Reem Alali is still reeling from the news that the brutal regime she fled eight years ago has collapsed, leaving her and her family with feelings bordering excitement and trepidation. Moreover, there is a sense that important decisions have to be made – but perhaps not just yet, and only with great caution.
“We didn’t sleep for two nights,” she said on Monday, a day after Bashar al-Assad, the former dictator, fled Syria following rebels’ lightning-speed advance into the capital, Damascus. “We have been glued to our phones, speaking to Syrian friends and relatives, crying and drinking glühwein with our German friends.”
