Freshman Jouli Sharbaji’s mom, journalist Ola Malas, first fled her home country of Syria under threats at the start of the Syrian revolution over a decade ago. At the time, Malas was a well-known radio show host with a focus on comedy at the Damascus-based Syrian radio station Arabesque FM.

“She used to do comedy—and [former Syrian dictator] Bashar al-Assad’s brother Maher liked it,” Sharbaji said. “When the revolution started, though, my mom refused to make jokes about it. So the radio had to keep re-airing old content, which caused suspicion.”

When Malas was spotted in an anti-dictatorship protest shortly after, she began receiving death threats, targeted against both her and her then-infant daughter, Sharbaji. Sharbaji and her parents—including her dad, who was briefly jailed for his work as a journalist—then fled the country for their lives.

The threats from Assad, the dynastic dictator of the 61-year-long Ba’athist regime in Syria, did not stop after the family left. Sharbaji’s maternal uncles, both dissident filmmakers, were arrested in retaliation for Malas’ activism, and two of her paternal uncles werekilled in the ensuing civil war.

“Before, you couldn’t speak about Assad or they would get mad. My mom had a neighbor that someone from Assad’s family found attractive, so they went and kidnapped her,” Sharbaji said.

After fleeing Syria amid worsening repression, Sharbaji and her family spent two years in Saudi Arabia before seeking refuge in the United States when Sharbaji was 4 years old.

In early December 2024, the revolution took a dramatic turn. Assad’s regime collapsed as he fled the country to Russia amid a lightning offensive against his forces. The collapse brought relief to more than 6 million Syrian refugees across the world and ended the country’s 13-year civil war, which killed more than 600,000 people.

Sharbaji is one of multiple McLean students affected by the end of over half a century of dictatorship in Syria. Another Syrian-American, junior Christian Hadeed, has also had family members targeted by the authoritarian government, prompting their eventual departure from Syria. Hadeed’s family has been in the U.S. for three generations.

“My grandfather, who came from a really rich family, was targeted by the [Ba’athists] back in the 1960s,” Hadeed said. “I don’t know why they were going after him or why he was running, but on his way to Lebanon, an American couple driving through Syria picked him up and drove him to Beirut. He almost got caught but he made it to the U.S. embassy in Beirut and fled to the U.S.”

Hadeed is less optimistic about Syria’s new government, which is headed largely by remnants of the former opposition group Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS). The new government, which is seeking recognition from Western governments, is still subject to extensive U.S. sanctions.

“While I oppose Assad, I don’t know what this new government will do for my minority,” Hadeed said. “A lot of Syrians are happy that the Assads are overthrown, but the new government brings uncertainty for the whole country, specifically minorities like the Christians, Alawites and Kurds. They promised equal rights, democracy and not to harm minorities, but they already started changing school curricula.”

For many, the end of the Syrian Civil War marks a new beginning. Many hope the war’s conclusion can end the 13-year mass exodus from the country, with the Syrian refugee crisis being the largest displacement crisis of the 21st century. According to the UN, nearly 14 million Syrians have been displaced by fighting and another 6.7 million have been forced to flee. Turkey and the European Union took in a total of more than three million Syrian refugees, while the U.S. only took in around 10,000.

“Most Syrian communities here [in America] have been established decades ago; the majority of refugees are in Europe,” Hadeed said. “So in the next few months and years, you’ll see Syrian refugees in Germany, Britain and Sweden returning home, but the number of Syrians in America probably won’t dwindle.”

The question of new governance in Syria looms as the separatist Kurdish group Syrian Democratic Forces maintains control over a large swath of northwestern Syria. Turkey considers the group a terrorist organization. Meanwhile, HTS, which maintains majority control of the country, including Damascus, Aleppo, Homs and Latakia, is designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. due to its former ties to al-Qaida.

“The U.S. didn’t have prior relations with HTS; they were listed as a terrorist organization, so one of the first things is to try to delist them. If they are marked as a terrorist organization, you’re not supposed to have direct contact with them,” said international political scholar Michael Barnett, a professor at George Washington University.

Looking forward, Syria will face myriad issues that come from the fallout of the Assad regime.

“Usually, crime skyrockets post-civil war. Health indicators drop considerably,” Barnett said. “So it’s not as if peace brings the end of suffering in all ways. In some ways, [suffering] actually can increase. In most post-civil war contexts, there is a tremendous amount of instability and uncertainty.”

A major component of Syrian reconstruction will be delivering humanitarian aid to those in need.

“Humanitarian aid should be available to all those in need, not just those we like, not just those who look like us, but all in need. And there’s going to be a huge demand for that,” Barnett said. “There was humanitarian aid getting in through from Damascus and Turkey—but certainly not enough. This was difficult because of the war and the amount of destruction hurting the main transportation lines.”

Regardless, the fall has left Syrian-Americans optimistic looking forward.

“It’s very hard to predict what will come next,” Barnett said. “There are so many different forces and layers to what’s going on.”

This story was originally published on The Highlander on March 3, 2025.