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Saturday, December 14, 2024
Video shows Syrian rebel chief telling woman to cover her hair, raising questions over nature of new regime
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleGianluca Pacchiani is the Arab affairs reporter for The Times of Israel
In a video, Syrian rebel leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, who spearheaded the overthrow of the Assad regime, asks a woman to cover her hair before posing for a picture next to him.
The undated video, which has been circulating on social media over the past day, raises questions about the nature of the new regime in Syria and whether it will respect the rights of women and religious minorities.
Al-Sharaa, better known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Julani, publicly claimed in 2016 to break with al-Qaeda, which his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group is rooted in.
In 2015, he declared in an interview with Al Jazeera that if his rebels ever managed to take over Syria, he would impose Sharia law over the country. In that interview, he said he would force members of the Alawite and Druze minorities to convert to Islam, but Christians would be allowed to continue practicing their religion if they paid a tax.
While he recently said in an interview with CNN that he has abandoned his radical ideology, and some have touted him as a pragmatist who will focus on rebuilding Syria as a pluralistic country, questions remain on whether his government will respect the rights of women and minorities.
Red Flag — New #Syria ruler Ahmed Sharaa signals to a woman to cover her hair.
If the revolution was not about liberty, it was not worth all the sacrifice. pic.twitter.com/rGUSV6wJRX— Hussain Abdul-Hussain (@hahussain) December 13, 2024
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