The Scholar-Rebels of the
Free Syrian University
“I burned my life in Syria when I left,” says al-Jamal, eliciting nods of agreement from Syrian academics around him. “It was the suppression of the educated. It was the suppression of the arts. And the suppression of all those outside of the regime over the last decades—that is our reason for being a part of this.
We have these new ideas,” he adds. “That is why we started this.”