{"id":31219,"date":"2026-03-22T17:29:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T17:29:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/31219\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T17:29:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T17:29:06","slug":"syrians-protest-against-alcohol-sale-limits-personal-freedom-curbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/31219\/","title":{"rendered":"Syrians protest against alcohol sale limits, personal freedom curbs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Hundreds of Syrians protested in central Damascus on Sunday against new restrictions on alcohol sales, reflecting wider fears that the Islamist authorities may tighten curbs on personal freedoms.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The Syrian capital last week banned the sale of alcoholic beverages in restaurants and bars, only allowing shops in three Christian neighbourhoods to sell bottles.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">In one of them, Bab Tuma, demonstrators gathered in a silent protest following calls by civil society groups to condemn what they say deepens sectarian divisions, with banners that read \u201cpersonal freedom is a red line\u201d.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Security forces monitored the gathering, according to an Agence France-Presse team on the ground.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cThis type of decision will not stand,\u201d 37-year-old television writer Rami Koussa told Agence France-Presse at the protest.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">For university professor Hanan Assi, Syrians have \u201cthousands of forgotten issues, from poverty to the displaced, the homeless and refugees\u201d that should be prioritised instead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of Syrians protested in central Damascus on Sunday against new restrictions on alcohol sales, reflecting wider fears&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[6455,13879,14499,1613,14502,670,14503,14497,8245,14500,14498,14496,6102,95,14501,13878],"class_list":{"0":"post-31219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-syria","8":"tag-agence-france-presse","9":"tag-alcohol-sales","10":"tag-bab-tuma","11":"tag-bashar-al-assad","12":"tag-christian-neighbourhoods","13":"tag-damascus","14":"tag-hanan-assi","15":"tag-islamist-authorities","16":"tag-latakia","17":"tag-personal-freedom","18":"tag-rami-koussa","19":"tag-sectarian-divisions","20":"tag-sectarian-violence","21":"tag-syria","22":"tag-syrian-capital","23":"tag-syrians"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116274014649467926","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}