DAMASCUS: Recent remarks by the head of the Women's Affairs Office within the new Syrian authorities sparked an outcry on Sunday on social networks and among civil society.
Aïcha al-Debs, president of the brand new “Women's Affairs Bureau” in Damascus, was questioned this week by Turkish television TRT about the “space” that will be given to feminist associations.
The manager, the only woman within the transitional government, explained that if the action of these organizations “supported the model that we are going to build, then they would be welcome: I am not going to open the way to anyone who is not agree with me.”
She invited Syrian women, whether in exile or in the country, “to come together around the same table to study the model” that Syria wishes to adopt to strengthen the place of women and their rights.
“Why adopt a secular or civil model? We are going to establish a model specific to Syrian society and it is Syrian women who will achieve it,” she declared.
Addressing Syrian women – Sunni, Druze, Alawite or Christian – she insisted on the fact that “we are all equal” and invited “those who have diplomas and experience” to turn to the institutions government for employment.
But she also called on women “not to overstep the priorities of their nature created by God”, namely “their educational role within the family”, comments which provoked strong reactions.
“You can speak your own thoughts (…) in your house, but do not impose your thoughts on us which want us to stay at home,” Batraa Abo Aljadayel denounced on Facebook.
“No to a new cultural and political repression (…) a repression of public and individual freedoms. »
Actress Aliaa al-Saïd also expressed her indignation on is allowed and what is not? »
On Sunday, in an attempt to calm the indignation, the head of Syrian diplomacy, Assaad Hassan al-Chibani, affirmed on X that the authorities would “stand alongside” women and “fully support their rights”.
“We believe in the active role of women in society, and we have confidence in their abilities and skills,” he said. “Syrian women have fought for years for a free homeland preserving their dignity and status. »
