By Brooke Anderson

BEIRUT: Inspired by the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions, Syrians began demonstrating against their government in February of last year.
 
The protests were generally small – if vocal – and ineffective. The political activists organizing the demonstrations were unable to convince large numbers of ordinary people to participate in an undertaking that could endanger their security in the tightly controlled state.

But in March, when 15 schoolchildren from Daraa, ranging in age from 9 to 15, were taken into custody and tortured for writing anti-government graffiti on walls, the people of the town could not remain silent. It turned out many in the country felt the same way. The Daraa protest of March 15, 2011, sparked what became a revolt across much of Syria.
 
Today, people in Daraa say they continue to demonstrate against the government. They are proud of their town’s role in inspiring much of the rest of the country and remain determined to achieve their goals of freedom and dignity.
 
“I feel more than proud of Daraa,” says Alaa, a university science student turned activist on the phone from Daraa. “It’s the hardest of all Arab revolutions, and we’re still continuing.”
 
“The news of the children really affected us, and the entire province of Daraa boiled. We went out and demonstrated, even though we were scared,” he explains.
 
After massive protests in Tunis and Cairo overthrew the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt, respectively, many expected the next “domino” of the "Arab Spring" to be Syria. President Bashar Assad would be overwhelmed by demonstrations in Damascus – or so the theory went. Daraa, a town in the southern province of the same name rarely mentioned in the news, appeared to be an unlikely candidate for igniting a revolution. But the town put itself on the map with its unprecedented protests.
 
Today, Alaa says, he and many others continue to march through the streets of Daraa on a daily basis, despite the new problems that have been created by the unrest, including chronic power outages, food shortages and high inflation. However, one thing he says used to be in short supply but can now be found in abundance is the courage to speak out; unlike before, the people of Daraa are not afraid to criticize the government.
 
“We’ve shattered the wall of fear,” he declares. “Even though my phone is being monitored, I’ll tell you what I think, no problem.”
 
Of himself and other activists from his hometown, Alaa says “our entire life has become the revolution.” For the past year, the science student says he has taken on the full-time job of being a photographer, journalist and political analyst – skills he’s learning with no formal training.

People who had never thought to speak out before are doing so, and daily marches have become routine.
 
What changes is the theme of the demonstrations. During the crackdown in Hama, the people of Daraa marched for Hama, and during the siege of Homs, they marched for Homs – just as people throughout the country rose up last year upon hearing the news of children from Daraa being tortured.
 
“We’ve been singing songs for Homs, and today we’ll be singing for Idlib,” Alaa says, referring to the practice of demonstrators switching the lyrics of traditional folk songs – and sometimes even government songs – to reflect their movement, as they march down the street.
 
Indeed, aside from being the birthplace of the uprising, the theme of unity is one thing that is a point of pride for people from Daraa.
 
“Our slogans were clear from the beginning,” claims Ahmad al-Mahamid on the phone from Jordan, just across the border from Daraa. “We said: ‘The people want the fall of the regime,’ ‘Syria one,’ and ‘No violence, no sectarianism.’”
 
Although Daraa, like most of the rest of Syria, is predominantly Sunni Muslim, both the town and surrounding province have significant minorities of Christians and Druze (Ezraa, for example, is 50 percent Christian).

Mahamid recalls that at the beginning of the government crackdown on civilian protesters in Daraa, people from the town’s Christian neighborhood opened their homes to the wounded after the Friday prayer demonstrations. Still, he acknowledges that overcoming the barrier of fear between the various sects will not be easy.
 
“My hope is that Daraa will play a role in bringing together the different sects in the next phase [of the uprising].”
 
For now, protesters in Daraa continue their daily marches, honoring their tortured children from a year ago, and other civilians throughout the country since.
 
“To me, the Syrian revolution means moving toward freedom and democracy and living with dignity,” says Abdula Abazad over a Facebook chat from Daraa. “As a person from Daraa, I’m so proud that the Syrian uprising started here, and that it still goes on. We will not give up until the Assad regime goes down.”