Socks and satire: Syrians mock ousted Assad dynasty

At Basel Al Sati’s souvenir shop in a central Damascus market, socks bearing caricatures that ridicule ousted Syrian leader Bashar Al Assad and his once feared family now sell like hot cakes.

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“I want to bring joy to people who've been deprived of happiness for so many days and years,” said Sati, 31, displaying pairs of white ankle-length socks.

“Everyone who comes from abroad wants to buy the socks — some to keep as a souvenir, others to wear mockingly and take pictures,” he told AFP. “There are even some who buy them just to stomp on them,” he said.

Stamping on someone’s image is considered deeply insulting in the Arab world, so the socks allow wearers to trample the Assads underfoot as they walk.

Pictures of the Assad clan have gone from being ubiquitous symbols of repression to objects of derision and mockery since his December 8 ouster by Islamist-led forces after nearly 14 years of devastating civil war.

Some socks showing Assad in sunglasses read “We will trample them”, while others depict him with heavily exaggerated features.

Others bear a caricature of Hafez Al Assad who ruled Syria before his son, depicted in his underwear and chest puffed out.