Regional and international stakeholders of the Syrian crisis have accelerated efforts to achieve sustainable peace as the crisis has persisted for more than a decade. The eighteenth round of the Astana peace talk and the eighth round of the United Nations-led Syria constitutional talk in Geneva concluded this year without success. However, despite demands for effective participation in the peace process by women from Syrian civil society, only a minuscule presence was achieved with symbolic representation from the Syrian state and the opposition delegation to the peace processes. Women are placed in government positions in order to showcase modernization and progress while they are used by the opposition to attract attention from international donors.
Women have the potential to play an important role in peace resolutions and peacebuilding. Research shows that ceasefires are 35 percent more likely to last at least fifteen years if women participate in their negotiations. Moreover, the participation of local women in peace negotiations increases the probability of a cessation of violence within a year by 25 percent. The United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security recommends that women shall comprise at least 30 percent of participants in peace talks. However, the body has not been able to maintain the stipulated percentage during the Syrian peace process. On average, women constituted only 13 percent of negotiators, 6 percent of mediators, and 6 percent of signatories in major peace processes worldwide between 1992 and 2019.
Meaningful and fruitful participation by the women’s groups during political negotiations may act as an effective link with the grassroots level and facilitate the diverse representation of marginalized and excluded communities. Of the 45 members at the August 2020 meeting of the constitutional committee only 13 were women, of which only 7 members represented the civil society, 4 women represented the Syrian government and 2 women represented the opposition. Despite the progressive policies of Hafiz al Assad during his 30-year rule, Syrian women have been at the receiving end of the existing structural violence in Syrian society.
Some Syrian women fought alongside men during the Arab Spring in Syria and faced direct violent retaliation by the state, however, the majority of women in the households that lost men faced indirect violence impeding their quality of life. Women were suddenly compelled to bear the financial needs of the family, leave their homes and provide for the children. Their bodies became politicized and were abused by the state and the opposition. The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria reported that women and girls faced sexual violence, including rape, in government detention facilities and areas under the control of armed groups. As per the Founder of Mazaya Centre Ghalia Rahal, there is no space for women in the Syrian civil society and humanitarian organizations as it is dominated by men.
The Geneva Communiqué of 2012 mentioned that women must be fully present in all aspects of the transition. Nevertheless, women were absent from peace talks until 2016 and in 2019 only one percent of the Security Council’s discussions on Syria included references to women’s participation. The Women’s Advisory Board created by the Office of the Special Envoy in January 2016 is a positive development. The board found consensus on controversial issues related to aid delivery and the release of detainees. However, it does not participates in the peace talks and there is no certainty regarding the implementation of their recommendations. Moreover, even when Syrian women were represented in the 2016 peace talks, former UN Special Envoy Staffan De Mistura disclosed that the women representatives of the opposition were not at liberty to talk or intervene and remained at the margins.
Syrian women have the potential to raise critical issues at the peace talks. They have the experience of negotiating local ceasefires, deescalating fighting, organizing nonviolent protests, and documenting war crimes. They have also led humanitarian efforts and worked in schools, and hospitals, and can raise pertinent issues relevant at the grassroots level. For instance, Women Now for Development is an organization led by Syrian women and empowers women to push Syria toward peace by promoting democratic values and resilience at the local level. As the Syrian peace talks are important for bringing stability to Syria, women’s presence in the peace process is a definite formula for its longevity.
Lakshmi Priya
Dr.Lakshmi Priya is a Research Fellow at the Indian Council of World Affairs, New Delhi. She has a Ph.D. in West Asian Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and her doctoral thesis was on “Status of Women in Syria under Hafiz al-Assad, 1970-2000.” The thesis deals with the role of the Syrian state in empowering women during Hafiz al Assad’s rule. She wrote her M.Phil dissertation on “India’s Relations with Syria, 1991-2008.” Her research interests include domestic and foreign policy of Syria, Indo-Gulf relations and gender and feminist discourse in the Middle East. Before joining ICWA, she was a researcher with the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi, as well as Indian Social Institute, New Delhi, and has also worked at the Office of the Cultural Attaché, Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, New Delhi. She has also worked as an editor for Delhi-based Arihant Publishers. Dr. Priya has a Masters in Arabic from the School of Languages in JNU and is fluent in three languages – English, Hindi and Arabic. In addition to West Asian studies, she has an interest in international relations and political theory. She has published three research articles including on the legitimacy of the Baath in Syria and the Gramscian idea of “cultural hegemony” that appeared in the prestigious social science journal – Social Action. Her other research paper on Galtung’s idea of “positive peace” in the Syrian context was published in Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. The third on feminist discourses in Syria was published in Journal of West Asian Studies and is part of recommended reading for undergraduate curriculum in University of Bern, Switzerland. She regularly contributes articles and commentaries on contemporary developments in the Middle East. Her latest writings can be accessed here.
