Is the new Syrian administration reflective of society and is it able to build a country free of political authoritarianism? A member of the Syrian Women’s Political Movement joins us to discuss this and more.

We are now three months on from the fall of the Bashar Al-Assad regime in Syria ending 54-years of his family's rule. The ending of his dictatorship has left the Mediterranean country facing a new reality and taking on new tasks; how to build a new country free of political authoritarianism and injustice. The Levetine nation lies in ruins after a 13-year civil war and now so much of the responsibility falls onto the shoulders of Syrian society and its new rulers. The new interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa and members of the now disbanded Hay'at Tharir Al-Sham (HTS) now find themselves in government, while Al-Sharaa promises to rebuild a new Syria that in reflective of the society, concerns about his Islamist background and appointments to the interim government have been raised. Does the new administration have what it takes to build a new Syria? Helping us make sense of all of this is Sarah Hunaidi.

Hunaidi is a Syrian writer and member of the Syrian Women’s Political Movement. She writes in English and Arabic, and her work has been published by Foreign Policy, the Independent, Chatham House, Buzzfeed, the New Arab among other publications. She provides political analysis and expert commentary on refugee and gender issues and has appeared regularly on channels like NPR, BBC and Al Jazeera. She holds a Master's degree in Near and Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University, and a Bachelor’s in International Studies at DePaul University. After her exile from Syria in 2014 due to her opposition to the Syrian regime, she started working on her first book project about the missing activist Samira Al-Khalil, exploring exile, siege and survival.

A new Syria is born: MEMO in Conversation with Sarah Hunaidi