Many Syrians around the world have celebrated the ousting of President Bashar al-Assad after days of rebel offensives , with some expressing deep relief at finally being able to openly criticize a tyrannical regime.
Rebels successfully overthrew Assad on Sunday, triggering a wave of people flocking into the streets of key cities to chant for freedom.
Video footage circulating online also showed locals bringing down a statue of former president Hafez al-Assad, who was in power for almost 30 years until he died in 2000.
Around the world, Syrians displaced by war also flocked into the streets, handing out sweets and expressing gratitude for the end of the regime’s rule.
Online, however, many Syrians said they finally felt comfortable revealing their identities, without the risk of the Assad regime imprisoning their loved ones.
One example is who took to social media profile X to post his photograph along with the caption "I’m not hiding anymore."
Al-Safadi said he felt emboldened to share who he was, after years of campaigning for freedom in Syria, after Assad was ousted and fled the country.
"All my Syrian friends are revealing their faces now that the security apparatus in Syria can no longer hurt our families," he wrote.
Suhail al-Ghazi, an open-source investigator for Syrian Archive decided to share his photo for the first time on social media.
"After being detained and tortured by the Syrian regime, and 10 years of forced exile, Assad has fallen and Syria is finally free. New chapter," he wrote, alongside a photograph of himself.
Saint Hoax, a current affairs page on Instagram with 3.4 million followers was among those who stated they were Syrian the same day Assad fled the country after being toppled.
"As a Syrian, I’m always asked why I never post about the Syrian regime. The truth is, even with the shield of anonymity, I was always terrified. The possibility that speaking out against the Assads could endanger my family in Syria is a risk I could never take - or live with," he wrote in a post.
"Many Syrians today, for the first time are feeling a glimmer of hope as they reunite with loved ones they once grieved as lost. That, without a doubt, is something to celebrate," he continued.
"What a glorious way of finding out you are Syrian. Mabrook Habibi," one person commented on the post.
"I love you so much more knowing you're Syrian. Praying for a better future" another wrote.
Threatened, imprisoned, tortured
According to Yazan al-Saadi, °®Âþµº's international editor based in Beirut, the toppling of Assad marks a key moment in history as it is an end to a totalitarian system which has existed for over half a decade.
"For a long time, as Syrians, if we talked politics or had a critique, it would be done in whispers," he said, adding that in order to comment on the uprising in 2011 or their desires, most had to resort to using pseudonyms or find other ways to hide their identities to protect themselves and their families.
"This is not needed anymore with the fall of the regime" he explained, noting that anyone found to be criticising the regime could face threats, prison, torture or attacks on family members.
"This was the experience with this regime since Hafez Assad took power at the dawn of the 1970s. Every Syrian trembled at the shadows of Saydnaya prison. Not anymore," he said.
Al-Saadi added that the carceral system in Syria was considered one of the most brutal in the region and even the world.
"Nearly every single Syrian family, including both sides of my parents, has someone who has either been threatened, imprisoned, tortured, disappeared, or a combination of all these acts."
More than 100,000 Syrians are thought to have gone missing during the country's 13-year insurgency, many of them held in prison, according to human rights groups.
Many had lost hope of reuniting with their loved ones and had long censored what they shared, in case of a heavy-handed crackdown.