The schoolboys who sparked Syrian revolution: How it all began?

It began with graffiti!

All of us aware of ongoing Syrian civil war but not many of us know about the incident which helped to ignite this civil war. It is actually a story of 24 teenage boys. In February 2011 they painted the revolutionary slogans on a school wall in Deraa.

The slogans:

Slogans were inspired by the slogans of revolutions in neighbouring Arab countries like Tunisia and Egypt. They called for the downfall of Assad’s regime. School boys actually did it as a prank which led whole country to this situation. The boys say that they did it as fun & they thought they were playing. Some of them even written their names. The slogans painted there were:

“It’s your turn Doctor”,
"As-Shabab yoreed eskaat al nizam!" : "The people want the Regime to End!"

Who were they?

The real identity of the school boy who initially wrote this graffiti with his friends is not revealed so for, but he joined the rebels after his release & got killed by regime forces. This boy started to wrote the graffiti but joined by his freinds so he was not only the writer of the graffiti. In February or March 2011, security forces arrested a boy who was there with his cousin (the writer of graffiti) and friends. This boy was investigated and tortured to tell his friends names. He revealed the names of three of his friend including his cousin who wrote these slogans. After complete investigation total 24 boys were captured ,brutaly beated and tortured so badly that 2 of them even died in regime’s captivity.

Initial protests inside Syria:

Their relatives, neighbours and hundreds of others in the city gathered for protests demanding the release of the boys. Security forces under the command of Bashar ul Assad’s cousin Gen. Atef Najeeb crack down the protesters, killing many of them. After this incident, protests erupted in many cities of Syria and security forces continued to open fire on protesters. During these protests the dead bodies of 2 boys received. These incidents led to protests, then killing of boys & protesters led to full time insurgency.

Where are they now?

In March 20 2011, After one month of their captivity, security forces tried to take them for execution in their headquarters, but protesters stormed the bus & released them. After conflict started some of the boys joined rebels & few of them have taken refuge in neighbouring countries like Jordan. During this insurgency some of these boys were even got killed by regime forces.

Interview of one of the schoolboys who wrote the graffiti.

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