Breakdown of Transnational Repression 107 Fadel, a doctor in London, refuted peer pressure not to go public by referencing Syria’s most famous child martyr: “You can’t only be concerned about yourself and your family. If you think Hamza al-Khateeb is not part of your family, I think you are very selfish.” Ahmed of London also attested that he came out after Hamza’s mutilated body was posted on YouTube. “The thing that affected me most was the murder of Hamza al-Khateeb. Before that, I was reluctant to do protests. When that happened, the next day I was protesting outside the embassy.” The perception that costs should be collectively shared sometimes forced activists to choose between their families and the cause. Muhammad N., exiled to London at the time, described the agonizing decision of whether or not to give a televised interview because his family in Aleppo might be subjected to reprisals. His brother advised him, “This is a duty on every one of us. If all of us are cowards because we have family in Syria, then it’s treason.” Muhammad decided to speak to the media, but the decision pitted his family’s safety against his principles. For other Syrians, the decision to embrace the potential costs of coming out led to familial discord. Fadel in London reported, I was in a big dispute with my mother. She said, “aren’t you risking yourself?” I said “I’m not, I am safe here.” Then she said, “you have a brother and sister back home.” I said, “Mom, I have to get out of my silence and talk and protest. Those people on the ground, they are brave enough to sacrifice their lives. And I’m sitting here, knowing that nobody is going to shoot at me, and I’m still hesitating? No way. This is the least I can do.” Some experienced significant social costs for choosing the cause over their familial obligations. When Nour, an independent activist from a Christian family, set up a Facebook page in February 2011 calling for liberty for Syrians, some of his family members in the United States called him very “angry” to say that “if you don’t care about yourself, fine, but we want to go to Syria.” Friends and family abroad and in Syria then began to sever their connections with Nour for fear of “getting in trouble,” and he “started to unfriend a lot of people just to spare them the headache.” Because two of his uncles in Syria were interrogated by security forces about Nour’s social media posts, he published an announcement on Facebook that his family had rejected him. That way, he reasoned, if the regime questioned any of his relatives about him again, they could see that he did not represent their views. “But it wasn’t an easy call,” Nour explained. “I experienced extreme isolation and social stigma. I lost everything, all my social connections.” In a parallel case, Hussam stated that coming out early on as a member of SAC was a strategy “to help others break the fear, the wall of fear. Because it was unusual for people to go public criticizing the regime.” At the same time, “We got a lot of heat. I had family members calling me from Syria like what the heck are you doing? Relatives from all over. All of us went through that, although our [initial] letter [to the regime] was very respectful.” Many participants reported that they had to cut https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009272148 Published online by Cambridge University Press