References to the ousted President Bashar al-Assad and his father, who dominated Syria earlier than him, have been eliminated, as have photographs of pre-Islamic gods. The definition of a martyr has been modified, and it now means somebody who has died for God, not one’s nation. A Roman-era queen has been taken out of some textbooks.
Simply weeks after a coalition of rebels toppled the Assad regime, the interim authorities they’ve arrange in Damascus has moved rapidly to order a raft of modifications to the nation’s college curriculum. The modifications cowl topics starting from English and historical past to science and Islamic research.
The transfer has been criticized by lecturers and different Syrians who object not solely to the character of a number of the modifications but in addition to the truth that they have been determined upon so rapidly, with no transparency and no steering from lecturers and most of the people.
Critics say that the modifications, and the unilateral manner through which they have been ordered, are worrying indicators of how the brand new Syrian authorities plans to manipulate a various nation.
A few of the modifications, which have been detailed in 9 pages launched by the Schooling Ministry on social media final week, have been broadly welcomed, like eradicating glorification of the Assad regime from textbooks.
However some Syrians query why different modifications have been a precedence, given the extra urgent points, like insecurity, sectarian tensions and an financial disaster, that also confront the nation.
“The modifications must be restricted to solely the issues that concerned the earlier regime,” Rose Maya, 45, a highschool French instructor, mentioned at a small protest in opposition to the modifications outdoors the Schooling Ministry on Sunday. “However there isn’t a want for all the opposite modifications.”
Ms. Maya was joined by about two dozen different individuals — amongst them lecturers, college students, medical doctors and artists — holding indicators expressing varied objections to the modifications. Subsequent to her was one other instructor, Muayid Muflih, with an indication that learn: “Energy belongs to the individuals, not over the individuals.”
Mr. Muflih mentioned that till just lately he taught about nationalism, a topic that was broadly seen as serving the agenda of the Assad regime. It has now been eradicated fully from the curriculum.
Ms. Maya, referring to Nazir Mohammad al-Qadri, the training minister, mentioned that “as an interim minister he shouldn’t make modifications.” And she or he mentioned there wanted to be transparency relating to the committees the ministry mentioned it fashioned to assessment textbooks and recommend the modifications. “There must be lecturers concerned,” she mentioned.
The ministry has defended the modifications and pushed again in opposition to strategies that the alterations have been Islamist, or a nod to Salafism, a conservative department of Sunni Islam to which most of the nation’s new leaders belong.
“The modifications have been wanted after the liberation of Syria,” Mr. al-Qadri mentioned in an interview on Sunday. “These modifications weren’t modifications to the curriculum however modifications of a number of the slogans and symbols that used to glorify the earlier regime.”
Mr. al-Qadri was a part of the training ministry in Idlib, the province in northwest Syria run by the Islamist insurgent group that now heads the interim authorities, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
Specialised committees involving each members of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham-led authorities in Idlib Province and members of the Assad-era training ministry reviewed the textbooks and urged modifications, he mentioned.
Mutasem Syoufi, govt director of the Day After, a nonprofit group, mentioned that the interim authorities was making an attempt to impose its imaginative and prescient not simply on the political system of Syria but in addition its public life. The Day After was based in 2012 by members of the Syrian opposition to plan for a transitional section in Syria after the eventual fall of the Assad regime.
“The modifications are a transparent reflection of a really slim studying of Islam, and once more it reminds us of the background of the group which is in control of Syria right this moment,” he mentioned. “There isn’t a inclusive viewpoint.”
The pace with which the curriculum modifications have been made suggests they’d been ready earlier than the interim authorities took energy, Mr. Syoufi mentioned.
Throughout Syria, at the same time as individuals celebrate the toppling of a brutal and autocratic regime, there may be some trepidation about the way forward for the nation underneath a authorities headed by Islamist rebels.
Syria’s de facto new chief, Ahmed al-Shara, just lately mentioned it might take two to 3 years to draft a brand new structure and as much as 4 years to carry elections, alarming some Syrians who’ve expressed concern that they’ve traded one authoritarian chief for one more.
A number of individuals on the protest questioned why eradicating a Roman-era queen was such a precedence for the brand new Syrian management, which is already overwhelmed with immediately working an entire nation, and rebuilding the state.
On web page 19 within the third-grade Islamic Research textbook a reference to Zenobia, a queen within the Roman colony of Palmyra, in present-day central Syria, has been eliminated. An ambiguous notation within the ministry’s checklist of modifications has been learn by many as proof that it sees her as a fictional particular person.
Mr. al-Qadri mentioned she had not been faraway from historical past textbooks. He mentioned she had been deleted from the Islamic Research textbook as a result of she had lived and dominated in a pre-Islamic interval.
“We don’t deny that Zenobia was current in historical past,” he mentioned. However, he mentioned, “we object to her inclusion on this e-book.”
The deletion of the feminine chief from the textbook has however frightened some Syrians, who see it as an assault on the storied historical past of Syria.
“If we educate this technology that she was a fictional character, then we lose our connection to the previous,” Ms. Maya mentioned. “It implies that we don’t have a previous. And those who don’t have a previous don’t have a future.”
Such modifications, some Syrians say, ought to await the writing of a structure and elections. They need to even be a part of a broader dialogue between totally different elements of Syrian society, made up of assorted religions, sects and ethnicities, they mentioned.
“Their focus at this level must be simply imposing safety and making it clear how they got here into energy and what their plans are,” mentioned Malak Muhammad Suleiman, a dentist.
One other of the curriculum modifications that has Syrians frightened considerations the interpretation of a verse of the Quran. The ultimate verse within the first chapter of the Muslim holy e-book refers to “those that are astray.”
Within the earlier first-grade Islamic research e-book, the phrase was outlined as “those that have moved away from the fitting path.” Beneath the brand new authorities’s modifications, the phrase is now outlined as “Christians and Jews.”
Manwella al-Hakim, a 60-year-old summary painter and observant Muslim who wears the hijab, held up an indication on the protest objecting to this new interpretation.
“We don’t need issues that may divide us,” she mentioned. “Syria has all the time had all of the religions and all of the beliefs.”
Close to her, Ziyad al-Khoury, a 61-year-old retired journalist, held up two indicators, one among which learn: “I’m a Christian and never astray.”
Mr. al-Khoury mentioned he was shocked when he first heard of the change.
“It felt like a message from the brand new authorities that we aren’t a part of this nation,” he mentioned.
