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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?