future now”

A Syrian woman in the Zabadani
neighbourhood in Damascus talks to
the head of the UN observers team (2012).
Photo: TT/AP Photo/Muzaffar Salman
activists organized demonstrations demanding the release
of their children who were seized by the armed
group, Jayesh al-Islam, while the men avoided criticizing
the group’s behavior for fear of further repression and
arrest. Such increased difficulties do not appear to be as
prominent in the Kurdish autonomous areas in northern
Syria.
Some of the women activists pointed to the ruling autonomous
administration’s commitment to the involvement
of women in negotiation delegations and decision-making
positions through the so-called mutual administration 12
and a woman participation quota in all political and
negotiation delegations. Other activists highlighted that
the lower amount of violence present in their regions
allowed for more women’s agency, for example in their
participation in local negotiations.
27
Other activities carried out by the individual women
activists were mediation efforts to release detainees
kidnapped by various armed factions. Many of the activists
said this role was facilitated by the stereotypical image of
women as being peaceful and not having any political or
military missions. Instead, the counterpart viewed their
mediation simply as a woman aiming to achieve emotional
and humanitarian gains in terms of reuniting other
women with their children, family members or acquaintances.
Regardless of the negative impact of such gender
stereotyping, which the activists themselves were aware
of, in many cases, the women’s efforts had been fruitful in
accomplishing the release of the detainees.
Another important involvement of individual women
activists was found in efforts to prevent potential violence.
One example is revenge-deterring mechanisms
organized by individual women activists and groups alike,
for example, the previously mentioned visits to the families
of victims after a violent clash to extend condolences
13 . In many cases, the activists said, their delegations
included women from different groups of society, including
the group that could be blamed for the death at
hand. For example, a man from Sakba, a Damascus suburb,
was killed by the Popular Committees 14 in Jaramana,
another suburb, and tension grew between the two areas.
A woman activist responded by organizing a reconciliation
initiative with the participation of other women
activists and both cities’ elders to extend condolences to
the victim’s family on behalf of the people of Jaramana.
Similar incidents also took place in Kisweh and Zakia, two
other suburbs of Damascus.