By Vrinda Narain, McGill University, Fatemeh Sadeghi, UCL, The Conversation
As the international community celebrates the fall of another dictatorship following the collapse of Syria’s Assad regime, the future of women’s rights remains precarious.
Global leaders are commending Syria’s liberation and discussing the return of 5.5 million refugees,
but women’s rights advocates are raising urgent concerns.
Power transitions in Iran, Afghanistan and other Muslim-majority nations have often endangered women’s hard-won freedoms. That’s why it’s crucial to prioritize women’s rights in Syria to ensure their voices are not overlooked in the pursuit of stability and justice.
Mistreatment of women
Islamist militant forces led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) overthrew the Assad regime.
While HTS and its leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, claim to be moderate and focused on governance, the group’s treatment of women raises serious concerns about the future of women’s rights in Syria.
Starting in Idlib, but now spreading to other major cities, HTS enforces strict laws based on its interpretation of Islamic law, severely restricting women’s mobility, dress and public participation.
Women must be accompanied by a male guardian to access public areas, and the HTS morality police can fine, shame or detain those who violate the dress code. Women are confined to domestic roles, and those who challenge this are harshly punished, with activists and aid workers facing harassment, arrest and intimidation.
The situation for Syrian women after 13 years of civil war is deeply troubling, especially when compared to similar regional power transitions.
In Iran, after the 1979 revolution, women lost many rights under Ayatollah Khomeini’s Islamist rule, with compulsory hijab laws and restrictions on economic and political participation.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban’s return to power in 2021 led to bans on women’s education and employment. Similarly, with ISIS’s rise in 2014, Yazidi women were enslaved, and rape became a widespread weapon of war in Iraq and Syria.
‘Revolution of the mind’
Global discussions on Syria’s political transition have paid scant attention to how various interpretations of Islamic ideology might dictate women’s fundamental rights and their role in society.
Without considerable effort by women’s rights advocates, Syrian women will likely meet the same fate as their sisters in Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq, watching as decades of progress are erased in the name of political expediency.
As Egyptian-American commentator Mona Eltahawy reminds us, the battle over women’s bodies can be won only by a revolution of the mind.
Syria’s future must include women’s voices. Syrian women have been pillars of their communities during 13 years of war, yet have been systematically excluded from peace negotiations. As mandated by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, it’s essential for women to meaningfully participate in peace negotiations to shape the country’s future.
Syrian women have been the backbone of their families and communities during the civil war as they served as leaders, humanitarians and visionaries. Despite their resilience and sacrifices, they have yet to be included in helping determine Syria’s future.
Urgent need to focus on women’s rights
The international community should focus on empowering local civil society and advocating for women’s rights, thereby enhancing Syria’s prospects for building a more inclusive society.
Western governments must urge Damascus’s new rulers to pursue an inclusive political transition, as outlined in the 2015 UN resolution, instead of seeking a workaround to recognize HTS as a legitimate partner despite its terrorist designation.
The resolution mandates forming an inclusive transitional government with full executive powers, drafting a new constitution, holding UN-supervised elections within 18 months and ensuring voting rights for all Syrians, including refugees and Syrians living abroad.
New-found freedom in Syria comes with unease about life under a government led by Islamic militants, and the possibility of new restrictions. Syrians are closely monitoring developments for clues about how their new rulers are going to govern.
Ahmad al-Sharaa has stated it might take as many as three years to draft a constitution and up to four years to hold elections, raising concerns about trading one authoritarian regime for another.
Cycle of brutality
Over the past few decades, the Middle East has alternated between brutal dictatorships and Islamist, often misogynistic, regimes.
When a dictatorship collapses, an Islamic regime often fills the vacuum, and when they fall, another harsh dictatorship usually follows.
In Iran, the shah’s dictatorship gave way to Khomeini’s theocratic rule. In Egypt, Hosni Mubarak’s fall led to the Muslim Brotherhood’s rise and the imposition of restrictions on women’s rights before it was ousted by yet another brutal regime.
Tunisia experienced a similar shift, with Islamist groups initially taking power after Ben Ali’s dictatorship, only to be replaced by the authoritarian Kais Saied.
Syria seems to be following this cycle, with Assad’s authoritarianism giving rise to Islamist factions. The key question is whether the Syrian people can break this pattern and build a more inclusive government that gives women and minorities equal rights and full citizenship.
Vrinda Narain, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, McGill University and Fatemeh Sadeghi, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Global Prosperity (IGP), UCL
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
