[News] Syrian Freedom Is Dangerously Incomplete

[Anti-Imperialist News]

nytimes.com
<https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/28/opinion/syria-kurds-rojava-autonomy.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Kk8.9Lsr.Y-mbdF-dRj_0&smid=url-share>
Opinion | Syrian Freedom Is Dangerously Incomplete
Ilham Ahmed
------------------------------

May 28, 2025
[image: A statue of Hafez al-Assad broken off its base and lying head down
on the ground.]
A destroyed statue of Hafez al-Assad.Credit...William Keo for The New York
Times

By Ilham Ahmed

Ms. Ahmed is a chair of the foreign relations department of the Democratic
Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.

Syrians across the country celebrated the fall of the Assad regime in
December as a moment of joy and freedom. Next, President Trump made the
welcome decision to suspend economic sanctions against our country, a move
that will help alleviate years of suffering. But for Syria’s many diverse
peoples — including mine, the Kurds in the northeast — this remains a time
of risk and anxiety.

As a new Syria takes shape, we must ask: What kind of state will it be?
Democratic or autocratic? Rights-respecting or repressive? I believe the
answer lies in my region, where we have created what we consider to be a
model of multiethnic direct democracy
<https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/9744>.

Syria’s new interim Constitution doesn’t reflect this diversity. It doesn’t
fully protect the rights
<https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2025/03/syrias-new-constitution-gives-sweeping-powers-ignores-minority-rights>
of Syria’s minorities or women, and it declares that Islamic law is the source
for all national law
<https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/14/world/europe/syria-constitution-new-government.html>
in a highly centralized state. This is a dangerous development. Syria’s
history of autocracy, repression and rule by one ethnic group, to the
exclusion of others, is a history of failure. We need a new constitutional
process to produce a document that guarantees power sharing, safeguards
political freedoms, decentralizes governance and allows for full democratic
participation, regardless of religion, ethnicity or gender.

This very democratic model was born in the early days of the Syrian
revolution, when my region, which we formally call the Democratic
Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, achieved autonomy
<https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2025/04/26/rojava-and-the-fight-for-autonomy/>,
in 2012. Also known by its Kurdish name, Rojava, the area makes up nearly
one-third <https://www.geo-ref.net/en/xks.htm> of Syria and is home to
almost two million Kurds
<https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/kurds/kurdish-statehood-autonomous-administration-of-north-and-east-syria/7E480476CFC27855E54F0E967AF1F7BF>.
But like the rest of Syria, it is also home
<https://www.worldatlas.com/society/the-largest-ethnic-groups-in-syria.html#:~:text=Syria's%2520rich%2520ethnic%2520pallet%2520includes,primary%2520cultural%2520and%2520linguistic%2520identity.>
to Arabs, Alawites, Armenians, Druse, Chechens and other ethnic groups. It
includes many religions,
<https://culturalatlas.sbs.com.au/syrian-culture/syrian-culture-religion#:~:text=According%2520to%2520CIA%2520World%2520Factbook,Christian%2520state%2520holidays%2520are%2520followed.>
with Shia and Sunni Muslims, Yazidis and a diverse range of Assyrian,
Syriac, Chaldean and other ancient Christian traditions, as well as
secularists.

Under our administration, ethnic groups are legally protected, and women
are given a leading role
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/09/woman-life-freedom-the-syrian-feminists-who-forged-a-new-world-in-a-land-of-war>
in policymaking and society. In a part of the world with a history of
autocracy and repression, we believe our system could serve as a model not
only for Syria but also for the entire Middle East.

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and a guide to the big ideas shaping the world every weekday morning.

Different communities have a say in our government through a power-sharing
arrangement in which every administrative position — from local mayoralties
to the executive council of the entire region — is jointly held by a man
and a woman of different ethnicities
<https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/model-gender-equitable-leadership-northeast-syria>.
Citizens meet in assemblies to govern their neighborhoods, villages and
towns and send delegates to regional councils. Local committees help shape
policy on health, education, defense, sports, women’s rights and more.

Our regional Constitution, which we call a social contract
<https://rojavainformationcenter.org/2023/12/aanes-social-contract-2023-edition/>,
guarantees equal rights for all. The system is not perfect
<https://strangematters.coop/arthur-pye-rojava-reporting-preface/>. Despite
our efforts at redistributing land once held by the Assad regime, there is
still too much economic inequality. We suffer from antiquated
infrastructure, serious environmental problems and a dearth of economic
investment — all exacerbated by more than 12 years of war. We must work
harder to get more people involved
<https://nlka.net/eng/enhancing-diverse-democracy-ne-syrias-new-social-contract/>
at the local level and to carry out our commitment to ecological awareness
<https://novaramedia.com/2021/02/15/rojava-is-trying-to-build-a-green-society-but-turkey-is-starving-it-of-water-and-power/>.
But democracy is something that takes practice.

Our commitment to democracy and women’s rights gave us the strength to
fight the Islamic State, which we have defeated, with American military
support, thanks to 14,000
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/21/drones-are-above-our-heads-kurdish-led-sdf-fights-for-survival-in-syria>
of our young men and women who gave their lives in battle.

What can other countries in the region learn from our system? Arabic was
once the only official language in Syria; we teach students in three
official languages
<https://syriacpress.com/blog/2024/11/13/syriac-kurdish-and-arabic-adopted-as-official-languages-in-areas-of-democratic-autonomous-administration-of-the-region-of-north-and-east-syria/>:
Arabic, Kurdish and Syriac. We have an independent, free, robust media
<https://nlka.net/eng/reporting-a-revolution-how-rojavas-press-evolved/>
that is protected in our social contract. We employ a restorative justice
system that includes the Mala Jin
<https://truthout.org/articles/rojavas-women-led-restorative-justice-system-centers-mediation-not-retribution/>
(women’s
houses), where families can work out domestic problems with the advice and
help of female elders. We encourage the full expression of ethnic culture,
religion and dress. We don’t demand that women wear their clothes in a
certain way. Women hold half
<https://bioneers.org/rojava-revolution-womens-liberation-democracy-and-ecology-in-north-east-syria-ztvz2406/>
of legislative seats and government jobs and take leadership positions in
all institutions — military
<https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/591561/the-daughters-of-kobani-by-gayle-tzemach-lemmon/>,
political, economic and social.

Our experience provides valuable lessons for Syria’s political future.
Centralized control, instituted by the French authorities who once
dominated Syria, has been a disaster, as it has for so many similarly
diverse countries in the Middle East. The postcolonial legacy has failed
the Middle East time and time again. It makes much more sense to allow
regions to govern themselves according to their own needs and traditions
within a unified nation.

We signed an agreement with Damascus
<https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/facilitating-new-sdf-agreement-key-stabilizing-syria>
in March stating our intention to integrate our institutions and armed
forces into the new administration, and the interim president, Ahmed
al-Shara, in turn, agreed to the right to representation of all Syrians in
the new government, a cease-fire on all Syrian territory and a promise that
all displaced Syrians would be able to return to their towns and villages.
These commitments are welcome and will contribute to stability in the
country.

But the interim Constitution, which Mr. al-Shara signed in March, with
elections scheduled to be held in five years, threatens
<https://bianet.org/haber/it-s-a-recipe-for-one-man-rule-syrias-new-constitution-shatters-hopes-305730>
to undermine these good intentions. Largely created by those involved in
Mr. al-Shara’s former rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, it allows for the
curtailing of civil rights, including religious rights, if they are deemed
to infringe on public order. There are inadequate checks and balances on
the executive, who is given supreme power to appoint judges and one-third
of the legislature.

I am deeply concerned by these policies. Fault lines in the country since
Assad’s fall are already beginning to show. The terrible violence
<https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/09/world/middleeast/syria-violence.html>
on Syria’s coast in March, in which more than 1,600 civilians were killed,
mostly Alawites, and more recent aggression
<https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/30/world/europe/syria-sectarian-fighting-druse.html>
against the Druse community south of Damascus underline the need for a new
democratic constitutional process.

The new Syria must, from the outset, include everyone. The Trump
administration and U.S. Congress have a historic opportunity to help us
build such a government in Syria. It would not only help Syrians but also
provide a blueprint for the entire Middle East.

Ilham Ahmed <https://x.com/elhamahmadsdc?lang=en> is a chair of the foreign
relations department of the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North
and East Syria. She is a former co-chair of the executive committee of the
Syrian Democratic Council.
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