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Wednesday | September 23, 2026 | Dhaka

After 15-yr of exile, Anti-Assad music star Assala Nasri makes return to Syria

 Agencies
 Published: 12:56 AM, 23 September 2026

After a decade and a half of exile, popular Syrian music star Assala Nasri has finally returned to the stage of her homeland.

Thousands of spectators flocked to attend her first comeback concert in the capital Damascus last Thursday night.

When mass protests against then-President Bashar al-Assad began in Syria in 2011, Assala openly sided with the peaceful protesters.

Faced with the Assad government’s crackdown, she was expelled from the Syrian Artistes Union and subjected to widespread propaganda in state-run media.

At one point, she was forced to leave the country and settled with her family in Cairo, Egypt. When power changed hands in Syria after the fall of the Assad government in 2024, the new administration invited Assala to return home.

At Thursday night’s concert, the new Minister of Culture, Mohammed Yassin Saleh, appeared and called Assala a ‘daughter of Damascus.’

Standing on stage, 57-year-old Assala Nasri told the audience in an emotional voice, “I still can’t believe I’m standing here among you.

I’ve dreamed of this day for years.” She announced that half of the total proceeds from the concert’s ticket sales would be donated to various charitable causes.

Assala’s concert was surrounded by tight security because some conservative groups in the country demanded the event be canceled.

However, ignoring them, Assala Nasri gave a clear message on the concert stage that the country’s revival after overcoming the wounds of a long war is possible only through art and culture.