Syrian political networks and United Nations agencies are working to ensure that women play a strong role in the country’s new formation as the caretaker government moves toward a national dialogue and elections.
Indeed, many Syrians are choosing careful optimism about a political future that is wholly inclusive of women, but there is still much uncertainty reading scattered signals from the interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) battalion marched into the capital and ousted President Bashir al-Assad in early December.
When al-Sharaa, 42, took Damascus and other major cities that month, he was known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani, a name some Syrians still use to refer to him, possibly to highlight his jihadist past. (HTS was labeled a terrorist organization by the United States in 2018.)
Despite the wary optimism in Syria, some people continue to worry about the nature of al-Sharaa’s leadership, recalling that HTS oppressed women when it controlled Idlib, in the northwest, separating boys and girls at school and imposing religious dress codes.
But others see positive indications in decisions and statements that have emerged in the past two months. And Syrian women’s political and civil society groups are not waiting to be asked to make their aspirations for Syria known.
The Syrian Women’s Political Movement (SWPM) — a policy group founded in 2017 that centers feminist perspective — drew more than 350 people to a press conference in Damascus on Jan. 8, according to reports from a board member, Mariam Jalabi. Despite limited electricity and confusing permitting requirements, the event pulled in feminist politicians, women leaders and allies, along with journalists and civil society groups.
The press conference and subsequent networking resulted in a flurry of media reports in the Mideast on the events, including an interview with another SWPM member, Alise Mofrej, speaking to the largest TV network in Syria. However, a hoped-for meeting between SWPM and al-Sharaa is still not materializing.
Many women in civil society networks are re-entering the country for the first time in years or decades, having been forced into exile under the Assad regime. They celebrated the mere fact of being able to have discussions and meetings — an impossibility under the successive father-son Assad regimes that put tens of thousands of Syrians into prison or exile.
A fellow SWPM member, Sabiha Khalil, who lives in Berlin, says that their new actions are about taking up space strategically. “These meetings should not stop. The public sphere is open. If we don’t occupy it with our vision and with our activism, it might be closed, and this would not be in the interest of anyone in Syria.”
The movement has broad policy positions but is focused on ensuring at least 30 percent participation by women in any national decision-making body. The proportion follows a mandate in all peace talks worldwide by UN Security Council Resolution 1325, approved in 2000.
The first goal of the interim government — preliminary to a constitutional body and elections — is a national dialogue. Planning around this step has been opaque, however, with the event originally scheduled for February, only to be indefinitely postponed.
Yet on Feb. 12, a seven-person preparatory committee was announced, with two of the members women, including Hind Kabawat. She is a former deputy chief in Geneva for the Syrian Negotiation Commission and a founding member of Tastakel, a women’s center addressing conflict in Syria through nonviolence and dialogue.
The caretaker government is also starting to meet with Syrians throughout the country, although they are navigating competing priorities. Inside the country, there is still much work to be done to unify all Syrians and to make the country safe. Outside the country, al-Sharaa and his interim government must win approval, strategize relationships and — perhaps most important right now — negotiate an end to what many in the country consider crippling sanctions. Part of that work will be convincing the UN Security Council to delist HTS from its terrorist list.
At an international conference convened in Paris last week, officials from Syria, other Mideast countries, France, Britain, Türkiye and the European Union, along with the UN special envoy for Syria, signed a joint statement with baseline conditions to establish relations. Women got a brief mention in language that echoes Security Council Resolution 2254’s requirement for “a representative and inclusive governance that represents all components of Syrian society and includes women from the onset.”
Yet, the statement was not signed by the United States. And some fear the effect that the Trump administration may have on the Syrian political process, given the US war on diversity, equity and inclusion at home and edicts on US-funded aid operations abroad.
Jalabi of SWPM points out the challenges around including women. “It’s these patriarchal structures that are controlling everything, it’s not about religion,” she said. “It’s not us Syrians being anti-woman, the whole world is anti-woman.”
International bodies are trying to establish a place in the new Syria. UN Women is looking to open a base in the country for the first time, after several years of working in the country from bases in Cairo; Gaziantep, Türkiye; and Beirut. UN humanitarian aid agencies are also planning to open an umbrella office in Damascus by June.
In January, a three-person high-level UN Women mission traveled to Damascus. PassBlue talked to Sarah Douglas, deputy chief of peace and security for UN Women, and Heba Zayyan, the Mideast adviser for women, peace and security, about their colleagues’ trip.
“We provided a brief about UN Women’s mandate,” Zayyan said of the meeting with the newly created Women’s Department of the interim government. The caretaker authorities “agreed on the importance of supporting Syrian women through an agenda that is Syrian-led.”
Douglas added that women, peace and security is enshrined in UN Women’s mandate. “We want to make sure that the commitments that the member states, donors and the UN system have made are being upheld to their fullest extent.”
The UN special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, also made it to Damascus for a second trip in January. (He is based in Geneva.) Reports say that he at first had a lukewarm reception. He is scheduled to travel to Damascus this week to meet again with the Syrian caretaker authorities and others.
Al-Sharaa’s government has questioned why it needs to adhere to Security Council Resolution 2254, which established the UN envoy office, because it was predicated on a peace and transition process that is no longer required, given that Assad is gone.
Pedersen has steadfastly upheld the continued need for 2254 in his discussions in Syria, and so far it’s not off the table. In a Council briefing recently, he indicated “considerable overlap” between 2254 principles and the interim government’s roadmap.
All of the country’s goals will depend on security, and many people who spoke to PassBlue expressed optimism for a country that must overcome enormous security challenges while positively reflecting the diversity in Syria that has been a tool for strife and division for too long.
“A unified Syria will benefit all Syrians,” Khalil of SWPM said, “regardless of what ethnicity, what religion and whether women or men.”
We welcome your comments on this article. What are your thoughts on Syrian women advocates' efforts in the new Syria?
Related Posts
Maria Luisa Gambale, a graduate of Harvard University, lives in New York City. In addition to writing, she produces film and media projects and is director of the 2011 film “Sarabah,” about the Senegalese rapper-activist Sister Fa. She has produced and directed video for National Geographic, ABC News, The New York Times and Fusion Network. Gambale’s work in all media can be viewed at www.veradonnafilms.com.
Do we seriously think we can engage on Women’s rights with a regime that kidnapped and tortured professor Rasha Al-Ali last month, cutting off her fingers saying women shouldn’t write and installing a minister for justice of whom there are videos showing him ordering the execution of women and showing those executions?! There are real concerns for religious minorities and women and rule of law.
Thank you Maria for a great contribution to humanity. My point is simple-no village prospered without active involvement of women! No country will prosper without an active and effective participation of women! No country can put aside 51-52% of its total population who are women and pretend to develop!