Fragile peace in Syria’s Set Zaynab as sectarian challenges persist
Locals in the southern Damascus town cautiously await safer times as fears rooted in a decade of war still loom over daily life. Damascus, Syria
Locals in the southern Damascus town cautiously await safer times as fears rooted in a decade of war still loom over daily life. Damascus, Syria – Mohammad Sallouta sat outside his printing shop in Set Zaynab, in southern Damascus, where he has worked for the last two decades. “[Security-wise] the area is 90 percent very good,” the 47-year-old said. “But people are still afraid. Security is not 100 percent, so we are still waiting.” The area, famous for the shrine to Sayyida Zaynab, Prophet Muhammad’s granddaughter and the daughter of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the fourth Muslim caliph, was bustling with tourists during Bashar al-Assad’s rule. Shia religious pilgrims, mostly from Iraq, came in large numbers to visit the shrine, which they particularly revere. They would stay in hotels, visit the local cafes, and shop. But since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, the tourism industry has largely dried up. Locals said some visitors, mostly from Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait, still pass through the area, but typically in small groups. Few Iraqis visit now, unless they are married to Syrians. And there are questions over the stability and security of areas outside of the centre of the capital, Damascus, such as Set Zaynab. The new government in Syria has thwarted attempts by ISIL (ISIS) to attack Set Zaynab and recently arrested a cell in the area accused of planting bombs that exploded during French President Emmanuel Macron’s July visit to Damascus.
In May, Shia cleric Farhan Hassan al-Mansour was assassinated by a bomb planted in his vehicle. ISIL took credit for the attack. Locals under stress When the Assad regime’s five-decade dynastic rule finally ended in December 2024 after more than a decade of war, much of Syria was left in ruins. A 2011 uprising had been brutally put down by military forces, and the state’s infrastructure and governance slowly eroded over the following years, until a rebel operation forced al-Assad and his family into Russian exile. While millions of Syrians greeted the regime’s end with outpourings of joy, some areas like Set Zaynab have struggled since. Under al-Assad, Set Zaynab was protected by Iranian forces and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, as well as other Iranian-backed Shia groups. When the Assad regime fell, there were fears in some sectors that the site might come under attack after a war that increasingly took on a sectarian element as it progressed, with opposition groups – some of whom now make up the government – largely coming from Syria’s Sunni majority. When Al Jazeera visited the shrine to Sayyida Zaynab, Syrian security forces were present but not overbearing at the entrance, and a handful of worshippers made their way there to pray. Locals said the area was relatively safe, but they would hesitate to encourage foreigners to visit at the moment, though they expected the security situation to continue improving.
The BriefWire