Syria after Assad: Returning to Damascus after years of war, I found hope

Blacklisted by the Assad regime since 2014 for my consistently vocal opposition, it was with great relief that I landed at Damascus International Airport last month to enter the new Syria. 

Evidently, few British women travel alone to Damascus these days, not least because the UK government designates the entire country as a “red” zone, advising against all travel and thereby invalidating any travel insurance.

After buying my visa, I hit a problem at the immigration desk in Damascus. My blacklisting flashed up on the computer system, meaning I could not receive a passport stamp and be allowed in like everyone else. 

During the Assad era, all my visa applications were refused after 2014, but I managed to enter in 2018 "under the radar" so to speak as part of a group invited by the Syriac Orthodox Church, under a group visa.

This April 2025 visit was the first time I'd visited since then, in April 2018.

Instead, I was taken to a different part of the airport for an interview with a security official, who accepted my explanation of the blacklisting but said he needed to check whether I was also on an Interpol list.

I laughed out loud at the thought that I might be considered an international criminal. In the end, I was allowed in after about an hour’s delay, but the official told me to contact his office upon departure to ensure the matter was resolved once and for all.

Throughout my time in Damascus, I stayed in the house I had bought in the Old City in 2005, living alongside my Syrian friends who have been there for the last decade. The house has collected its fair share of empty cartridge shells in the courtyard, but is otherwise essentially unscathed. 

Unlike Homs and Aleppo, the Old City of Damascus never suffered aerial bombardment by the Assad regime and allied Russian air forces. For the first few years of the war, my house served as a haven for five refugee families after their own homes in the suburbs were destroyed. 

Then, in 2014, it was stolen - like so many houses all over Syria - by greedy opportunists taking advantage of absentee landlords. Thankfully, I managed to reclaim it.

Museums open but neglected

My impressions upon my latest visit were of a city exhausted by war, polluted and dirty, choked with traffic - a city whose infrastructure was in desperate need of TLC. Yet the mood of all my friends was overwhelmingly positive.

Friends who left as refugees and settled in Turkey in 2012 are returning with their families. They see it as their duty to help rebuild the country. Investment opportunities abound for small-scale projects unhampered by sanctions. 

Revisiting Damascus’s cultural sites, both in the Old City and beyond, I found them all open, well-staffed and selling tickets, just as they had been before the war - although museums like the medical school of Bimaristan al-Nuri were somewhat tired and neglected, its once-lush courtyard now bare and dusty. 

The valuable Qurans of the Museum of Arabic Epigraphy were still in storage in the basement of the National Museum, where they had been taken for safekeeping during the war. The National Museum itself only had its Classical and Hellenistic sections open, although I was told other areas would reopen in the coming weeks. 

At the Umayyad Mosque, I observed a change inside the courtyard: there are now waist-high chains dividing the space into women’s and men’s areas

The shop at the museum entrance was selling the same books, fridge magnets and postcards I recognised from before the war, and the gardens and cafe were unchanged. Al-Azem Palace was as magnificent as ever, beautifully maintained, its courtyards well-watered and rich with the scent of jasmine and roses.

At the Umayyad Mosque, I observed a change inside the courtyard: there are now waist-high chains dividing the space into women’s and men’s areas, with the women channelled into a far corner to enter the prayer hall, while the men can go straight inside from the main Bab al-Barid entrance. 

Such a division means that, strictly speaking, I cannot go to see the Barada panel, the most beautiful and famous mosaic ensemble in the mosque. But no one seemed to mind if I ducked under the chain, following the example of many local mixed family groups. 

I felt largely invisible and entirely at home throughout my trip - except in Homs, where I visited the newly restored Khalid ibn al-Walid Mosque. A hostile self-appointed warden refused to let me enter the prayer hall at all, despite my hooded gown, forcing me instead to enter a tiny screened area reserved for women, from which it was difficult to see the rest of the mosque. Her manner made me feel very unwelcome, the first time I had felt that way in a Syrian mosque throughout decades of visits, starting from 1978.

Remarkable resilience

I also visited three churches during my visit: the Ananias Chapel, where St Paul had his “Damascene conversion”; the Saydnaya Monastery, whose name is shared by the nearby notorious prison; and Umm al-Zinnar in Homs, rebuilt after extensive bombing. 

The latter two visits coincided with Palm Sunday, so the churches were decorated with real palm fronds, and my male Muslim friends were also welcomed and given sachets of incense for a blessing. At Umm al-Zinnar, they too drank the holy water, as has long been normal behaviour in Syria, where Muslim-Christian relations have traditionally been close. 

The Homs souk is now bustling after the return of refugees who had been displaced to Idlib in 2014. They were restoring their homes and reopening their shops.

At the Ananias Chapel, we encountered a church service where a man and a woman from the small congregation of about 15 people alternated in leading prayers for the safety of their community and the future of Syria.

I felt buoyed by the optimism of my friends, whose will to unite and rebuild is strong. Syrians have a remarkable resilience and ability to adapt

Traditions run deep in these anxious communities. Several early popes were born in Syria, and Pope John Paul II visited Damascus in 2001, even entering the Umayyad Mosque - the only pope ever to cross the threshold of a mosque.

Upon my departure from the airport, I received confirmation that my blacklisting had been officially lifted, enabling me to return to Syria anytime.

As my flight took off, heading west, I looked down at the majestic, snow-covered peak of Mount Hermon, now under Israeli control. This is yet another challenge facing Syria’s new leadership: the ongoing Israeli occupation and land grabs.

It remains to be seen how Syria will navigate the choppy waters ahead but overall, despite the many problems still facing the country, I felt buoyed by the optimism of my friends, whose will to unite and rebuild is strong. Syrians have a remarkable resilience and ability to adapt. 

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.