6/ Now is the time to say #WeLead. Join over 330 Syrian women and their allies in demanding representation and leadership in Syria’s future. Share their message widely or sign the letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres yourself: shorturl.at/ZDekn

5/The letter to Antonio Guterres,UN Secretary-General, makes one thing clear:Syria’s women must lead.Their vision for an inclusive, democratic Syria must be at the heart of the political transition and constitutional process.Anything less will fail to deliver peace and freedom for all Syria’s people

4/ Women and girls in Syria have faced relentless violations: torture, detention, patriarchal laws, and violence in their own homes. Despite this, Syrian women have led the fight for justice, securing war crimes trials in Europe and even a UN institution for the missing.

3/ For nearly 14 years, Syria’s women have stood on the frontlines—protesting, advocating, and campaigning for justice, dignity, and freedom. But now, as Syria enters a critical transition, women are being sidelined by the HTS-appointed governing body. This cannot stand.

2/ Signatories include Syrian feminist legal advisor Joumana Seif, Syrian writer Rasha Omran, Syrian actor and activist Fares Helou, Syrian feminist leader Ghalia Rahhal, alongside English actress Lena Heady.

Adding: Jaber Baker's @newlinesmag.bsky.social piece on his two-year detention by Syrian military intelligence (including in the Palestine Branch & Saydnaya) after a friend shared photocopies from a controversial book with him.

Baker co-wrote the book "Syrian Gulag: Inside Assad's Prison System"

Adding: "The Syrian Government Detention System as a Tool of Violent Repression." UN report that draws on "over 300 witness interviews, medical forensic evidence and the Syrian Government’s own documentation." Covers March 2011 onward, aimed at supporting justice efforts.

Some ppl being freed from these prisons/gulags/dungeons were incarcerated before the Syrian Civil War. There were prisoners from the Lebanese Civil War/Syrian occupation of Lebanon in Tadmor in 2015. The Assad regime imprisoned unimaginable numbers of Syrians, but also Lebanese & Palestinians 6/6

I had this New Yorker piece by Ben Taub up, so I'm posting it as well, but to be clear: there is other excellent reporting on all of this, much of it from journalists/analysts from the region (will try to post more later). People were doing incredibly brave work on this a decade ago and more 5/6

"The Shell: Memoirs of a Hidden Observer" by Mustafa Khalifa. A novel/fictionalized memoir of incarceration in Tadmor (which was outside of Palmyra) based on the author's 12 years as a political prisoner. Khalifa has been referred to as Syria's Sozhenitsyn.

It is devastating. 4/6

@amnesty.org's & @forensicarchi.bsky.social's painstakingly assembled interactive feature on the prison, based on the testimony of people who survived it.

Associated report: "Human Slaughterhouse" www.amnesty.org/en/documents...

3/6

"If the Dead Could Speak," @hrw.org's report on "Ceasar" photographs, 50K+ images of of dead prisoners/murdered opposition as well as state forces & crime scene records (28K+ being of ppl the state killed in custody). Images smuggled out of Syria by a fmr Military Police forensic photographer 2/6

But I do have this to say: fuck every smug bastard who cannot allow Syrians at least a day of untainted relief and joy at ridding themselves of the most vicious tyrant my lifetime has known. Fuck you from me and my Syrian sisters and brothers whose hearts today bleed and sing at the same time.

genuine, authentic thirst for freedom. Their only role is as pawns in the great American/Israeli scheme, without any agency or characteristic, idea, desire, vision. Yassin al-Haj Saleh deconstructed this some time ago and I have nothing to add to his wise words. newlinesmag.com/review/choms...