Syria’s New Rebel Government Orders Changes to School Curriculum, Worrying Some Syrians

References to ousted President Bashar al-Assad and his father, who ruled Syria before him, have been removed, as have images of pre-Islamic deities. The definition of martyr has changed, and now it means someone who died for God, not the world of man. The queen of the Roman era has been omitted from some textbooks.

A few weeks after the rebel coalition overthrew the Assad regime, the interim government they set up in Damascus has moved quickly and ordered a change in the school curriculum in the country. The changes include subjects ranging from English and history to science and Islamic studies.

This action has been criticized by teachers and other Syrian people who not only oppose the nature of some of the changes but also that they were decided quickly, without transparency and guidance from teachers and the general public.

Critics say the changes, and the one way they have been ordered, are worrying signs of how Syria’s new government plans to govern the diverse country.

Some of the changes, detailed in a nine-page document released by the Ministry of Education on social media last week, have been widely welcomed, such as removing glorification of the Assad regime from textbooks.

But some Syrians question why other reforms were so important, given the more pressing issues, such as insecurity, sectarian tensions and the economic crisis, still facing the country.

“Reforms should be limited to things that affect the previous regime,” said Rose Maya, 45, a high school teacher in France, at a small protest against the reforms outside the Ministry of Education on Sunday. “But there’s no need for all the other changes.”

Mrs. Maya was joined by about twenty other people – among them teachers, students, doctors and artists – holding signs showing opposition to the reforms. Next to him was another teacher, Muayid Muflih, with a sign that said: “Power belongs to the people, not over the people.”

Mr. Muflih said that until recently he was teaching about nationalism, a subject that seemed to be working in the Assad regime’s agenda. It has now been completely removed from the curriculum.

Ms. Maya, referring to Nazir Mohammad al-Qadri, the minister of education, said “as a temporary minister he must not make changes.” And he said that there should be transparency about the committees that the Ministry has established to review the books and propose changes. “There should be teachers involved,” he said.

The ministry defended the changes and dismissed suggestions that the changes were Islamist, or a nod to Salafism, the conservative branch of Sunni Islam to which many of the country’s new leaders belong.

“Changes were needed after the liberation of Syria,” Mr al-Qadri said in an interview on Sunday. “These changes were not changes in the curriculum but changes in other slogans and symbols that used to praise the previous regime.”

Mr al-Qadri was part of the education department in Idlib, a northwestern Syrian province controlled by the Islamist rebel group that now leads the interim government, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

Special committees involving both members of the government led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in Idlib province and members of the Assad-era Ministry of Education reviewed the books and suggested changes, he said.

Mutasem Syoufi, executive director of Day After, a non-profit group, said the interim government is trying to impose its vision not only on Syria’s political system but also on its public life. Day After was founded in 2012 by members of the Syrian opposition to organize a transitional phase in Syria after the fall of the Assad regime.

“The reforms are a clear illustration of a very narrow reading of Islam, and they also remind us of the background of the group that is ruling Syria today,” he said. “There is no unified vision.”

The speed with which the curriculum changes were made suggests that they were prepared before the interim government took over, said Mr. You are dead.

Across Syria, as people celebrate the overthrow of a brutal and democratic regime, there are fears for the country’s future under a government led by Islamist rebels.

Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Shara, recently said it could take two to three years to write a new constitution and four years to hold elections, alarming Syrians who have expressed fears that they are trading one dictator for another. .

Several people at the protest questioned why removing a Roman-era queen was such a priority for Syria’s new leadership, which is already frustrated with taking over the entire country at once, and rebuilding the state.

On page 19 in the third grade Islamic Studies textbook, the mention of Zenobia, the queen of the Roman colony of Palmyra, in the center of modern Syria, has been removed. An ambiguous statement in the list of ministry reforms has been read by many as evidence that it sees him as a fictional figure.

Mr al-Qadri said he has not been removed from the history books. He said he was removed from the Islamic Studies book because he lived and ruled in the pre-Islamic era.

“We do not deny that Zenobia was present in history,” he said. But, he said, “we reject his inclusion in this book.”

The removal of the female leader from the textbook has worried some Syrians, who see it as an attack on Syria’s mainstream history.

“If we teach this generation that he was a fictional character, we lose our connection with the past,” said Ms. Maya. “It means that we have no back. And those who don’t have a past don’t have a future.”

Such changes, some Syrians say, should await the drafting of a constitution and elections. They should also be part of a wider dialogue between different parts of Syrian society, made up of different religions, sects and ethnicities, they said.

“Right now their focus should be on strengthening security and clarifying how they came into power and what their plans are,” said Malak Muhammad Suleiman, a dentist.

Another curriculum change that Syrians are concerned about concerns the translation of a verse from the Quran. The last verse in the first chapter of the Islamic holy book refers to “those who have gone astray.”

In a previous first-grade Islamic studies book, this saying was explained as “those who have strayed from the right path.” Under the new government’s reforms, this phrase is now defined as “Christians and Jews.”

Manwella al-Hakim, a 60-year-old abstract painter and observant Muslim who wears a hijab, held up a sign in protest against this new interpretation.

“We don’t want things that will divide us,” he said. “Syria has always had all religions and all beliefs.”

Next to him, Ziyad al-Khoury, a 61-year-old retired journalist, held up two signs, one of which read: “I am a Christian and I do not go astray.”

Mr al-Khoury said he was shocked when he first heard about the change.

“It sounds like a message from the new government that we are not part of this country,” he said.