"Prison as a Living Being: ‘Assad’s Syria’ as a model for the Imprisonment State"

Abstract

The Syrian regime uses prisons as tools of domination. As such, prisons have the power not only of active repression but also as places of detention and disappearance for Syrians. The expansion of political detention in Syria over the past fifty years has transformed prison into a living being in the sense that prison has become a part, not just of Syrians' political life, but of their social identity. One can recognize it in voices, attitudes, lifestyles, and even written and oral culture. Syrian cities are full of weapons since a large area of the urban space is inhabited by the buildings of military, civil and secret prisons. This object, defined as the prison, casts its shadow over Syria and its people in many ways. It occupies significant urban space and is anticipated across vast geographical areas in the heart of cities and on the outskirts of villages. The cars of the state’s security service have become symbols of political arrest and embody a form of prison that circulates across Syrian geography, both urban and rural. Another life of prison outside the institutional walls is formed by the acts of security and intelligence personnel in daily Syrian life. They appear in civilian clothing and brandish their weapons in universities, markets, public institutions, and even bakeries.