My hope is simple. A peaceful Syria.

The Syrian conflict, now in its ninth year, has lasted longer than World War II, but I continue to pray and hope my home country finds peace. I believe this can be achieved through democracy.

Political rights and civil liberties have been compromised and in my opinion dismissed in Syria by one of the worlds most oppressive regimes.

I have witnessed in the United Kingdom that democracy delivers progress, stability and peace. It is key to societys welfare, safety, and human rights. It provides a voice to all corners of society from disadvantaged minorities to those underrepresented communities.

The Assad regime suppresses societys freedom of speech and prohibits any opposing parties from challenging it. There is utter corruption, mass displacement of citizens and rampant regime forces using chemical weapons against opposing rebels, killing civilians in its path.

The Baath Party, or should I say the Assad family, has governed Syria without interruption since the late 1960s. Syrians have been subject to the rule of the Assad regime without any democratic rights or say.

Many had hoped that with the defeat of the Islamic State (ISIS) earlier this year, Syria could begin to return to what it once was. But from my experience, I knew this would not be true. I was a journalist in Damascus the war began. The political climate became volatile, unstable and corrupt. I thought it was my personal duty to research and write about the unfolding violence between Syrian civilians and the Assad regime.

I was often framed as an enemy to Assad regime as I exposed its increasingly tyrannical and vindictive reaction to unrest. I was once interviewed by a Western journalist about my work and following the publication of this piece, I was detained for hours by the Syrian security services.

It has been eight years since the Syrian security services threatened to cut off my hand and I do not doubt that those speaking out against Assad, even after the defeat of ISIS, will face the same threats.

The government has operated for years with minimal transparency and no accountability for their actions. The conditions for civilians have worsened. The military is loyal to the regime and populations are exploited by the regime. Society groups independent from the regime and media outlets are crushed, unable to shed light on the tyranny in Syria.

Someday the Assad regime will be defeated but the people of Syria will still face hardship. The difficulty ahead is building democracy after decades of oppression and almost ten years of bloodshed.

Terror continues to strike in Syria. In northern rural Aleppo, there was an attack leaving 11 people dead and 15 injured. This atrocious crime took place on September 15, only two days after another attack killed 13 civilians, including children, shortly before the weekly Friday prayers. These premediated attacks indicate persistence by the Assad regime and allies on pursuing military goals over peoples lives, undermining any chances for a political solution.

There are those that propagate the Damascus Declaration in Syria today, which calls for a truly democratic country under law, and discusses the role of Islam and the situation of Syrias Kurdish population as equal citizens. I admire the courage of those who wrote it in 2005 and suffered time in prison for exercising their rights. Their devotion, I believe, provided Syrians with the guidelines and foundations to follow. It provides hope that democracy can be one day built.

What can the international community do? While it quickly condemned the Syrian regime during the start of the civil war, nine years on, the world is facing new threats and challenges while Syria continues to suffer. Prospects for a peaceful solution are limited without international support but the most powerful states seem to have different points of view about the Syrian crisis.

While there are conflicting views about how to handle the conflict in Syrian, Russian involvement is not the solution: It will not lead to a better or peaceful Syria. The international allies of the Assad regime have strengthened his reign and his sights remain set on Idlib. It is a beautiful province inundated with fighting. While there is now a ceasefire, we are unsure that it will last and I call on other world leaders to stop the uncontrollable bombing by Russian and the Syrian regime.

The International community needs to continue to condemn Assad openly, diminish his power and hold him accountable for his war crimes and unspeakable human rights violations. This I know will help achieve peace to the country I still love and will always be home.

The world must speak up about the human rights violations Syrians have been forced to endure for too long and there must be democratic elections for peace to really be achieved.

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Peace for Syria | Bahia Mardini - The Arab Weekly