Syria Talk: Revolution, Justice and Reconstruction

How can we make sense of the world when common sense itself has broken down? This was the question that the law department associate professor Hani Sayed posed at the start of his talk about the current situation in Syria. As the country finds itself at a critical and potentially future-defining moment in time, the need to understand and contextualise the situation becomes crucial. The Middle East Studies Program invited Sayed, a Syrian himself, to unpack the Syrian case in a talk on February 17, 2025.

The Al Assad regime, which fell after a long reign of 54 years was described by Sayed as a ruling clique that governed society by the rules of a torture chamber. The understanding of the ruler in Syria was “someone who had the ability to break all your bones, heal them, then break them all again”. This was the mentality that Sayed grew up with, which he emphasised is not exceptional when it comes to post-colonial states. But now, several decades later, Bashar Al Assad has fled the country, the presidential palace is free from the clutches of the Al Assad family and declarations that the revolution has been won are sounding among the people. However, Sayed thinks that these claims of victory ought to be more closely assessed.

To help us contextualise this transitional phase in Syria’s history, Sayed outlined what it means for a country to undergo a revolution. A revolution is characterised as a new political order that does not make sense in the framework of the old order and that is based on freedom. The word “revolution”, like the revolution of planets, connotes something that is inevitable, unstoppable and returns to its original state. So, according to this understanding of what a revolution is, it cannot be said that the revolution has been won because a revolution involves the creation of a new order, not just the collapse of the old one. 

For that reason, Sayed believes that at this point in time, we need to be “cautiously optimistic” about Syria’s future. He believes that this period is as transformative for Syria as 1948 was for the Arab region. Now, there is space to start a revolution in the true sense of the word. Any frameworks we used to use to think about the situation are no longer relevant; common sense has broken down. For Sayed, the reconstruction of Syria’s justice needs to be understood from the perspective that the real revolution starts now.