Hundreds in Syrias capital protest for democracy, womens rights: AFP [Video]

DAMASCUS – Hundreds of Syrians protested on Dec 19 in central Damascus calling for democracy and women’s rights, more than a week after an Islamist-led rebel alliance ousted president Bashar al-Assad, AFP correspondents said.

“We want a democracy, not a religious state,” men and women demonstrators chanted in central Damascus’s Ummayad Square, as well as “Free, civil Syria” and “the Syrian people are one”, while some protesters held signs including “No free nation without free women”.

Rebels led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham launched a lightning offensive from their north-west Syria bastion in November, sweeping swathes of territory from government control and taking the capital on Dec 8, toppling Mr Assad.

Rooted in Syria’s branch of Al-Qaeda and proscribed as a “terrorist” organisation by several Western governments, HTS has sought to moderate its rhetoric by assuring protection for the country’s many religious and ethnic minorities.

…