In her book The First Syrian Martyr, political researcher Dr. Samira Moubayed uncovers the regime’s false claims of its efforts to protect minorities and reveals the extent of its oppression and terrorism against those who oppose it. The book explores the history of the Moubayed family, a Christian family that lived in Damascus and suffered persecution, harassment, arrests and execution, shedding light on the life of Samira Joseph Moubayed, who was arrested and killed in cold blood, and the regime’s attempts to cover up its crimes against her.
Dr. Moubayed documented her family’s history and started writing the book in 2018, collecting stories told within the family that she found necessary to be documented as yet another proof of the suffering of the Syria people under the tyranny of Assad’s regime. The book was finally published in 2019/2020.
According to the author, her namesake, Samira Joseph Mobayed, born in a family that was forcibly displaced in the 1930s, worked in political affairs, opposing the hegemony of a totalitarian party over Syrian society. Her courage and determination pushed her to uncover the crimes that she suspected were committed by the regime. A dangerous path that had cost her her life, a heavy price for wanting to stand for her country and her people.
Through its usual intimidation tactics and corruption, the regime was able to forge her death certificate and hide the truth in a show of the deteriorating human values in Syrian society, transforming a large number of people into accomplices in its crimes, either through complicit silence out of fear, or in an attempt to ascend the ladder of power and influence.
Moubayed collected stories, memories, and personal information provided by the martyr’s friends and family and close acquaintances, compiling them chronologically. She said that the first difficulty she faced was the decision to publish, seeing herself not only as part of the book, but also as part of the history of the Syrian people and a living testimony to the regime's lies and discrimination against Christian communities.
According to Moubayed, the regime’s claims of protecting minorities is one of its most important tools to remain in power, becoming a source of terrorism to ensure its survival and standing as an obstacle to local, regional, and global peace. The regime does not hesitate to use sectarian conflicts and explicit discrimination to dominate over the people, while committing crimes against everyone with no exceptions.
Moubayed said that documenting the crimes of Assad, father and son, is one of her most significant work during the previous years and that she has plans to continue pursing and researching the subject in future publications in depth, delving especially into the negative impact of the regime’s approach on human relations within different sects and groups of the Syrian people and the unfortunate reproduction of this approach by opposition parties. Her goal is to move beyond what divides these communities and to allow for building a common ground and a sound value system, which ensures that the violations that occurred in the past against these people are not repeated.
By Khalid Al-Ahmed
Zaman Al Wasl
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