Syria is free, Syrian women must be free
Syria is free. That’s right.
After 13 years of civil war, the reign of the brutal President Bashar al-Assad is now over. Damascus, the capital, has been taken over by Syrian rebel fighters. And they have liberated the city.
Al-Assad has left Syria, and the rebels announced that the country is now “free of the tyrant.” The al-Assad regime — father and son — controlled Syria for over 53 years.
Syria has been embroiled in a civil war since the “Arab Spring” of March 2011 when anti-Assad and pro-democracy protests were met with harsh government crackdowns. Since then, various resistance groups formed across the country and fought over territory.
The result was a devastating humanitarian situation in which 7.2 million Syrians were internally displaced, 5 million became refugees in neighboring countries, and 16.7 million Syrians required humanitarian assistance. Meaning — poverty, food insecurity, economic deterioration, political instability, and constant violence.
Peace negotiations had proven unsuccessful, and women were sidelined in the process. In fact, UN peace talks did not even include women until 2016 — and even then women were not adequately represented.
Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham — “Organization for the Liberation of the Levant” — is the resistance group that toppled the al-Assad government.
And today Syria is free.
At the same time, it’s no surprise that within hours of the fall of the al-Assad government, Israel went on the offensive. Netanyahu ordered the IOF to seize the long-contested Golan Heights in the name of Israel.
Israel annexed the Golan Heights from Syria after their war in 1967 and has claimed control over the territory ever since. The 1974 agreement implemented a ceasefire between Israel and Syria and created a buffer zone between the countries. This is — or was — Israel’s longest agreement with any Arab country, lasting over 45 years.
According to Israel, this agreement collapsed alongside the al-Assad dictatorship. Meaning, opportunity for an Israeli incursion to further advance their vision for a “Greater Israel.”
So what does this all mean for women?
According to UN Women, the Syrian Civil War had adverse impacts on women and girls. Of the 6 million people in dire need of nutritional assistance, 74% are women and girls.
During these years, women were not safe, not free, not equal.
Now an exciting transition is upon us. What is that going to look like — for women?
In writing my book Yalla Feminists: Arab Rights and Resistance with Rebecca O’Keeffe, I was incredibly moved by a conversation with Mariam Jalabi, Co-Founder of the Syrian Women’s Political Movement. Jalabi is fueled by injustice and inequality. “The world is built for men — young, abled, men,” she told me. “No one thinks of anything else that does not fit into that stereotypical man’s world.”
Jalabi went on: “Men don’t think to include us. They assume because they have access, that is enough. They do not realize that not everyone has this access!”
And so she set out to ensure that women have access. The Syrian Women’s Political Movement was formed because there was no way for women to become part of politics or negotiations if they were part of a body that is already led by men.
A group of seven women co-founders swiftly turned into twenty-eight women who decided to establish a political body that would serve — and be represented by — Syrian feminists. The goal was not only to play a part in Syrian politics but also to dismantle the patriarchal structures that hold women back in the country, in the region, and globally.
The Syrian Women’s Political Movement describes itself as composed of “political women and men who have struggled against the tyrannical regime.” Collectively, they demand freedom, justice, dignity for all Syrians — particularly for women, whose rights and freedoms have been dramatically impacted. The movement is inclusive, and represents all Syrians who “believe in the same principles including women’s rights, gender equality and the importance of women empowerment and active participation in all aspects of life and decision-making circles for the future of Syria.”
Jalabi explains that the movement grew and gathered support through collaboration, in line with feminist principles. “We believed that the whole of us — together — will be so much stronger and so much better than the sum of our parts.” Coming together gave the movement the strength it needed — a multiplication of power, Jalabi calls it.
The movement was established in October 2017, and now they are recognized in the political scene. “We have pushed and raised women’s participation in the political process. We doubled the participation. It was about 7%. And now it’s 15%.”
Jalabi explains that prior to this, women’s representation was tokenistic. Political meetings, usually all men, would delight in the inclusion of just one woman, calling it “women’s representation.” Ironic — in a room filled with men.
These imbalances galvanize Jalabi into action.
“It is very difficult to keep doing the kind of work we’re doing, as women,” she says. “Being part of such a movement is what keeps me going.”
And that is how they engage, by ensuring that women have a role in Syrian — and global — policymaking, “to get them to decision-making places.”
Women often are sidelined from these spaces because they lack the resources and the connections to people and power structures — unlike most men. Jalabi argues that men have the wealth, time, connections, power. “How can we create something like that?” she asked. “How can women be more involved in think tanks and writing and in having access to different policymakers, access to governments, access to funding, access to all kinds of resources?”
She realized that, for a movement to take hold, they needed to have women in policy making and decision making places. Men assume that women need to be taught this, she added, “as if we are witnesses — not the ones who create knowledge, make knowledge, produce knowledge.” Her feminism starts here, with the belief that women have the knowledge they need, but need the resources and support to gain access.
In her work, Jalabi builds the movement by asking: “What are the things that we need to provide women with? And we provide those things.”
And today, as a transition begins in Syria, Mariam Jalabi will do just that.
We know from other contexts that whenever there is a forceful transition of power, there is always the risk that those already marginalized fall further behind the curve and remain cast out and forgotten in the shuffle. This includes women and girls.
We also know that Syrians are not a monolith. There are a variety of opinions on today’s events. We must listen to Syrian voices first and foremost and remember that politics can be complicated — people can both celebrate and grieve simultaneously.
Syrians deserve this freedom. For too long they have been pawns in games played by other global powers. It is time for the Syrian people to experience freedom, equality, rule of law — and the agency to bring that to life in the ways that they want.
I have no doubt that the Syrian Women’s Political Movement will be leading the charge for change. I hope we all find ways to support them to build the kind of future they deserve.
Today, Mariam Jalabi had this to say:
“Now that al-Assad is gone, we can handle anything. We women know our rights, we know who we are and what we are capable of. And we’re going to be there at the forefront, with the men, building our country again.”
