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Equal opportunity for women and girls in post-Assad Syria

Jan 24, 2025 03:05 PM IST

This article is authored by Mehdi Hussain, research associate, Indian Council of World Affairs, New Delhi.

Women and girls in Syria have been subject to extreme vulnerabilities and challenges during its protracted conflict—some arising out of social norms and others associated with the conflict. A critical aspect of social and political transformations in the country is upholding the status of women and girls through democratic inclusion and removing barriers to access to basic needs. Whether it is incorporated in the ongoing transformation efforts towards the creation of a ‘new’ Syria following the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024 remains to be seen.

People celebrated at Umayyad Square in Damascus on December 8, 2024. Islamist-led rebels declared that they have taken Damascus in a lightning offensive on December 8, sending President Bashar al-Assad fleeing and ending five decades of Baath rule in Syria.(AFP) PREMIUM
People celebrated at Umayyad Square in Damascus on December 8, 2024. Islamist-led rebels declared that they have taken Damascus in a lightning offensive on December 8, sending President Bashar al-Assad fleeing and ending five decades of Baath rule in Syria.(AFP)

These vulnerable groups of Syrian society have gone through massive displacement and disregard for their fundamental rights to food, health, education, and other essential services. The IHH’s Situation Report for January 2025 states that about 627,000 people have been internally displaced since late November 2024, with most being women and children. According to the 2023 report of the UNHRC’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry, women and girls constitute 74% of Syria’s six million population who are in dire need of nutritional assistance. The conflict has impacted their access to healthcare facilities, including reproductive health care services. In comparison with their opposite gender, female-headed households are twice as likely to have a complete inability to meet basic needs. Moreover, girls have faced early and forced marriages as a consequence of the conflict as a coping mechanism to reduce financial burden or avoid family honour.

The question of women and girls' empowerment in Syria is closely tied to addressing gender-based violence. The United Nations estimated that 7.3 million individuals, overwhelmingly women and girls, in 2023 needed services related to gender-based violence. Moreover, the victims of gender-based violence have to go through social stigma. Any improvement to the status of women and girls requires the post-Assad regime to implement its international obligations to eliminate discrimination against women and girls, to ensure their protection from all forms of gender-based violence, to afford them equal opportunities to create livelihoods and to promote their full participation in public life.

Syria’s legal and customary discrimination against women and girls have put them at a disadvantage regarding equality before the law, protection against violence, equitable distribution of inheritance, access to housing and property, the right to family and custody of children, conferral of nationality to children and freedom of movement. They continue to suffer from societal and patriarchal cultural norms. The Commission’s 2023 report further states that the Government of Syria has failed to implement positive measures and legal reforms as recommended by the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), among other international bodies.

The main hurdles to gender equality include a lack of civil and fundamental rights for women, an absence of laws to protect women from violence, no harmonisation of laws with international standards, and a lack of monitoring on the perpetration of violence against women. For example, the modest legal reforms introduced by the government after 2011 were not applied in the rebel-controlled North and North-west. Regarding children’s nationality, those born in women-headed families, as well as those born abroad due to displacement, have to face issues of statelessness in the absence of lack of documentation. The post-Assad regime should address this problem by recognising that all Syrian children have the right to identity and nationality irrespective of the circumstances of their parents.

Another factor that affects the status of women is unequal inheritance rights for widows and daughters. There have been increasing numbers of widows and female-headed households whose husbands have been forcibly disappeared. The problem is further complicated by societal and cultural norms which are not gender-neutral. The Commission’s 2023 report referred to a low percentage ranging from 2-5% of women in Syria who own residential property.

The long-drawn conflict has had hardships on Syrian children. Unicef reports that 16.7 million people, including 7.5 million children, require humanitarian assistance. It reiterates its urgent call on all parties to the conflict to prioritise the protection of children. It states, “Every child in Syria has the right to live in peace, free from fear and violence.” It appeals to all stakeholders to arrive at long-term and sustainable reintegration support, including health, mental health, and access to education. It should be met with prompt actions on the ground and financial support. Unicef’s humanitarian action for children appeal for 2025 requires over $ 488 million to support seven million people, including 4.3 million children, with life-saving humanitarian assistance. It will cater to essential services such as water, sanitation and hygiene, healthcare, nutrition, education, and protection for the most vulnerable children.

Over the last 14 years, several women’s rights and civil society organisations have been fighting for human rights, gender equality and non-discrimination. In December 2024, after Assad was ousted, thousands of women marched in the northeastern city of Qamishli, demanding women’s rights from the new rulers in Damascus. Their fundamental rights concerns should be addressed through a new constitution guaranteeing their fundamental rights in the new state. They also emphasise their strengthening leadership role in national politics, which has been due for a long despite their active participation in humanitarian efforts during the conflicts and vital roles in peacebuilding.

Syria’s current phase of transition provides a crucial opportunity for the country to establish a just and equal society by prioritising women and girls’ rights and needs, which are fundamental to sustainable peace and stability in Syria. Efforts and advocacy aim to improve equal opportunities for women and children in Syria. It is also an opportunity for the new government to take up the responsibility to bring to justice perpetrators of human rights abuses and to end arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killing, and perpetration of all forms of sexual violence. Further, it should also harmonise existing domestic laws with the CEDAW and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

This article is authored by Mehdi Hussain, research associate, Indian Council of World Affairs, New Delhi.

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