Civil Society in Syria: Illegal, but Working

The opposition crops up a lot in conversations with Syrians, unthinkable six years ago. But in a state that has remained under Ba’ath party rule and in the grip of one of the world’s most pervasive intelligence services for over forty years, it is not opposition as we know it. Rather, the term is applied to a disparate group of government critics and nascent nongovernmental organisations who are making the best of the breathing space that opened up and then contracted, following the death of President Hafez Al Assad in 2000.