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On 10 July 2025, Damascus’s Directorate of Religious Endowments ordered the eviction of Al‑Kindi Cinema, giving the heirs of the leaseholders one week to vacate the premises so the building could be turned into “a cultural center radiating knowledge and enlightenment for Syrian youth.” The decision concerned more than a simple property dispute: Al‑Kindi, founded in the 1960s, is one of the last surviving cinemas in central Damascus and a symbol of the city’s modern cultural memory. Once part of a dense cluster of cinemas, bookshops and cafés, the 700‑square‑meter venue had long functioned as an accessible meeting point for film lovers and students.

The cinema was leased under an old waqf contract for a symbolic annual sum of around 30 US dollars, which the Ministry of Religious Endowments framed as a misuse of public religious property. Critics, however, saw the public focus on the low rent as a pretext to reassert religious control over a secular cultural space at a time when many Syrians hoped for a broader reopening of civic and artistic life after the fall of Bashar al‑Assad.

Public Outcry And Official Silence
News of the eviction prompted immediate reactions from filmmakers, students and cultural workers, who viewed the order as an attempt to erase a key piece of Damascus’s film heritage under the language of moral and educational reform. Protesters gathered outside the cinema, while online campaigns stressed that cinema itself is a vehicle for “knowledge and light,” directly challenging the ministry’s claim that a new religiously aligned “cultural center” would be more enlightening than the existing venue.

Initially, state cultural institutions appeared sidelined: the Ministry of Culture and the General Organization for Cinema did not publicly comment, reinforcing the perception that religious authorities had taken the lead in reshaping urban cultural infrastructure. Only later did the head of the state cinema body signal concern and speak of searching for a “solution,” including the possibility of relocating or rebuilding Al‑Kindi, but without concrete commitments or timelines.

Post-Assad Cultural Space At A Crossroads
The Al‑Kindi controversy sits within a broader, contradictory landscape in post‑Assad Syria, where many artists report new room for politically sensitive work alongside strengthened moral and religious gatekeeping. Articles and testimonies from Syrian film circles describe how cinemas, theatres and music venues face pressure to host religious events or to rebrand themselves as “family‑friendly” spaces, narrowing the space for experimentation and critical reflection.

For many in the cultural field, the Al‑Kindi eviction has become a litmus test of whether the new authorities intend to protect existing secular venues or gradually reclassify them under religious and political oversight. The fate of this one cinema is therefore read not only as a local dispute over rent and property, but as an indicator of whether artistic freedom, urban memory and independent cultural institutions will have a meaningful future in Damascus’s changing public sphere.

In July 2025, Damascus lost more than a cinema.
The eviction of the historic Al‑Kindi Cinema by Syria’s Ministry of Religious Endowments has become a key test of post‑Assad cultural policy, raising difficult questions about who controls public space, cultural memory and artistic freedom in the new Syria.

This piece traces Al‑Kindi’s history from 1960s landmark to contested waqf property, documents the protests that followed the eviction order, and situates the case within wider trends of growing religious and moral guardianship over cultural venues.

As Damascus renegotiates its identity, what happens to Al‑Kindi will signal whether independent cultural spaces are protected, repackaged or quietly removed from the city’s map.

#ArtisticFreedom #Syria #Damascus #CulturalRights #Cinema #HumanRights #MimetaMemos

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Al-Kindi Cinema Eviction Tests Freedom

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