“Dar al-Wahy al-Sharif” is an Islamist education network (currently kindergartens and elementary schools) directly linked to the organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and has become an official education network under the al-Sharaa regime.

One of the delights of being a conqueror is that you get to set the rules for all that cultural stuff. So HTS’s little caliphate is getting all caliphatey, as should have been expected — at least they will for as long as they’re in charge. It’ll be interesting to see if they can thread that particular needle with President Trump and PM Netanyahu exercising their prerogatives.

This education network conducts religious-militant indoctrination from an early age, placing the Qur’an at the center of the curriculum and emphasizing jihadist messages in school ceremonies and events.

There is strict enforcement of full gender segregation and a stringent religious dress code – girls wear abayas and niqabs.

The network is characterized by rapid “under-the-radar” expansion – exceptional growth since 2017 in Idlib district, and within just one year since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, expansion to more than 70 active schools in key districts across Syria (Aleppo, Damascus, Hama, Homs, Deraa, and Latakia).

A model has been identified for creating civilian dependence on a parallel civil mechanism (similar to Hezbollah’s civilian mechanisms in Lebanon) by exploiting the crisis in Syria’s public education system.

The network is transitioning from an illegal institution funded externally via Turkey into a legal, official, and central educational institution supported by the Syrian Ministry of Education under the new regime.

Organizational and ideological control is exercised directly through the appointment of senior HTS figures.

A “pragmatic” attempt has begun to introduce a “progressive” pedagogical reform, but without any de-facto change to the Islamist core.

Future potential threat– a possible breeding ground for shaping a future generation with an Islamist and jihadist identity in Syria, on Israel’s border.