She is now one of the best known faces of the Syrian revolt. The novelist and journalist Samar Yazbek left her country in July 2011. She now lives in Paris. Despite her belonging to the Alawite community, the Shia minority to which also belongs the family al-Assad, she joined the protest against the Regime.

The two main cities, Damascus and Aleppo have not embraced the protests. Why?

First, this is where the social classes that have benefited most from the regime are concentrated. But if they see that their interests are threatened, the merchant bourgeoisie will also eventually take a stand against Al-Assad. The country is experiencing a very serious economic crisis. The second reason is that all public places are occupied by security forces to prevent any gathering. Power is obsessed with these two cities. There are small daily demonstrations in the capital, but they are nipped in the bud.

“By appointing a new minister of defense of Christian faith – the General Rajah Daoud – the regime wants to involve Christians in the fight to make the military command responsible for what will later be described as the massacre of Sunnis …” “But after these tragic developments, our people are perfectly able to avoid the chaos and especially the inter-sectarian war that is anticipated. All communities are engaged in this struggle for the liberation of Syria, and a sectarian civil war is impossible”

Liberation publishes Yazbek’s testimony on Syrian jails, featured earlier in The Guardian. As an introduction, journalist Ayad explains the context of the event.

Two huge men entered the room. They stood in readiness, in plainclothes. One of them stood to the right and the other to the left. With a signal from his eyes, each seized me by the shoulders, though not roughly. They seized me as if I were some object, easy for them to move. I did not resist when they started to lift me out of my chair.

SAMAR YAZBEK 40 years old, blue eyed gentle cosmopolitan. Watching her at first, it is impossible to tell from which part of the world she is. But then it takes little to realize how deeply a daughter of Syria she is. How delighted she is with her language, Arabic, to which she has dedicated her studies, and which has accompanied her work as a feminist and political activist, as a journalist, screenwriter for cinema and TV, and especially a writer. It also takes little to realize that this soft aspect of hers hides an immense courage.