Progress Amid Resistance

478 WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICAability to raise funds and hold events. Decades of political repression havestunted independent civic activism in general, as most citizens are unwillingto risk angering the authorities by participating.The conditions described above leave women with little political in -fluence, either as a voting bloc or as individual candidates and activists.Women have a degree of influence within economic organizations, accountingfor around a fifth of the membership of trade unions and professionalassociations, 84 though all unions must belong to the Ba’ath-controlledGeneral Federation of Trade Unions. Women’s representation in leadershippositions within unions has increased to 16.3 percent in recent years, with16 women in executive offices in the provinces and one woman leading anassociation of trade unions. A number of the professional associations—such as the lawyers’ syndicate, the engineers’ syndicate, and the civil servants’syndicate—have established special committees for women, but thesetend to be merely advisory or educational in nature, guiding the work of thelarger organization and raising awareness of women’s legal rights. 85The government’s controls on political and civic discourse extend tothe news media, which are subject to routine censorship. Journalists whocriticize or offend the government face arrest and imprisonment, and mediaoutlets practice self-censorship to avoid punishment. The state or allies ofthe government own most print and broadcast outlets, while private radiostations cannot carry news or political content. However, satellite televisionis widely available, giving viewers access to uncensored foreign broadcasts.The government is relatively tolerant regarding coverage of domestic violenceand other women’s rights issues, though religious groups occasionallyexert pressure in an effort to suppress discussion of such topics.As with satellite television, the expansion of the Internet has providednew sources of information on matters of significance to women’s politicaland civic lives, although the government sometimes blocks websites thatit deems politically sensitive and jails critical bloggers or website administrators.There are now over 3.5 million Internet users in Syria by someestimates, 86 and they are producing an array of blogs and other sites featuringnews and commentary. 87 Those focusing on women’s issues includeNesaa Souria (or Syrian Women Observatory, http://www.nesasy.org),Thara (http://www.thara-sy.com), and Ishtar (http://www.ishtar-sy.com).The social-networking site Facebook has been an important platform forwomen’s rights campaigns, including a recent online campaign against aregressive draft personal status law.