Syrian rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has dismissed online controversy over a video he posted last week showing him gesturing to a young woman to cover her head before taking a photo with her.
The incident sparked criticism from both liberal and conservative commentators amid intense speculation about the county’s future direction after the rebels took power.
Liberals saw the request by the head of the Sunni Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) as a sign that he was seeking to strengthen the Islamic regime in Syria after overthrowing Bashar al-Assad, while hard-line conservatives criticized him. First, I agreed to take a picture with the woman.
Sharaa told the BBC’s Jeremy Bowen: “I didn’t force her. But that’s my personal freedom. I want to take pictures in a way that suits me.”
The woman, Lea Kheirallah, also said she was not bothered by the request.
She said he made the request in a “gentle, fatherly way” and thought “leaders have the right to be presented in the way they see fit.”
But the incident showed that Syria’s future leader may have difficulty appealing to and uniting the religiously diverse nation.
Sunni Muslims make up the majority of the population, with the remainder divided into Christians, Alawites, Druze, and Ismailis.
There are also diverse views among the various political and armed groups opposed to Assad, with some wanting secular democracy and others seeking rule according to Islamic law.
HTS, a former al Qaeda affiliate, initially imposed strict behavioral and dress codes when it took control of the rebel stronghold of Idlib province in 2017. But in response to public criticism, those regulations were rolled back in recent years.
The Quran, Islam’s holy book, tells Muslim men and women to dress modestly.
For men, modesty is interpreted as covering from the navel to the knees, while for women it is generally considered covering everything except the face, hands, and feet in front of relatives or unmarried men.
