Lubna Mrie

So I was going there kind of convinced that it's going to be like I just want I just wanted to see.

I was just curious.

I wanted to see from afar and then everything will be good.

We go to the protest.

We join the crowd and they push him to the front because at that point they were asking men to go to the front and women to the back.

So in case they shoot at us, we are protected.

And I march with these people, complete strangers, and I could not chant with them.

I remember they were chanting against, they were saying, curse your soul, Hafez, which is the father of the current president.

And I couldn't say the words.

I opened my mouth and I tried to push them out.

And I couldn't.

It felt I was doing something wrong.

And that we loved him.

I mean, I loved him so much that I didn't even refer to him as president as a child.

I used to refer to him as Baba Asad, Father Asad.

And even though I was aware, kind of aware of what's going on in the country, and aware that, you know, maybe Baba Asad was not as great as we were told, still, his love was so ingrained in me, I couldn't say the words.

We marched for a little bit and there I hear like...

A sound like... My mind told me it was a drum because I saw videos online where people would bring a drum to the protest.

And when I heard the sound, I was like, oh, wow, the drum is here.

And I knew I was mistaken.