Practicing nonviolence in Syria.

• Author: Baddorf, Zack

THE SYRIAN REVOLUTION started with these simple words: "The people want the regime to fall."

Fifteen schoolchildren painted this anti-regime mantra on a wall in the Syrian city of Dara'a in March 2011. Syrian President Bashar al Assad's forces arrested them all, prompting Syrians to hold nonviolent protests across the country. The army responded with force, and eventually the revolution turned violent, with rebels taking up arms to defend themselves and try to take down Assad.

But not everyone abandoned nonviolence. Some Syrian activists inside and outside of their homeland still remain committed to it.

"We believe that speaking loudly is stronger than using any weapons," says Omar Assil, the awareness program manager for the Syrian Nonviolence Movement, which coordinates peaceful activities and civil resistance throughout Syria. The movement has run campaigns throughout Syria that allow people to stand up against the powerful military elements in their areas, be they radical Islamists or Assad's troops.

The "Dignity Strikes" campaign, for example, allowed Syrians to pick activities that they could do without putting themselves in danger. Some Syrians protested by gathering at a central place and wearing a certain color. Others attempted to block a street. Some people banged on kitchen pots.

These nonviolent tactics may not sound like they will have much effect on stopping the war, but activist Alaa Zaza says they are crucial.

"We believe the change in Syria that is required is not just toppling the regime or replacing the regime with another dictator or another system that is going to violate human rights," he tells me at a cafe in Gaziantep, Turkey, just a short drive from the Syrian border. What they don't need is "a new regime, with a different name but the same behavior."

As vice president of the nonviolence organization, Zaza lives outside his homeland but returns as often as he can. With his background in child psychology, he leads a child protection program inside Syria. He also works to educate people about how they can use nonviolence to fight the regime.

Given the pervading violence and the high risk of being targeted, Syrians find unconventional ways to participate in this peace movement. Some are working as citizen journalists; others are organizing themselves in youth groups.

"Even if it seems like there is no impact, all these [changes] are building up inside the community, inside the society," Assil says. "What we want in...