Are we really lucky to be
women in Syria?
Do women really influence
the political life of our country?
I hear such comments every
time I attend a conference or, a school reunion or work function.
How many times do you hear that we, as Syrian women, are fortunate
to be living in a secular society with laws that do not discriminate
between men and women--to be living in an “Arab” society where men
and women are, ostensibly, equal. But is this indeed the case? Or is
it just a convenient political “fiction” masking a much more
perverse reality.
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So let’s examine
the real facts of the matter.
Women do enjoy equality under the law; we can own
property, start our own businesses, apply for a business registration
number, have a bank account in our known name. We even can travel at
home and abroad without a brother, father or husband as a chaperone. Of
course, in any other part of the developed world, such rights are a
matter of course. More or less like saying women have the right to
breathe.
Let’s delve a bit further into just how equal we are
in this society.
Women comprise 12% of the Syrian
parliament—not much by western standards but still not too bad.
But the more important question is, how
relevant, effective and powerful are they as legislators compared to
their male colleagues. Or are they just attractive window dressing?
There are two female member in
the cabinet. But, again, do these women really wield influence around
the cabinet table. Do they really represent the interests of Syrian
women in the corridors of political power? And if they don’t, can they
really function as successful role models for other Syrian women? These
are important questions and not easy to answer definitively. But there
is no question what their mandate “should” be. Politically powerful and
influential women must actively support and encourage
their “sisters” in all dimensions of Syrian
society—in the workplace, at universities, inside the home. Most
importantly, they should actively support the development of civil
society—and civic non-governmental political institutions—in our
country. If they do not they are failing in their roles as both
political leaders and advocates for women’s rights.
Is this the case? Sadly, NO.
In the last few months, two women’s
organizations has been shut down—close, the doors, padlocked—because of
decisions made by a female minister in this government. So, just how
lucky are Syrian women, politically? On that evidence, not very.
But let’s try to be positive
here. Overseas, there are numerous ambassadors who represent our
country’s interests at Syrian embassies around the world. Like their
male diplomatic colleagues, Syrian women can make the case to foreigners
that Syria is not a member of the so-called “Axis of Evil,” that we are
not a backward country, that we are a proud people with historic past
and a promising future.
But do our female ambassadors exercise the
same authority and enjoy the same autonomy from their political masters
in Damascus as their male colleagues?
Again, to be positive, Syria has numerous female
business organizations, which represent us overseas. And this is not a
recent development. My own
Mother and before she get
married, she attended an international women’s conference back in 1957 ,
which represented women from all walks of professional life: teachers,
university \students, nurses, doctors—all of them also mothers, sisters
and wives.
But do such eminently successful women
really exercise real influence in our society? I don’t think they did in
my mother’s generation. And because Syrian remains fundamentally a
male-dominated—dare, I say it, a chauvinistic—society, I don’t think
women exercise much real power in my generation as well.
Still, compared to the condition of women in most
parts of the Arab world, I do consider myself fortunate to be a Syrian
woman. Compared to many of them, we enjoy tremendous freedom. Perhaps
not equality with men, but we do enjoy freedoms which many our sisters
in the Arab world envy. And, again, those freedoms were not granted,
yesterday. My grandmother had driving license back in the early 1950s
and freely drove around the streets of Damascus as my daughter does
today. This simple right—the ability to drive a car—is still denied
women in many parts of the Arab world. It is a social injustice—and a
political travesty.
Other fundamental rights have
long been granted to Syrian women. Among them, the right to work and
earn an income. My mother taught at university, And all the girls she
grew up with received a good education, got jobs, opened shops, clinics,
pharmacies as well as becoming wonderful mothers and wives. One even
became a vice-president of
Syria.
As many of you know, in many other countries in this
region, women do not even have the right to wear clothes of their own
choice. In Syria, women wear what they want, go where they want, take
public transportation. We have enjoyed those rights for decades. To
anyone in the West, these would seem relatively basic human rights. But
in the Middle East, such rights cannot be taken for granted. So, yes, in
many ways, we are lucky to be women in Syria.
But is this enough. Have we really moved beyond the
basic human rights granted to my grandmother’s generation over sixty
years ago? Have we really made any significant political progress over
the last six decades? As women, do we exercise any “real” leadership in
this society?
Sure, women are equal citizens under Syrian law. But
are we really equal in how this society operates on a daily basis. I
think not. Frankly, I believe Syrian women have been “resting on their
laurels,” to use an old saying. Still, reveling in the advances we made
decades ago. Not moving the political yardstick further along.
Back in 1910, the great Syrian
Author and Leader, Mary Ajani, said, “The spirit of women has the
strength to kill the germs of corruption, and that in her hand is the
weapon to rend the gloom of oppression, and in her mouth the solace to
lighten human misery.” But more than a hundred years after Mary Ajami
uttered those words, are we living by her “code.” Are we really leaders
in this society? Are we really involved in making public policy? I am
afraid the answer is, “No.”
Historically, Syria has been way ahead of
other Arab countries in women’s participation in politics. But in many
Arab countries are catching up. And we are lagging behind. Today, Syria
has just two ministers and a vice president. Why not a female prime
minister? More importantly, why not female ministers who have “real”
power in the upper reaches of government. That is certainly not the case
today.
Why not a female citizen can
grant the Syrian Citizenship to her children like her equal so called
male Citizen?
When that happens, then I think we can truly and
honestly say, “It is lucky to be a woman in Syria.”
