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    Arab Spring Generation 'Not As Scared As Their Parents Are Of Change'

    Hopes from the Arab Spring have mostly been dashed. But the era led to "a radical change in the way people think about the authorities, the state, and about their rights," says an Egyptian journalist.
    by Ruth Sherlock Dec 22, 2020 6 minutes
    A view of a mosque destroyed by regime forces in Douma, Syria, on March 21, 2018. Douma, on the outskirts of Damascus, was targeted by an air strike carried out by Syrian government forces.

    Nine years ago this month, residents of the small Syrian town of Douma were in full rebellion against the regime of President Bashar Assad. Throughout the preceding year, Assad had watched as popular protests ousted dictators in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, and demonstrations spread to Bahrain, Algeria, Yemen. Now pro-democracy dissent had ignited across his country — including in Douma, just five miles from the capital Damascus.

    The regime stationed checkpoints on Douma's access roads. Syrian military patrolled the town. As a reporter covering the Arab Spring, I watched as men clustered one Friday at the doorway of a mosque in Douma, gathering their courage. Every few seconds, three or four of them ran across the avenue, shouting "Freedom!" or "Down, down, down with the regime!" as bullets cracked around them.

    They dived down a side alley where a crowd was cheering them, just out of range of the regime snipers positioned on Douma's rooftops. Some residents left the doors

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