English

Phil Sands, Foreign Correspondent

Critics say an initial draft of a personal status law attempted to make women the property of men. Phil Sands for The National
DAMASCUS // Women in Syria are facing a deliberate campaign by religious conservatives, supported by the government, to cut down their social freedoms, according to a new report published by a leading Syrian rights group.

The Syrian Women Observatory (SWO) said there had been a “backwards” movement in women’s rights in the country during the past two years and that proposed new legislation, if passed, would further erode already limited legal protection.

“It is not simply that progress in advancing women’s rights has been frozen, there is actually a sense that the anti-women’s rights lobby is growing more powerful,” said Bassam al Kadi, the director of SWO and author of the report – released yesterday to coincide with International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. “The Syrian government is working against those who want to improve the situation for women.”

Syria is perhaps the most secular state in the Middle East and among the most progressive in terms of women’s rights. Women hold parliamentary seats and senior government positions; there are women judges and ambassadors. Girls and boys have the same rights to education and the United Nations has praised Syrian efforts towards equal rights for men and women.

But Mr al Kadi said the country was still too heavily governed by religious doctrine, which was growing in influence. “When people say Syria is a secular country, they are simply wrong,” he said. “And we should not be satisfied because the situation here for women is better than Sudan. That is not enough.”

A key source of recent controversy has been a personal status law, currently under revision, which deals with a raft of basic civil rights, including marriage and inheritance. A secret first draft was dropped by the authorities after details leaked into the public domain, causing outrage among liberals and moderates alike.

Critics said the plans would effectively have made women the property of men. Another version of the law is now being drawn up but it remains highly restrictive and campaigners, including the SWO, hope to block it before it goes before parliament.

“Women have never had complete equality in the eyes of the law but the proposed personal status code is clear evidence that what few rights they do have are under threat,” said Mr al Kadi. “A number of proposed laws that would have given women certain essential, basic rights have also been rejected by the government.”

Such legal setbacks were not isolated incidents, according to the report. It said that in 2007 the Social Initiative Society, a Syrian non-governmental organisation set up to campaign on women’s issues, was forcibly dissolved by the state. At the same time a national education plan designed to prevent domestic violence was quietly shelved.

Syria is a complex mosaic of ethnic and sectarian groups, within which there are competing opinions on social issues. These divisions are far from simple, defying stereotypes.

Among Syria’s Muslim majority there are wildly divergent views on the subject of women’s rights, ranging from those who advocate western-style social reforms to ultra conservative groups that go as far as to say that women should not be allowed to work outside their family home.

Some of Syria’s leading advocates of pro-western free market economic reforms are socially conservative, while at least one government official has said she opposes tough action against honour killings.

The security services officially recorded 50 such murders last year, but the real figure was closer to 200, according to the SWO report. Honour crimes typically involve a women being abused or murdered by her male relatives if they believe she has brought shame on her family. Honour killings carry a much lighter prison sentence than a normal murder.

In the absence of opinion polling it is impossible to know whether social liberals or conservatives have greater popular support in Syria.

Mr al Kadi was adamant that the authorities were out of step with the general public on women’s issues. “I am certain that the Syrian street is more liberal and open on women’s rights than the government is,” he said. “If that were not the case you wouldn’t see such high levels of education among women in the cities. And in the rural areas there would be no agriculture without women who do most of the work.”

The underlying cause of attempts to reduce freedoms for women is, according to Mr al Kadi, a “masculine mentality” in government and a specific strategy of trading off social changes against economic reforms.

“Women’s rights are a bargaining chip,” he said. “Religious conservatives support changes to the economic system in exchange for moving women’s rights backwards.”

While the SWO is highly critical of the government’s attitude and actions on women’s rights, it was equally as scathing in its critique of Syria’s fragile civil society movement.

“I’m very concerned about the deteriorating role of civil society and NGOs in Syria, they are perhaps the major weak point,” Mr al Kadi said.

“It is civil society which must force the government to do the right thing for women, this is something that should come from the ground up.”

Syria places severe restrictions on NGOs and only those with avowedly apolitical goals are given licences to operate. The SWO, as with other human rights organisations in Syria, does so without formal legal permission. There has been a long-running crackdown on pro-democracy campaigners, many of whom have been critics of the government’s human rights record.

However, Mr al Kadi, who spent seven years in detention under the previous president, Hafez al Assad, said civil society groups were too quick to blame the government when in fact they were themselves too self-interested, divided and disorganised to be effective.

“If you are professional and take practical, useful action rather than just shouting criticisms it is possible to make a difference and you are allowed to work,” he said. “It is not a matter of courage to campaign for women’s rights; it is a case of our collective responsibility to the future.”

November 26. 2009 12:42AM UAE / November 25. 2009 8:42PM GMT

The National Magazine

"Swedish"
Den 29 oktober 2009 var en sorglig och dyster dag. En syrisk domstol beslutade att en man som dödat sin syster är en hjälte bara för att han begått sitt brott under förevändning av "heder"!
Hundratals kvinnor dödas varje år i hederns namn, medan den syriska regeringen står vid sidan av och ser på och till och med stöder dessa syndiga handlingar.
Tusentals kvinnor dödas i Syrien, Jordanien, Irak, Palestina, Egypten, Saudiarabien, Algeriet, Marocko och Libyen. De är länder där regeringarna misslyckats med sin existensberättigande uppgift: att "stoppa medborgare från att döda varandra”.
Tiotusentals kvinnor dödas runt om i världen varje år i så kallade "hedersmord". Samtidigt ser hela världen på och utfärdar bara fördömanden som sällan gör någon skillnad. Det är på tiden att se till att det här fruktansvärda brottet upphör. Vi lever på 2000-talet och det är dags att säga nej till de låga straffen för hedersmördare. Avskräckande straff bör införas för alla dem som begår, uppmuntrar och accepterar dessa brott.
Mot bakgrund av det här har vi bestämt att göra den 29 oktober till en internationell solidaritetsdag för dem som lidit offer för hedersrelaterat våld och mord. Det är en dag då vi ska påminnas om att det här avsevärda brottet aldrig kommer bli en del av historien om inte var och en av oss säger nej och bekämpar det på alla sätt.
Vi kräver att Förenta Nationerna, alla organisationer som arbetar med frågor som rör mänskliga rättigheter, alla politiska partier som påstår sig arbeta för ett bättre samhälle och alla medier att göra den här dagen till en internationell solidaritetsdag för att illegalisera de här fruktansvärda brotten.

Syrian Women Observatory
www.nesasy.org

Arabic || English || Spanish
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FaceBook
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By Nadia Muhanna
Photo Fadi al-Hamwi

As a young man you were involved in politics. What made you swap the political arena for the social one and establish the Syrian Women Observatory (SWO)?

I joined Syria’s Communist Labour Party in 1982 to achieve change. I was imprisoned for seven years because of my political work and have been banned from travelling for the past 19 years. Following my release from prison, I started working as an electrician at a Syrian university in 1996. While working there I met a lot of young people and began to realise the huge potential they have to achieve change. I began to see the importance of separating society from politics, so I left the latter and went into the area of social work.

Political decisions are necessary for improving society, but they are not enough. Change should be initiated from below before pressure is applied on the government to enforce it. I decided to open the observatory in 2005 with the aim of raising awareness about violence and discrimination against women, children and the disabled. Today, the observatory is the only organisation which provides information in Arabic about violence against women in Syria. On our website you can find all of the relevant Syrian laws, reports and international agreements relating to women’s and children’s rights issues.

The SWO will celebrate its fifth anniversary at the beginning of next year. What have been the organisation’s main achievements?

Since it was established, the observatory has taken part in a number of major campaigns. Prime among these was our involvement in the ‘Say No to Violence against Women’ campaign organised by the United Nations Development Fund for Women in 2008. We are also involved in an ongoing campaign which is demanding that Syrian women be granted the right to pass on their nationality to their children.

In addition, we have launched three major initiatives of our own. The first campaign lobbied for change of Syria’s Law of Associations, a law which gives the government the authority to control the activities of social organisations and to shut them down at any time. This control is so far-reaching that an organisation cannot even publish a flyer without applying for permission.

Our second major campaign was launched in 2005 and lobbied for change to those laws in Syria that permit honour killings.

Our latest campaign, launched last June, was against a proposed fundamentalist draft law to replace the existing Personal Status Code. The draft law violated women’s rights and was kept secret until it was leaked to the press earlier this year. Under pressure from our fierce campaign, the government dropped the draft law.

The observatory’s most important achievements, however, are not the campaigns themselves. Rather, it is the change we have achieved in the way the country’s media covers women’s and children’s issues. Before the observatory was founded, you couldn’t find more than three articles about honour killings in the Syrian media. Since we launched our campaign, more than 1,000 articles and programmes about honour killings have been aired on local TV channels, radio stations and published in print and online publications.

What is most important, however, is the quality, not the quantity, of such articles and programmes. The Syrian media used to condemn violence against women out of pity or because they viewed it as haram or as hindering social development. The observatory has encouraged a new approach to media coverage by coming at the issue from the angle of human rights and citizenship. Women should not be violated, not because it is haram or hinders development, but because it is simply their right as human beings and Syrian citizens. Today, 80 percent of the media coverage about women’s and children’s rights is in line with our approach, or very close to it.

The observatory has also pushed for young Syrians to play a greater role in developing their society. Working teams at Syrian organisations are usually closed and they do not include young people. The observatory works with any young Syrian volunteer willing to help raise awareness about women’s and children’s issues. We do not set specific work plans or recruit employees. Instead, each of our members sees what they can do from their position in their workplace, village or family. Even though the observatory doesn’t receive any funding and is based solely on voluntary work, in the past five years we have managed to launch several campaigns and expand our network to cover all parts of Syria.

The SWO-led campaign to cancel the proposed draft law to replace Syria’s Personal Status Code was hailed as a victory for civil society. A number of local observers described the campaign as a daring initiative that crossed a number of the country’s infamous ‘red lines’. How important was the campaign to the development of Syria’s civil society movement?

Our campaign did not cross any red lines. While it is fair to say we face a number of red lines, they are not as tight as Syria’s civil society organisations pretend. Instead, Syria’s civil society movement uses red lines and a lack of funding as an excuse for its own incompetence. When I launched my campaign against the draft law, many civil organisations refused to cooperate, choosing to remain passive for the first 37 days of the campaign, the goal of which they described as impossible to achieve. We did not cross red lines. Instead, we broke our fear to act and realised our potential in the process. From the first day I opened the observatory, I decided that what should be said must be said, regardless of the consequences.

You have said the reason why such a controversial draft law was able to reach such an advanced stage is because the local civil society movement has failed to effectively monitor the rise of extremism in society. What are you now doing to tackle this issue?

Syria’s civil society movement has turned a blind eye to the rise of extremism happening all around it. The observatory is trying to correct this mistake by establishing the Private Syrian Observatory for Monitoring Extremism. At the moment, we are working on defining extremism because it is such a wide term. When we have done this, the private observatory will monitor all forms of extremism affecting Syria, be it in the form of audio, visual or printed media, or in other ways such as general attitudes. The observatory will document and publish these forms of extremism on its website and comment on them from a human rights and equal citizenship point of view to raise awareness.

Although religious extremism will be our main theme, we will also focus on other types of extremism. A secular man’s degrading attitude towards a woman who wears the hijab is a form of extremism, as is a radical man’s harassment of a woman because she is not fully covered. Through our activities, we hope to change public opinion by prompting media outlets, NGOs and religious organisations to tackle the issue of extremism, the same way they have tackled women’s rights.

Are you working on any other campaigns?

The observatory is presently lobbying the government to make any future draft law available to the public before it becomes a law. It is unacceptable to have secret draft laws. When I, as a Syrian citizen, elected the members of the country’s parliament I didn’t elect them to replace me. I elected them to represent my opinions. However, I cannot have an opinion on a draft law unless it is made public. This campaign will be long and it is only in the initial stages, but I’m very optimistic that it will produce results.

We are also planning a campaign to raise awareness about child rape, an issue the Syrian media has done a great job of tackling recently. We plan to launch a campaign focusing on how to raise a child’s awareness of the issue, what symptoms and behaviour a sexually harassed child displays, how to deal with a child who has been sexually harassed and the role children’s organisations and the courts can play in combating this issue.

Why would a man dedicate his life to defending women’s rights?

Trying to stop violence and discrimination against women is generally defined as defending women’s rights. But I believe that by doing so I am also defending men’s rights. Women are the prima facie victims of violence and discrimination, but men are also victims. When you violate women’s rights, restrict their development and treat them as second-class citizens, you create an unstable marital relationship and an unbalanced family. This takes its toll not only on women, but on husbands, children and the whole of society.

For more information about the SWO, log on to www.nesasy.org.
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Syria Today Magazein
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By Bassam Al-Kadi

This is not a call for violence. We have always opposed all forms of violence perpetrated by anyone. This call is merely a description of the status quo, confirmed by a Syrian court's decision several days ago, a decision that gave men monstrous rights to kill women and ensured they would be treated as heroes for it.

We are talking about Zahra Ezzo¡XZahra meaning "rose" in Arabic¡Xa young woman who was killed by her brother with a kitchen knife. Many celebrated her killing, not knowing that Zahra was the most virtuous of them all.

Zahra has been killed twice. The first time was by her brother, and today the Syrian Judiciary has killed her again by acquitting her brother of the murder and making a hero out of him. By giving males the right to kill females without punishment and legitimizing the law of the jungle, such a decision could not be regarded other than as a call for the destruction of the foundation of the state itself¡Xa contradiction of the very idea of the state by affirming the axiom that "might makes right".

Today, October 29th 2009, the Syrian Judiciary explicitly ensured that Syrian women's lives remain threatened at any time and by any means.

Today, October 29th, which we declare as the International Day of Solidarity with Victims of Honor Crimes, the Syrian Judiciary expressed in the clearest way possible its stance concerning Syrian women, a stance in direct violation of the Syrian constitution which guarantees the right to live to all citizens, male or female. How under this constitution can there be a law by which a man can kill without fear of punishment?

What happened today?

Regarding the case of 484/2009, the Second Criminal Court of rural Damascus province convicted the killer and sentenced him to three years in prison, with a reduced sentence of two and a half years because it was "motivated by honor". However, with time already served in custody it was decided to release the convicted killer right away. The verdict totally ignored the fact that numerous people were involved in inciting the killing of Zahra.

The following is the text of the verdict:

In the name of the Syrian people, the court has decided the following:
"Conviction of Fayez Ezzo of committing a premeditated murder on the basis of defending his honor according to articles 533 and 192 of the Penal Code, sentencing him to three years in jail. Due to extenuating circumstances, this punishment is to be reduced to two and a half years in prison, with time already spent in custody counting as his total punishment. He is to be fined 1 million Syrian pounds (around U.S. 20,000 dollars), to be divided among his legal heirs, subtracting the amount his father and mother should receive as they both waived their personal rights."

The following are portions of the killer's confession as delivered to the court:
ƒ{ I traveled from Hasaka to Damascus looking for my sister who had been kidnapped by a man, and then people started talking about my dignity and about how what happened had stained my honor.
ƒ{ When I arrived at my aunt's house in Damascus, she searched my luggage for weapons/knife.
ƒ{ That same day, I bought a straight razor to kill my sister.
ƒ{ I was sure that no one was inside her house but she. I opened the door with a copy of the key which I had made. Zahra was sleeping on a mattress on the ground. I put the straight razor on her neck. She woke up and then I began to butcher her. She started bleeding as I put my foot on her forehead. While she was screaming, I started stabbing all over her body. I left Zahra soaking in her blood and fled from the house.

During the course of the trial, the examining magistrate noted the following:
"All facts confirm the aforementioned confessions, and disprove the claims of a virtuous or righteous incentive. This renders it a case of premeditated murder according to article 535 of the Penal Law."

The judge who referred the case said nearly the same, stating that "the criminal traveled to Damascus with a specific purpose in his mind which was to kill his sister. The murderer arranged all practical issues to commit his crime, and it is clearly proven to the court that he was determined to kill and went so far as to buy the tool by which he would kill his sister. All of this renders his claims that his sister had fled the house with her lover as null and void¡K this necessitates trying him with the charge of premeditated murder according to article 535 of the Penal Law."

What is truly strange is that the confessions of the murderer have been ignored altogether, as well as other facts well known by the court such as that Fayez Ezzo had actually tried previously to enter the shelter in which Zahra was living, hiding a hatchet under his clothes only to be discovered by the police at the gate of the shelter.

So, two judges had confirmed that this was a premeditated murder and not an "honor crime". Yet the sentence was reduced to only two and a half years through a legal loophole in article 44, resulting in the murderer's immediate release with time served.

It cannot escape our attention that not just the investigation but also the bill of indictment of the killer's lawyer and the killer himself all confirm that the victim had been kidnapped and raped. Moreover, Zahra was a child when she was kidnapped, only 16 years old. She had been raped only one day before the police succeeded in finding her.

This is the bitter truth that came to light in a country with a supposedly modern state and constitution in place. It is a bitter truth because the court's decision ignored the facts, the confession of the murderer, and the documents of the investigating and the referring judges.

This can only be understood as a call for all Syrian males to decide life and death as they see fit, and in return face punishment so slight (if any at all) that it infringes on all the rights guaranteed by the law, the constitution, and religion.

The Ministry of Justice must answer for how such a terrible thing could have actually happened. Is this the kind of justice the citizens want? We call for an internal investigation within the Ministry to determine how such an atrociously unjust decision was made.

Our responsibility does not stop there. We will continue to work day and night to eliminate this kind of shameful persecution that some want Syria to be blighted with forever.

The real murderer is male chauvinism cloaked in spurious religious and moral values that aim at hiding the true face of male hatred and enslavement of women. This suppose "male culture" turns men into creatures obsessed with sexuality and domination.

It is the culture of equality that makes men and women human, and makes them partners for life. Males truly become men only when they abandon the culture of violence and discrimination.

We can state today publicly and openly that lawyer and activist Maha Al-Ali, attorney to Zahra's husband and also in fact attorney to Zahra herself, has been offered bribes to abandon this lawsuit by a person charged with this task by Zahra's family. Ms. Al-Ali received death threats from Zahra's father and brother, and some of these threats were delivered inside the courtroom. But they did not have the desired effect, and she devoted herself ever more to this cause, defending victims of honor crimes. Indeed, threatening Maha is not only directed at her, but towards everyone in Syria who stands for and cherishes the true meaning of honor.

In the case of any attack on Ms. Al-Ali, we shall hold the Syrian government and the Bar Association completely responsible. Ms. Maha Al-Ali is not alone.

Zahra's soul will not be at peace until this shameful reality in Syrian courts is eliminated once and for all. She will not rest until article 548 of the Penal Code is abolished and they issue a complete ban on the application of article 192 to so-called "honor crimes". She will never rest in peace, and neither shall we, until we get rid of this shame; this shame that is guarded by those who peddle religion and protected by a government that is a signee of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)! The government, out of utter hypocrisy, ratified these international laws, while actually pursuing more and more discrimination and legitimizing violence against women.

Lest we should forget Zahra, and any other woman killed by this dagger of shame, we declare today October 29th as the International Day of Solidarity with Victims of Honor Crimes. We will mark this day each year as a day of mourning until the Syrian government decides to put an end to this vicious cycle of discrimination, hypocrisy, and shameful conduct by the courts.

Zahra¡K it is not time yet to say goodbye. We will not make our final farewell until all elements supporting these heinous crimes are abolished from laws, institutions, traditions, societies and everywhere. We will not say our final farewell until the criminals¡Xweather those wielding knives, those crafting the disgraceful laws that legitimize these crimes, or those who market such murders¡Xare put away once and for all.

Only then can you and the other victims of honor crimes truly rest in peace, assured that your blood has made roses bloom in your and our country: Syria.

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Translated by Basel Jbaily, Tyler Golson
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available in Arabic
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Syrian Women Observatory
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Este es un anuncio publicado por el Observatorio Sirio de la Mujer, una asociación de sociedad civil siria con la que colaboro ocasionalmente, me han pedido traducirlo y publicarlo en castellano con la esperanza de que tenga eco entre los defensores de los derechos de la mujer.

El Observatorio Sirio de la Mujer agradece todo tipo de difusión de este mensaje y no se reserva el derecho a vincularlo con la asociación, no importa el mensajero sino el mensaje.

"29 de octubre de 2009.. Ha sido un triste y sombrío día, en el que un tribunal sirio ha decidido que un hombre que mató a su hermana es un héroe tan solo por haber cometido el asesinato en nombre del honor (fue condenado sólo a dos años y medio, lo que significó su puesta en libertad de inmediato ya que este es exactamente el tiempo que pasó en prisión provisional a la espera de juicio. El sujeto no ha mostrado arrepentimiento en ningún momento).

Cientos de mujeres son asesinadas cada año bajo este pretexto mientras el gobierno sirio mantiene un cómplice silencio ante tan bárbaros crímenes.

Miles de mujeres son asesinadas en Siria, Jordania, Iraq, Palestina, Egipto, Arabia Saudí, Argelia, Marruecos, Libia y otros países, donde los gobiernos no se mueven para hacer frente a una de sus principales razones de ser: Proteger la vida de sus ciudadanos.

Decenas de miles de mujeres son asesinadas en todo el mundo cada año en los denominados "Crímenes de Honor", lo que refleja, como mínimo, el deterioro del ser y el sentimiento humano. Sucede esto ante los ojos del mundo entero sin producir reacciones mas allá de simbólicas condenas.

Es hora ya de que estos viles crímenes terminen. Vivimos en el siglo XXI y es hora ya de rechazar acciones insignificantes y condenas blandas a los asesinos en nombre del honor. Es hora de aplicar penas disuasorias a todos aquellos que cometan, inciten o apoyen dichos asesinatos.
Por ello, Establecemos el 29 de octubre como Día Mundial de Solidaridad con las Víctimas de los Crímenes de Honor, un día para recalcar que dichos crímenes no pasarán al lado oscuro de la historia si no nos unimos todos para combatir estos asesinatos sin flaquear.

Hacemos un llamamiento a las Naciones Unidas, asociaciones de derechos humanos y de derechos de la mujer, a todas las fuerzas y partidos políticos que defiendan la justicia social, y a todos los medios de comunicación de todo tipo para establecer ese día en sus agendas como modo de enfrentamiento a los defensores de estos crímenes y así establecerlo como una herramienta añadida contra el asesinato de mujeres en nombre del honor."
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El Cofre Damasquino
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Syrian Women Observatory
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October 29th 2009, what a sad and gloomy day in which a Syrian court decides that a man who killed his sister is a hero, only because he committed his crime under the pretext of "honor"!

Hundreds of women are being killed every year under this pretext, while the Syrian government stands by and even supports these sinful acts.

Thousands of women are being killed in Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Palestine, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Morocco, Libya, and other countries where governments fail in acting to enforce its very reason of existence which is "stopping citizens from killing each others".

Tens of thousands of women are being killed around the globe each year, in what is so called "honor crimes", which reflect the lowest deterioration of the human soul; while the whole world stands by watching and issuing mere "condemnations" that rarely make difference on the ground.

It is time for this dirty crime to stop. We are now living in the twenty first century and it is time to say no for the mild actions and responses for the "honor killers". It is time to implement deterrent punishments for all those who incite, agree, or collude in these crimes.

For all of this, we announce October 29th, an International Day of Solidarity with Victims of Honor Crimes. A day to remember that this sinful crime will not be part of the history unless every body starts opposing it by all means possible.

We call for the United Nations, all the organizations that work on the issues of human rights, including women rights, all the political parties that claim to be working for better societies and all media outlets to adopt this day in order to delegitimize these notorious crimes.

Notes: This statements is not limited to Syrian Women Observatory. It is up to anybody to adopt it in the way he/she finds suitable, and even without mentioning Syrian Women Observatory.

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available Arabic
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Syrian Women Observatory

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