On January 3, German Foreign Minister Berbock and French Foreign Minister Barrow went to Damascus to meet with Syria’s interim leader Sala. The visit comes less than a month after the sudden collapse of one of the Arab world’s most violent regimes, the Baathist dictatorship of President Bashar al-Assad.

There are many issues on the agenda of Syria’s relations with Europe, especially regional stability, economic recovery, post-war justice and reconciliation, the refugee crisis, etc.

However, Western media chose to focus on Salad’s decision to greet Belbok with a nod and smile, rather than extending his hand to her, in order to adhere to Muslim religious norms. Western media experts described the incident as a “scandal” and a “snub”.

One Politico editorial even suggested that something as trivial as a handshake should become a new “litmus test” for how “moderate” Muslim leaders really are. This political article suggests, in the name of inclusivity, that devout male Muslim leaders like Salad should be forced to shake hands with women – regardless of their religious affiliation – or else this should set off “alarm bells” in the West. The old adage “In Rome, do as the Romans do” became “In Syria, do as the Romans do”.

As a Syrian American whose father was exiled from Syria for 46 years and whose family friends were tortured and killed by the Assad regime, I find the West’s “litmus test” for Arab leadership fraught with contradictions , and simply disgusting.

I wonder where was the media outrage when British royal Prince Edward explained that he preferred non-physical contact with ordinary Brits trying to greet him? Should we offer grace when the motivation is personal preference, or wrath when the motivation is religious observance?

Not surprisingly, Western media seeks to impose Western cultural values ​​as a new litmus test for the “moderateness” of Muslim Arab leaders. It’s been like this for decades.

As anthropologist Lila Abu-Lughod writes in her book Do Muslim Women Need Saving? As pointed out in “, there is an assumption in the West that “liberal culture is a non-cultural norm and should become the universal standard for measuring society. Those who cannot reach it are the barbarians outside the door…”

The characterization of Muslim religious norms as “extreme” is itself symptomatic of a hegemonic discourse in which Western norms are masked as universal norms.

The bad news for those who share this view is that Western cultural values ​​are not as dominant as they think. Muslims and Arabs also have agency – they can choose to abide by their religious values ​​even if they go against mainstream Western cultural expectations – although we have seen that when it comes to the British royal family, fear of coronavirus, they Be willing to change these expectations – 19 Transmission etc.

The excessive media focus on trivial matters such as Salad’s attire or personal demeanor seems cliché in the context of 61 years of brutal repression that Syrians have endured under the authoritarian Baathist regime.

Syrians have their own litmus tests for evaluating new leadership, such as the government’s ability to deliver democracy and freedoms, restore and improve civilian infrastructure, unite Syrians and protect constitutional rights, rather than whether male government members shake women’s hands. Most urgently, Syrians worry about the new leadership’s ability to steer the country toward peace, prosperity and stability.

Currently, half of Syria’s population is displaced, and more than 90% of Syrians live below the poverty line. There are extreme shortages of food, water and electricity. Unemployment is widespread and the economy is in trouble.

Add to this the trauma of 13 years of civil war and 61 years of dictatorship.

As far as I know, there is not a single Syrian family that has not lost a family member or friend to Assad’s brutally repressive regime. My childhood friends lost their father, Majd Kamalmaz, a psychotherapist and U.S. citizen, in 2017 while traveling to Syria to comfort his mother-in-law. A relative from Aleppo lost two teenage brothers to Assad’s notorious torture. dungeon. My cousin was imprisoned for a month in an underground prison for distributing bread in a poor neighborhood of Damascus during the civil war. Family friends – like Heba al-Dabbagh, who spent nine years in a Syrian prison in the 1980s because the regime could not find her brother – shared harrowing stories of torture story.

After decades of suffering under one of the world’s most brutal dictatorships, Syrians are desperate for a new beginning and clinging to tattered threads of hope. They may face unimaginable horrors—mass murder, torture, systematic rape, repression, and displacement—but they are not helpless victims. They have a clear vision of the future they want.

If Western media wants to get Syria right, it needs to be introspective and recognize how decades of hegemonic bias may be shaping its rhetoric and expectations. Rather than subjecting Arab leaders to Western “litmus tests,” it should ask Syrians what leadership they want.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.