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The slogan voiced a collective demand for change and was born from personal experiences of harassment by local regime officers. Fourteen-year-old Muawiya Sees and his friends chose this visible medium to convey their discontent and desire for dignity and freedom to a regime that had suppressed them for decades.
The Spark of Outrage
The repercussions of their act were immediate and severe. Just days after the graffiti's unveiling on March 6, 2011, the Syrian secret police—known as the muhabat—arrested the young boys. The ensuing month saw them endure brutal torture, a fate emblematic of the regime’s oppressive strategies aimed at quelling dissent.