This image, which has recently circulated, joins a long line of photographs that have marked the Syrian collective memory over decades, and even within less than two years since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, one of the most violent and brutal regimes.

The image draws attention not only because it contradicts the narrative promoted by the current authorities regarding the protection and respect of minorities, but also because it carries multiple layers of meaning. These include human rights concerns, as well as the psychological and political dimensions of violence.

Brutality as a Form of Superiority Over the Other

Repeated incidents involving individuals affiliated with the current authorities point to a pattern of humiliating opponents and desecrating the bodies of their victims. In less than two years since the fall of the Assad regime, massacres and civil clashes have recurred, from the massacres along the Syrian coast to those in As-Suwayda, alongside battles with Kurdish groups and ongoing sectarian and ethnic restrictions in several areas. In many cases, the new authorities have played a prominent role in entrenching sectarian dominance over other Syrian components, often expressed in degrading and humiliating ways.

Images of this kind have circulated widely, from cutting the braid of a Kurdish female fighter, to opening the chest of an Alawite man and extracting his heart, to cutting the moustache of an elderly Druze man, to the extent that the incursion into As-Suwayda was described as the “invasion of scissors.”

This series of acts leads to a clear conclusion about the prevailing mindset behind these practices, where the humiliation of the opponent is presented as a form of superiority over the other.

Following the incursion by the authorities and affiliated elements into As-Suwayda last July, within the context of confrontation with local Druze forces refusing to submit to the authority of the government in Damascus, government forces took control of around 35 villages, prompting residents to flee toward the city. While the authorities attempt to reassure residents and encourage their return, some of their members continue to commit violations that raise deep concerns. Last month, one member carried out the execution of young men who had gone to pick olives in the village of Al-Matouna, despite having obtained official permission from the authorities. The Internal Security Command in As-Suwayda announced the arrest of one of its members suspected of involvement in the incident and described it as a “heinous crime.”

As for the skull photo incident, the Ministry of Interior stated, after announcing the arrest of those involved, that they would be prosecuted for their involvement in publishing content offensive to religious and social symbols in the area.

These acts did not stop at placing the skull in the photo. A video had circulated earlier showing armed men firing at the grave of a child after writing the word “Druze” on a piece of marble. Reducing the issue to an insult against a religious or social symbol appears to be a simplistic and deliberate misrepresentation, as the image goes far beyond that.

The act of members affiliated with the current authorities, who control these villages, posing with the skull of a dead person is not merely shocking behavior or an individual act. It is a clear violation of human dignity even after death. What is being violated here is not only the dignity of one individual, but the body of a dead person is turned into a message of humiliation directed at an entire community.

This act also appears to be an extension of how the authorities have dealt with bodies left behind in villages in As-Suwayda that witnessed fighting and later fell under their control. Corpses were left in the open for months until they decomposed, leaving behind only bones and worn clothing. It remains unclear whether the skull in the image belongs to one of the victims of those battles or whether graves were exhumed. Grave desecration had already occurred during the incursion into the city six months earlier, when Christian graves were vandalized in the village of Al-Soura Al-Kabira.

Notably, after the massacres in As-Suwayda, and following the report issued by the national committee, the report of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry also stated clearly that the Syrian government had not disclosed the ranks or roles of the individuals accused or under investigation.

Here, a striking paradox emerges. The deposed Bashar al-Assad regime was quick to bury its victims in mass graves to conceal the truth, while the new authorities appear to be following an opposite path, by removing the dead from their graves, leaving victims of violence unburied, or obstructing their burial.

This paradox reflects how the condition of victims in the Syrian conflict shifts with changes in power. The way Syrian bodies are treated evolves alongside the country’s politics. The Assad regime concealed evidence and buried bodies under the cover of darkness in mass graves, ensuring that not a single image would emerge over the years. This was part of its method of managing fear internally, and protecting itself from accountability externally.

Today, the opposite appears to be taking place. There is a tendency among some members of the new authorities to display terror openly and to prolong the humiliation of bodies for as long as possible, even those who died decades ago.

What cannot be denied is that there is a clear difference in political messaging and in the management of violence, but little else. The fundamental reality remains that the Syrian body continues to be violated.

Thus, the Syrian body remains suspended between two approaches that appear contradictory on the surface but are similar in essence. At times, it is hidden beneath the soil so that the truth is erased and the victim forgotten. At other times, it is left exposed or displayed so that the tragedy becomes a message. In both cases, victims are denied their most basic rights: to be buried with dignity and to be remembered as individuals, not as symbols of conflict.

The Primitive Logic of Victory

In international humanitarian law, there is a fundamental principle that affirms respect for the dead and prohibits the mutilation of bodies or their use for propaganda or humiliation. This behavior also falls within the scope of hate speech and sectarian incitement, as it turns the body of a deceased person into a symbol used to insult an entire community. The core idea is that human dignity does not end with death, and that treating human remains in this manner constitutes a continuation of violence even after it has physically ceased.

The image of a skull raised on a stick recalls ancient wars, when some tribes would display the bodies of their enemies or their severed heads as a sign of victory and a message of intimidation to their opponents. As seen in the Syrian case, this primitive logic appears to be resurfacing today in the age of cameras and the internet, where human remains are turned into images that spread within seconds, declaring the victory of the “tribe.”

After long years of dictatorship, Syrian society appears to carry a tendency to create a permanent sense of threat, or to transform victory into something beyond defeating a dictator, turning it instead into victory over anyone who is different. In a tribal mindset that predates the state and citizenship, difference is perceived as a threat rather than as diversity.

All of this is happening under the watch of the new authorities. The arrest of those involved does not necessarily mean that justice is being served, as justice remains suspended without a clear process. A member previously accused of committing violations in As-Suwayda was indeed arrested, but was later released. It appears that the new authorities view justice as limited to taking photographs of perpetrators in striped clothing before releasing them, whether they are criminals from the era of Bashar al-Assad or members of the current de facto authorities.