Is Zain the Kuwaiti telecommunication company’s recent advertisement connecting Imran Dokneish, a Syrian child, with the scene of a suicide attack aimed at presenting the regime as innocent and blaming al-Qaeda and the Jihadist factions for all the violations in Syria?
Kenana Alloush, a pro-regime presenter, published a picture of her and Imran which she took in his parents' home in Aleppo on Monday evening. Alloush had previously published a post about an awaited interview with Imran and his family that would be broadcasted on national channels. Alloush’s post comes after Zain’s advertisement stirred much discontent among Syrians and those supporting their cause. They argued that Zain’s advertisement exonerated the regime of its crimes and transferred the crimes and blame to Jihadists fighting for Syria.
Kenana Alloush is one of the regime’s most infamous reporters whose behavior earned her the nickname “corpse selfie woman”. Alloush appears differently this time, holding Imran and smiling. The photograph and publicity represent the regime media’s new face and are part of the regime’s attempt to present a new façade for Syrian political life with international and Arab support.
The meeting with Imran’s family, which was prepared by correspondents in the regime’s channel, was broadcasted on Monday evening as advertised by some pro-regime channels and social media pages. Regime supporters on social media consider the interview a victory for the regime, and the other elements supposedly fighting Jihadism in Syria. The interview comes to support the regime’s claim that it represents secularism and is fighting Jihadists and extreme Islamist factions in Syria.
Imran Dokneish became famous due to a photograph taken by Aleppo Media Center’s photographer of Imran as he sat on a stretcher after he was wounded during the regime bombing of al-Qatarji neighborhood in August 2016. The look of surprise and shock on Imran’s face stirred the international conscience and prompted the world to demand their governments move against the regime and its atrocities. The regime is trying not only to appropriate Imran’s image but to counter the truth of the image and its political testament to the regime’s criminality.
Hussein Murtada, a correspondent for Iran's al-Aalam television who is known for its strong opposition to the Syrian revolution, published a short interview with Imran's father. In the interview, Imran’s father said he was financially and psychologically pressured to accuse the regime and that he is still living in his house which was neither damaged nor bombed. Imran’s father explained that what happened to his son was a media fabrication and that the media professional Musa al-Omar offered him, via intermediaries, financial sums that reached to 10,000 US Dollars for him to accept they use his son for the photograph.
The struggle between the regime media and the regime supporters, and images showing the regime’s violence and injustice seem to be at their peak. The struggle over images reflects the ferocity of the war against the revolution.
At the time it was publicized, international media outlets described Imran’s image as “a symbol of Aleppo and Syria’s suffering, and an image of the horrific crimes committed by the al-Assad regime.” The opposition’s facility in making the image widely accessible may come back to haunt the opposition and as its claims that Imran and his family are in Turkey are disproved. It appears Imran is in fact in the regime’s hold and more specifically in Kenana Alloush’s lap
