21/03/2026 - Siria, un viaggio di dolore ma anche di speranza

·28 min·2 clips

Asmaa Dashan entered Syria 19 days after Assad's fall to document the end of a 54-year regime that caused almost a million victims.

1. Sotto la lente host Marta Rizzi interviews Asmaa Dashan about her book "Syria: The Day After," documenting her December 2024 journey into Syria 19 days after the fall of Assad's regime. 2. Dashan is introduced as a Syrian-origin Italian photojournalist, expert on the Middle East and Islam, who has covered Syria since the beginning of the 2011 uprising and wrote this book for Ad Edizioni. 3. The episode's core question is what Syria looks and feels like in the immediate aftermath of a 54-year dictatorship, and what the country's uncertain democratic path means for Syrians inside and in the diaspora. 4. Dashan entered Syria via the Jordan border, choosing the southern route deliberately to pass through Daraa — the city considered the birthplace of the Syrian revolution — before traveling north to Aleppo. 5. The Assad regime ruled for 54 years; the final 14 years of repression and war caused close to 1 million deaths, 7 million external refugees, and an additional 7 million internally displaced people. 6. Dashan was barred from entering Syria since 2011 when she publicly denounced Assad's crimes and supported Syrian journalist networks operating under censorship and state control of information. 7. She visited prisons, barracks where journalists had been detained, opened communal graves, and cities she describes as reduced to "infinites of cemeteries," documenting physical evidence of systematic repression. 8. The most striking image she recounts is the demolition of regime statues replaced by family-posted flyers searching for at least 300,000 forcibly disappeared Syrians, including Italian Jesuit Padre Paolo D'Alloglio. 9. The Syrian Network for Human Rights documented 700 information workers — journalists, photographers, directors — killed in Syria over the 14-year conflict. 10. Dashan describes the current political situation with concern: the new self-proclaimed president came from armed struggle and had a $10 million US bounty on his head months before being received at the White House. 11. She argues that Russia's unchecked bombing in Syria enabled the subsequent war in Ukraine, and that Hezbollah and Iran's intervention in Syria contributed to the broader regional destabilization. 12. Dashan criticizes the international community's selective humanization of war victims: Iranian children killed at school received minimal coverage while victims in other conflicts were named and storied in detail. 13. She recounts a Pakistan bombing of an Afghan drug rehabilitation center that killed hundreds and went entirely unreported, attributing the silence to political discomfort about the Taliban rather than journalistic judgment. 14. She reflects on the guilt felt by diaspora Syrians watching from safety while relatives and colleagues were killed or disappeared, describing moments when she nearly abandoned her Syrian journalistic identity because the weight became unbearable. 15. Her personal journey to Aleppo was deliberately saved for last: it was the first time she entered the city legally and freely, met family she had never met in person, and visited her grandfather's tomb. 16. She draws a parallel to post-fascist Italy, saying she re-read the Italian constitution article by article to understand how Italy reconstructed itself, and found in it the "thirst for peace, justice, and human rights" she sees in Syrians today. 17. The interview is conducted in a reflective, unhurried format — Dashan speaks at length with minimal interruption, combining personal memoir with political analysis. 18. The tone is emotionally engaged but professionally composed; Dashan explicitly acknowledges the tension between emotional involvement and journalistic credibility. 19. This episode is best for listeners interested in Middle East journalism, diaspora identity, or the lived experience of covering authoritarian regimes. 20. Listeners seeking news analysis focused on current military or political developments in Syria rather than personal narrative and humanitarian context may find this less directly informative.

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