'Everyone seems to have a personal story of suffering and loss'

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00:00In the marketplace in Idlib, these sellers are almost ready to pack up.

00:05Many fled here to escape the Assad regime's brutal repression.

00:09Little surprise then to hear them boasting that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the group that

00:14toppled Assad, has its stronghold here.

00:18Over the last 50 years, Idlib was completely abandoned.

00:21It's as if Bashar was afraid of this region, but we won our freedom and now that's spread

00:25to the rest of Syria.

00:29Some openly call for revenge.

00:32Everyone seems to have a personal story of suffering and loss.

00:38I live there.

00:39A missile fired by a plane landed 20 meters away from my house.

00:43I live in a home with no windows or doors.

00:46There's nothing but I stay.

00:48God helps me through it.

00:52I asked Jelani to give us justice.

00:54I asked him to judge everyone who killed Sunnis, who raped women and killed children.

00:58That's all we want.

00:59Jelani, if you don't do it, we will.

01:02Idlib, with its dusty roads and grey buildings, is an austere place.

01:08But people from here are very proud of their city.

01:12They say they have free Wi-Fi everywhere and no blackouts.

01:17Most women wear the full veil.

01:19Outside one of Idlib's universities, students tell us they want Islam to play a bigger role

01:24in Syria's future.

01:25We want professors, school directors and imams from this province to be given priority in

01:34areas that were controlled by the old regime.

01:38Our teaching needs to be rolled out in all the regions that were recently liberated,

01:42like Homs, Aleppo or Hama.

01:48The rules must be changed.

01:51In universities, for example, with regards to women, clothes and make-up, it must change.

01:57At first there should be punishments, and then later they'll have no choice.

02:03But even officials from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham insist they don't plan on using Idlib as a

02:08model for the rest of Syria.

02:12The sociology of Idlib's inhabitants isn't the same as in other regions.

02:17What's more, every province has its own way of governing.

02:20I think Idlib's form of government will be replicated across the country, but that's

02:24unimaginable and illogical.

02:29Having suffered years of war, many people from here in Idlib and from other cities see

02:34Hayat Tahrir al-Sham as liberators.

02:38But now the group faces a real dilemma.

02:41How to set up a system of government that's acceptable to all Syrians, without alienating

02:46their fundamentalist base?

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