted into the crowd of demonstrators. Al Assad has vowed to retake Maaret Al Numan and Idlib. But Nahhas said: “There’s no way this revolution — that has seen so many people killed and jailed — can end before the regime is toppled.”