(14 Dec 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dearborn Heights, Michigan – 10 December 2024
1. Various of Rama Alhoussaini unfurling and holding up a Syrian flag
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Rama Alhoussaini, Syrian American:
“My name is Rama Alhoussaini. I was born in Damascus, Syria. My family moved here in 1999, when I was 6 years old.”
3. Various of Alhoussaini holding up a cellphone photo showing her family
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Rama Alhoussaini, Syrian American:
“We have not been able to go back to Syria since the revolution started. But as of Saturday night, the Assad regime is no longer in power. And it’s such a surreal moment to even say that out loud, because I never thought that I would see this day.”
5. Alhoussaini holds the Syrian flag
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Rama Alhoussaini, Syrian American:
“Having young children, I never thought that me and my husband would ever be able to take our children to our home country.”
7. The word (English) “Freedom” on the Syrian flag Alhoussaini is holding
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Rama Alhoussaini, Syrian American:
“Every single Syrian is happy. Every single Syrian is celebrating.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dearborn, Michigan – 10 December 2024
9. UPSOUND Nizam Abazid removes a piece of baklava from a box and says (English) “This baklava is just for the free people — people celebrating a free Syria”
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Nizam Abazid, Syrian American:
“December 8th was a remarkable day in the mind of all the Syrians all over the world. And we just cannot express the joy of the long-awaited and overdue freedom for me and for 23 million other Syrians all over the world.”
11. Various of Abazid at work at the cellular store he owns
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Nizam Abazid, Syrian American:
“Everybody’s looking forward to go back. That’s our homeland. We need to build it together. We are going to feel like we are safe and build this country again from scratch, because this guy, he demolished the whole country. He put us back like 100 years back."
13. Various of Abazid scrolling through the pictures on his phone and showing a family photo
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Nizam Abazid, Syrian American:
“My parents passed away. I couldn’t even see them. None of my brothers could see my parents. They died while all of us were abroad.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dearborn Heights, Michigan – 10 December 2024
15. Various of Alhoussaini at work in her office at a school/day care
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Rama Alhoussaini, Syrian American:
“My father, thinking about now going to visit his siblings and visit the graves of his parents. It’s just really a mind-blowing thought. We’re all still in shock. We’re all still processing.”
17. Alhoussaini holds the flag
STORYLINE:
For the first time in decades, Nizam Abazid (nee-ZAHM’ ah-bah-ZEED’) can plan a trip to his native Syria without fear of repeating his terrifying monthslong detainment in 1990.
Rama Alhoussaini (RAH’-meh AL’-hoo-SAY’-nee) can dream of taking her kids to the country she left as a child.
The former Syrian residents’ hopes are a small slice of those blossoming this week in the Detroit area among those who long have hesitated or been unable to visit loved ones in Syria under former President Bashar Assad’s government.
Insurgents toppled the regime early Sunday, forcing Assad and his family to flee to Russia and bringing an end to the family’s brutal, half-century reign over the country.
“December 8th was a remarkable day in the mind of all the Syrians all over the world,” Abazid said this week.
AP Video shot by Mike Householder
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