Women largely absent from northwestern Syria’s feeble political scene

IDLIB — “There is no security or stability that encourages women to participate,” Rabia al-Harami said. As a member of the Future Syria Gathering party in northwestern Syria, she is one of very few women with a seat at the table as independent political organizations seek to gain a foothold in the opposition-controlled area. 

“Women are immersed in making a living for their families amid a lack of job opportunities. Most are displaced, and constantly concerned with securing shelter,” al-Harami told Syria Direct. “The social background they grew up in, with political activity limited to a single party during the regime’s rule,” also plays a role in limiting women’s role and keeping them out of politics in the northwest, she added. 

In an area ruled by the weapons of armed factions, independent political activity in northwestern Syria is generally timid. Still, with few signs of improvement 13 years into Syria’s crisis and virtually no movement towards a political solution, activists in the area are seeking to form political formations that are not beholden to local military bodies—the Syrian National Army (SNA) and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). But as they lay the groundwork, women are conspicuously absent. 

On the 13th anniversary of the 2011 Syrian revolution this past March, a group of Syrian figures in the northern Aleppo countryside city of Azaz launched a new political body, the New Syria Movement, to be led by Yasser al-Aiti. 

The New Syria Movement defines itself as “a conservative national political entity committed to the principles of justice, freedom and dignity upon which the Syrian revolution was based.” The party was formed in response to the complexity of the Syrian scene and the country’s transformation into a battleground for competing powers, as well as a “gap” in political representation due to “the absence of convincing representatives for the people,” al-Aiti told Syria Direct. 

The goal is for it to serve as “a place for people to gather to organize their ideas and projects and become active political actors,” he added. 

Days earlier, political activists and academics in Syria’s southern Suwayda and Daraa provinces, as well as in the northern Aleppo countryside, launched an initiative known as the Three Areas Charter. They announced its founding with a demonstration in front of the monument to Sultan Pasha al-Atrash—the leader of the Great Syrian Revolt in 1925 against French colonial rule—in the Suwayda town of al-Qarya. 

The initiative is based on five principles, which include nationalizing politics and considering life, freedom, safety and dignity to be “national rights.” It also emphasizes the unity of Syria under the principle of “rejecting localism” and promotes coordination, dialogue and joint action. It also upholds the principle of “unity in diversity: building trust,” which includes “building national social capital” and “respecting and entrenching pluralism in belief and practice.” 

Limited women’s participation

In northwestern Syria, political bodies and movements generally struggle to find people who share their vision and agree to enter public political activity. Bringing women in is a particularly “great challenge,” al-Aiti, the head of the New Syria Movement, said.

“We rarely find women who are interested in being members of a political party, but we need women in the movement’s ranks for representation,” al-Aiti added. He noted that this is on condition that willing women adopt the policies and principles of the movement “as we are a conservative movement with certain principles.” 

Out of seven seats in the New Syria Movement’s executive office, one is held by a woman: Nour al-Jandali, who leads its women’s committee. The 15-member secretariat has no women, while the 100 members of the party include 20 women, “which is not enough,” al-Aiti said.

The same is true of the Three Areas Charter. In addition to the founding participation of northern Aleppo, Suwayda and Daraa, other areas such as Idlib have joined, but “there are no women participating in Idlib, while they have a presence elsewhere,” Yasser al-Soufi said. Al-Soufi, who is displaced from the Idlib city of Saraqeb, is involved in the initiative and has a long history of political activity. He previously participated in the pre-revolution Damascus Declaration by Syrian opposition figures calling for reforms in 2005. 

“A lack of education and work opportunities, fear of violence, threats and intimidation and a lack of support from family and society push Syrian women away from this field,” Fayhaa al-Shawash, a Syrian activist and women’s rights defender, told Syria Direct. The “deteriorating security situation, displacement and the loss of social, economic and cultural community resources [also] entrench the idea of women’s inability to engage in politics,” she explained. 

While women participating in politics is important in itself, participation must be built on the right foundation of genuine representation, not tokenism, Shawash added. In her own experience, she has been added to political parties’ social media groups “without checking with me if I support the party’s ideas or direction, or if I am available,” she said. 

Al-Shawash, who lives in Azaz, warned that “bringing people in who do not truly adopt the idea makes the party fragile.” 

For Rahaf Arab, a human rights activist, “the fear of defamation, arrest and men’s disapproval of women’s participation” has kept her away from any political movement, she told Syria Direct. “Customs, traditions and the wrong understanding of religion, in addition to the lack of a role for women during the regime’s rule, have limited women’s roles and distanced them from this field,” she added. 

Still, some do participate. Al-Harami, a founding member of the Future Syria Gathering party, said she is determined to take part in the political movement. For her, it is “a necessity—society must be represented by both sexes.”

Women’s presence in political bodies should not be limited to a “women’s office,” which is her current role in the Future Syria Gathering, she added. “I don’t want my presence to be confined to this. I want to be in the planning and projects office. I have more to contribute.” 

“We must reject stereotypes of our presence and role, and be in the right place for our capabilities and practical experience,” al-Harami said. 

Challenges facing the political movement

When al-Soufi spoke to Syria Direct, he was set to attend an upcoming national meeting of the Three Areas Charter. Akin to a “mini-parliament,” the meeting aimed at reaching “a consensus on the main principles for a vision of a future Syria, and will include figures from all of Syria,” he said. 

The Three Areas Charter aims to achieve “democracy and social justice,” al-Soufi added. Pointing to anti-HTS demonstrations in Idlib earlier this year, he underscored the need for “a civil current as a safety valve for the area.” 

The emergence of new political formations in recent years, including the Three Areas Charter, grew out of a growing “realization of the impossibility of a military solution to the Syrian crisis, and the importance of implementing Resolution 2254,” al-Soufi explained. Calls for a political solution have been prominent in demonstrations around the country, including Suwayda’s year-long anti-regime protest movement. 

UN Security Council Resolution 2254, issued in December 2015, affirms that “there can be no lasting solution to the current crisis in Syria except through a Syrian-led political process that meets the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people,” al-Soufi said. Implementing the resolution “requires internal political bodies that effectively represent the reality,” he added. 

Northwestern Syria has not seen a “real political movement” in recent years due to “the military factions’ control of all aspects of administration,” al-Soufi said. 

One challenge emerging political entities face is “a lack of acceptance by the people,” according to al-Aiti, of the New Syria Movement. Many past political experiments “did not succeed and did not meet people’s expectations, leaving them frustrated.” 

Perhaps the largest obstacle lies in convincing young people to return and play new political roles in continuing the revolution, he added. Those who participated in the past “have either stepped aside or reached a state of despair,” al-Aiti said. 

Nascent political organizations face a daunting reality: “Two local governments, military factions that vary [in authority and ideology], an indecisive international system, cold UN resolutions that only exist on paper and a [Syrian National] Coalition formed according to the will of foreign countries that has no legitimate representation,” al-Harami said. Further, “the factions act independently, have the idea of eliminating the other and depend on foreign agendas,” she added. 

“The de facto governments do not recognize the [political] parties in northwestern Syria,” al-Harami pointed out. Therefore, “they cannot carry out their activities, whether holding periodic meetings, discussing their work or holding internal elections.” Often, the political movement is confined to “WhatsApp rooms,” with formations forced to relocate “because politics in northwestern Syria is restricted and virtually confined to certain parties.” 

Political goals

Opposition areas in northwestern Syria are deeply affected by Turkish foreign policy—recently aimed at rapprochement with Damascus—to say nothing of its military presence and role in decision making in areas controlled by the Ankara-backed SNA. 

Therefore, the task of new political formations is to “manage the relationship” with Turkey in a way that clearly “preserves the dignity, interests and national decision making of Syrians,” as well as “confronting the tyranny people face in Idlib,” al-Aiti said. 

It should also “interpret Resolution 2254 in accordance with the international track through a transitional governing body that provides a secure environment and the development of a new constitution,” he added. 

As al-Soufi sees it, one task before the new political bodies is to “coordinate between the parties and local councils and monitor the election of local council members so there is real representation.”

He criticized the current local councils in the northwest, calling them “formalities, with no influence.” Their impact is service-oriented, not political, so “we hope, as political activists, for there to be effective local councils, and one of our demands is to elect independent councils,” he said. 

“If the people do not have an impact, a voice that can be heard and make decisions, they will remain marginalized, and the country will engage in revolutions and conflicts,” al-Aiti said. 

This report was produced as part of Syria Direct’s Sawtna Training Program for women journalists across areas of control in Syria. It was originally published in Arabic and translated into English by Mateo Nelson.