References to the ousted President Bashar al-Assad and his father, who dominated Syria earlier than him, have been eliminated, as have photos 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 adjustments 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 academics and different Syrians who object not solely to the character of a number of the adjustments but in addition to the truth that they had been determined upon so rapidly, with no transparency and no steering from academics and most of the people.
Critics say that the adjustments, and the unilateral manner through which they had been ordered, are worrying indicators of how the brand new Syrian authorities plans to control a various nation.
A number of the adjustments, which had 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 adjustments had been a precedence, given the extra urgent points, like insecurity, sectarian tensions and an financial disaster, that also confront the nation.
“The modifications ought to be restricted to solely the issues that concerned the earlier regime,” Rose Maya, 45, a highschool French trainer, mentioned at a small protest towards the adjustments exterior the Schooling Ministry on Sunday. “However there isn’t any want for all the opposite adjustments.”
Ms. Maya was joined by about two dozen different individuals — amongst them academics, college students, medical doctors and artists — holding indicators expressing varied objections to the adjustments. Subsequent to her was one other trainer, 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 extensively seen as serving the agenda of the Assad regime. It has now been eradicated utterly from the curriculum.
Ms. Maya, referring to Nazir Mohammad al-Qadri, the training minister, mentioned that “as an interim minister he shouldn’t make adjustments.” And he or she mentioned there wanted to be transparency concerning the committees the ministry mentioned it shaped to evaluation textbooks and recommend the adjustments. “There ought to be academics concerned,” she mentioned.
The ministry has defended the adjustments and pushed again towards ideas that the alterations had been Islamist, or a nod to Salafism, a conservative department of Sunni Islam to which lots of the nation’s new leaders belong.
“The modifications had been wanted after the liberation of Syria,” Mr. al-Qadri mentioned in an interview on Sunday. “These modifications weren’t adjustments 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 advised adjustments, he mentioned.
Mutasem Syoufi, government director of the Day After, a nonprofit group, mentioned that the interim authorities was attempting 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 adjustments 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 command of Syria immediately,” he mentioned. “There isn’t a inclusive viewpoint.”
The pace with which the curriculum adjustments had been made suggests that they had been ready earlier than the interim authorities took energy, Mr. Syoufi mentioned.
Throughout Syria, at the same time as individuals rejoice the toppling of a brutal and autocratic regime, there may be some trepidation about the way forward for the nation beneath a authorities headed by Islamist rebels.
Syria’s de facto new chief, Ahmed al-Shara, just lately mentioned it may take two to a few years to draft a brand new structure and as much as 4 years to carry elections, alarming some Syrians who’ve expressed worry that they’ve traded one authoritarian chief for an additional.
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 all of the sudden working a complete 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 record of adjustments has been learn by many as proof that it sees her as a fictional individual.
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 ebook.”
The deletion of the feminine chief from the textbook has however nervous some Syrians, who see it as an assault on the storied historical past of Syria.
“If we educate this era 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 people who don’t have a previous don’t have a future.”
Such adjustments, 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 varied religions, sects and ethnicities, they mentioned.
“Their focus at this level ought to 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 adjustments that has Syrians nervous considerations the interpretation of a verse of the Quran. The ultimate verse within the first chapter of the Muslim holy ebook refers to “those that are astray.”
Within the earlier first-grade Islamic research ebook, the phrase was outlined as “those that have moved away from the precise path.” Underneath the brand new authorities’s adjustments, 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 can divide us,” she mentioned. “Syria has at all times 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 in all 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.
