Syria - The Revolution (Preview)

Before the revolution I was a French language teacher in a school close to
the old medieval castle in Aleppo. When the revolution came, some of
the teachers who were pro-Assad moved to areas where regime was in
control, and my old school was soon bombed.
Because I stood up against the dictator, I was wanted by the regime and
therefore had to start working in field schools. Even though teaching now is
very hard cause of the frequent bombings, it has many advantages from how
it was before.
Before the revolution, we used to see schools as military bases where the
directors behaved as generals. Horrible punishments were applied, such as
using the cane to beat students and other brutal practises that doesn’t belong
in schools at all.
Now, in the schools in the liberated areas, we have at last get rid of these
punishments. They are totally forbidden and it makes me happy and proud
every day.
One more important thing that makes me feel proud of my field schools is
that all the pictures of al-Assads family and their military commanders are
ripped out from the books. Curriculum is filtered and modified to not to have
anything about al-Assad family or his regime.
Before, it was like being in a prison to have to teach the students about the
greatness of the dictator every day in class.
Now I feel free, as teachers and students should feel.
To understand the brutality of the regime, we have to see the pattern of how
al-Assad reacts to people who try to disobey him. When the regime loses
a town or the people in a city dare to stand against Bashar al-Assad, the
regime try to destroy everything that could grow strong and free in that area.
Aleppo is a clear example of this. The regime is using barrel bombs to kill
civilians each and every day. In the hunt for the regime to cause the biggest
loss of civilians, they tend to target marketplaces, homes and medical
facilities. And of course, the schools.