MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
In Syria's capital, Damascus, there are hole-in-the-wall beauty parlors on nearly every street, places where women meet and gossip. When NPR's Diaa Hadid visited a few, she found a clientele trying to put on a brave face about life under Syria's new conservative Muslim rulers. While the Assad government has fallen, it is still not clear how much freedom there will be under the new regime. For that reason, some of the people who spoke to us in this report asked that we use only their first names.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: (Singing in non-English language).
DIAA HADID, BYLINE: Pounding music floods the salon, where a woman gets a blowout.
(SOUNDBITE OF HAIR DRYER RUNNING)
HADID: Hairdresser Jacques dries the black tresses of a 28-year-old former real estate agent. She's here to brighten her mood.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: This is the first time she's been out to fix her hair since the Islamic militants, led by a group known as HTS, or Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, toppled the decades-old Assad regime.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: She says, "if the situation is bad outside, it doesn't mean you have to feel that way inside, and getting your hair done shows that everything is normal."
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: Kind of normal - she doesn't want to talk about what she calls the situation. She doesn't want to give her name either. It's an uncertain time. There's been violent attacks on Syrian minorities, and it's not clear how tolerant the country's new rulers will be toward people like her - Muslim, not religious, likes to do up her hair and go to parties. But she insists she's optimistic about the future.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: "There's no need to even think about it - what's going to change, what's going to happen in the future." She says, like she's repeating a mantra, "everything will be fine."
The hairdresser gives me his first name, Jacques, and he tells me he's not worried at all.
JACQUES: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: That's even though Syria's new conservative Muslim rulers may ban men from working in women's beauty parlors. In other parts of Syria under their control, men aren't allowed to work in places frequented by women.
JACQUES: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: "One million and a half percent," he says, "I'm sure it'll be great."
(Non-English language spoken).
I say I'm laughing, and Jacques interjects, "because you think I'm telling a lie."
(Non-English language spoken).
JACQUES: (Non-English language spoken).
(LAUGHTER)
HADID: I leave the hair salon and swing by a nail-and-eyelash place down the road. The owner says, customers are trickling in now after staying home in the first days after the regime was toppled. The women prod 21-year-old Marah to speak to me.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: Like so many here, she says, she's waiting to see what the new Syria will be like.
MARAH: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: She wears a hijab, But that hardly means she's conservative in today's Syria. She also has long eyelashes. She bats them and insists they're real. And her nails are freshly done in swirly pink and red.
MARAH: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: She says, "these nails have got to be seen at a party," but she hasn't heard of any New Year's celebrations yet, and that's what's on her 21-year-old mind.
(LAUGHTER)
MARAH: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: She waggles her nails. "Right now," she says, "I'm not worried about Syria. I'm worried about who will see my nails."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LAST CHRISTMAS")
WHAM!: (Singing) Last Christmas, I gave you my heart.
HADID: Diaa Hadid, NPR News, Damascus.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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