future now”

Introduction
Peacebuilding in
the midst of violence
In 2011, men and women in Syria took to the streets
in peaceful demonstrations. They initially demanded
justice, but later also the ousting of the regime.
This came shortly after the regime violently cracked
down on its peaceful dissidents. The conflict soon
escalated, and for the past four years increased militarization
has been building up in the country. This militarization
has prompted many local and international actors,
agendas and interests to become involved and demonstrate
influence.
During this period, women activists and women’s groups
have been actively involved in almost every aspect of the
ongoing civil activism in Syria. More recently, women’s
efforts have also begun to include projects and initiatives
to mitigate the escalating violence and promote peaceful
alternatives with the overall goal of building a modern
state of justice and equality. However, very little is known
about this activism, the women and organizations behind
it, and the conditions under which they carry out their
efforts. This study aims to explore the current forms and
characteristics of women activism in peacebuilding and to
identify the challenges it faces, as well as shedding light
on the opportunities available to the growing women’s
peace activist movement in Syria.
To accomplish this, the research focused on finding answers
to the following questions:
• How are women working with peacebuilding in Syria?
• What are the barriers for women’s participation in
peacebuilding?
• How can the international community, as well as Syrian
actors, promote women’s peacebuilding in Syria?
Although most peacebuilding processes occur when war
or armed conflict is over, civil society organizations, including
women’s groups, can promote conflict resolution
mechanisms or design projects that aim at reducing violence
during ongoing armed conflict. Based on this, peacebuilding
in this study is thus defined:
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• Measures or activities undertaken to prevent violent
conflict, reduce existing violence, promote or be directly
involved in peaceful conflict resolution in the midst
of ongoing war and violence, or
• Measures and activities meant to prepare for state
building (such as preparations for transitional justice or
towards engendering the constitution) after the end of
violent conflict.
The backbone of this research has been the women activists’
own experiences and opinions. This gives the report
an inside perspective that otherwise would have been
hard to access, thus allowing women’s voices to be heard.
Furthermore, it is in hope that this study will contribute
to a broader understanding of the conflict and civil society’s
role in Syria.
Research methods
The aim of the research was to include all women activism
in Syria – prominent individuals as well as women’s
groups 1 . However, due to the difficult security situation
in the country, some groups and individual activists
either refused to participate or were outside the reach
of the research team from the beginning. Fear of repercussions
from the regime or armed groups in power, for
example, was a major obstacle. Changing security conditions
in some areas (such as in Idleb and Deir Ezzor) during
the period of time when the data was collected also
made updating some of the information difficult.
For all the aforementioned reasons, some examples of
peacebuilding work, such as mediation efforts, also had
to be omitted in this report because referring to it would
put the execution of the work, as well as the lives of the
activists organizing it, in danger.
In total, 60 civil society groups were identified out of
which 49 were able to cooperate. 47 of these were women’s
groups, and the remaining two had a major focus on
women’s issues. Six of the groups had at least part of their