Damascus and Aleppo, Syria – Until the fall of the al-Assad regime, the word “dollar” was forbidden in public. Instead, people used anything green – my favourite substitute was “molokhiyeh”, the green leaf eaten in a stew in Arab countries.

This was a story I heard many times from Syrians when reporting from Aleppo and Damascus in the days following the regime’s overthrow. Under the former regime, the walls had ears and anyone could be listening on a street corner or the other end of the phone line.

The wrong phrase or word – “dollar”, for example – could land you in one of al-Assad’s notorious prisons.

Now, with the House of al-Assad in exile, a sudden freedom burst through that had not been possible in the last five and a half decades of dynastic family rule.

Syrians I met understood how fragile and fleeting such freedom of expression could be – many telling me a few days of experiencing it were enough to never want to go back.

“Before, you would get your rights through connections and bribery,” Yamen Sheikh Mukhaneq, 21, said, standing outside the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus on the first Friday prayer after the regime’s collapse.

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A smile beaming on his face as worshippers pushed past us, the law student added: “Now, God willing, because of this liberation, I have hope.”

Fighters on a tank in Aleppo [Ali Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera]

While I’ve reported on Syria a lot since I started in 2011, and spoken to many Syrians in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkiye, Egypt, the United States, France and elsewhere, I’d never reported from Syria itself.

Walking under pomegranate and lemon trees in the streets of Old Damascus and peering into abandoned courtyards brought to life, so many stories I’d heard from Syrians of what had been taken away from them in exile sprang to my mind.

It was surreal, something I could never have imagined even two weeks earlier. I began to imagine an alternative reality where my wife and I would take day trips to Damascus from Beirut to visit friends or marvel at the historic neighbourhoods, or even drive through Syria to Iraq, Jordan or Turkiye.

No more one-man rule

Syria is free and open, and in this renewed nation, there is much hope. Fighters I interviewed in Aleppo, who had been exiled as children and returned as liberators, expressed unbridled joy at being able to stand once again at the footsteps of the city’s historic Citadel.

But with new freedom, there are concerns and pitfalls. After all, any Syrian in the country who is less than 60 years old will not know what life is like under anything other than a repressive, autocratic authority.

On Friday, December 20, I pushed through the packed crowd at the Citadel of Aleppo with Yousef Ahmad, a professor of accounting at Aleppo University.

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Ahmad was buoyant that the old regime had fallen but wary of repeating old mistakes.

The most important thing, he told me, is not to place any individual above the country.

An image of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad is damaged by bullet holes [Ammar Awad/Reuters]

The cult of personality around the al-Assads must never be replicated with a new leadership, he said. Until now, the new administration’s Commander-in-Chief Ahmed al-Sharaa’s image has been limited to an occasional car with his likeness in its rear window.

The poisonous cult of personality is a central part of the al-Assad legacy, as is the brutal police state which disappeared thousands, led to millions of displaced, and deeply policed any expression, including the word “dollar”.

While US dollars (and Turkish lira) are now being accepted in establishments around the country, there are still concerns that free expression and other hard-won rights will be lost.

In Saadallah al-Jabri Square, in Aleppo’s city centre, families pushed strollers between street vendors selling the green, white and black flags of Syria. Many were euphoric, speaking of the need for a democratic Syria that represented all its sects and ethnic groups.

‘I tell you, Syria will be fine’

One older couple had come to the square with their adult son to check out the atmosphere. They told me they were happy to be rid of the regime.

“For 13 years, he sat on his chair and didn’t do anything,” they told me.

Still, as Christians, they worry about their vulnerability as minorities. Because of that, they didn’t want to share with me their names or have my colleague, Ali Haj Suleiman, take their photos.

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Until now, the new administration run by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani, had made only positive moves, they told me.

“We want to get rid of the idea of ​​sectarianism that was planted 15 years ago,” their son, a hairdresser, said.

At a bar in the city, people joked about armed fighters shooting up their establishment. A few people, dressed conservatively, had come around to ask if the bar served alcohol, the owner said, adding that he was never sure if they were coming for a drink or for less amicable reasons.

Father Hanna Jallouf lived under HTS in Idlib [Ali Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera]

Father Hanna Jallouf, the Apostolic Vicar of Aleppo and the Roman Catholic Church’s leading religious figure in Syria, is also concerned.

I found Jallouf’s history interesting in that he lived under HTS in Idlib and had even been kidnapped by Jabhat al-Nusra in 2014 for five days.

Jabhat al-Nusra was al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria but broke with it in 2016 and reformulated itself as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

Jallouf said he understands the fear in his followers and other minorities but that he had received assurances that Christian religious symbols would not be touched.

He also has personal experience with Ahmed al-Sharaa, having lived in Idlib while al-Sharaa led the administration there, and has also met with the HTS leader.

“The man was first of all honest and wants what is best for his country,” Jallouf said.

“He is doing something for Syria … I lived with them and I know them and indeed if they apply what was said, I tell you, Syria will be fine. And not just Syria but the whole region.”

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Much attention has been given by the international media to the concerns of minorities – Christians, in particular.

Recently, I read an interview with the Syrian intellectual Yassin Haj Saleh who lambasted the West for their focus on minorities as al-Assad’s regime killed hundreds of thousands of human beings.

I share his scepticism over the West’s stated concern for minority rights in Syria, particularly after so much indifference over the last 14 months in Gaza.

Worshippers at a church in Aleppo [Ali Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera]

The concerns of minorities are real and not to be dismissed, but I also hope a focus on a particular minority group does not overshadow or dismiss the wider struggle for universal rights that thousands of Syrians are demanding across sects and regions.

For many, the conditions of fear imposed by the al-Assad regime are gone. The freedom Syrians have acquired is precious and brittle. Many have expressed gratitude or wonder at the fact they could even speak openly to journalists.

For this newfound freedom to remain, Syrians are well aware, they will need to bolster it through the efforts of the many brave activists, journalists, civil society members, and common citizens – no matter their sect or ethnicity.