FREEDOM HOUSE
Women’s Rights in the Middle East & North Africa
http://65.110.85.181/template.cfm?page=148
by Catherine Bellafronto
Population: 17,500,000
GDP Per
Capita (PPP):
$3,620
Ranking on UN HDI: 106 out of 177
Literacy: Male 91.0% / Female 74.2%
Percent Women
Economically Active: 29.2%
Percent Urban/Rural: Urban 50% /
Rural 50%
Nondiscrimination and Access to Justice:
2.7
Autonomy,
Security, and Freedom of the Person:
2.2
Economic
Rights and Equal Opportunity:
2.8
Political
Rights and Civic Voice:
2.2
Social and
Cultural Rights:
2.3
(Scale of 1 to 5: 1 represents the lowest and 5 the highest level of freedom women have to exercise their rights)
Syria gained its independence from France in 1946 and
today is a republic under a military regime. In 1963, the Ba’ath Party led a
successful military coup and has since governed Syria with a pan-Arab,
nationalist, secular, and socialist ideology that infiltrates all aspects of
public life. Syrians do not have the right to change their government. The
Syrian constitution, ratified in 1973, guarantees the Ba’ath Party’s dominance
in the People’s Assembly–Syria’s parliament–by reserving assembly seats for
members of the Ba’ath Party and the National Progressive Front (NPF), the
umbrella group of Syrian parties of which the Ba’ath Party is the legal head.
The People’s Assembly nominates the president, whose candidacy is then approved
by a popular referendum. Current President Bashar Al-Asad and his father, Hafiz
Al-Asad, who served as president for 30 years before his death in 2000, have run
unopposed in all elections.
Syria is a middle-income developing country with a per
capita GDP (PPP) of $3,620 and a Human Development Index rating of
0.710.[i] The centrally planned economy depends heavily on the
agricultural sector and on oil-related products and services. The public sector
is the primary source of jobs, employing 73 percent of the work force, but
unemployment rates near 20 percent are pressuring the government to focus on
private-sector growth.[ii] President Al-Asad is slowly instituting market-oriented
reforms, but members of the regime’s “old guard” are largely opposed to them.
Half of Syria’s estimated 17.5 million residents live in
rural areas. The population is 90 percent Arab; there is also a sizable Kurdish
population (approximately 1.5 million people), as well as other ethnic minority
groups, including 409,662 Palestinian refugees.[iii] While
the Syrian constitution requires the president to be a Muslim, Syria has no
official religion. A majority of Syrians (74 percent) are Sunni Muslim. The
country is also home to other Muslim groups, and various sects of Christians
(about 10 percent), as well as a small number of Jews. The Alawites, an offshoot
sect of Islam, comprise about 12 percent of the population and dominate the
Ba’ath Party, the executive, and the security branches of the government.
A state of emergency, imposed by the government the year
the Ba’ath Party took power, remains in effect today.[iv] Since
its inception, the government and security agencies have used the state of
emergency to curtail all civil society activity and suspend constitutional
rights to expression, peaceful assembly, and privacy, resulting in a pervasive
atmosphere of fear that has only recently begun to subside.
Syrian women balance growing opportunities in the public
sphere with continuing social and legal restrictions in their private lives.
Government policies over the past 10 years have encouraged women’s education,
participation in the work force, and use of family-planning services. Reflecting
the government’s efforts, women’s literacy increased from 48 percent in 1990 to
74 percent in 2002; 29.2 percent of women are economically active; and 45.8
percent of married women now use contraception.[v]
Nevertheless, traditional values, discriminatory laws,
and an authoritarian government deprive women of many basic legal and social
rights. Syria’s penal code, nationality code, and personal status code establish
women’s status as legal dependents of their fathers and husbands, while
traditional ways of life reinforce patriarchal social structures. One of the
primary sources of opposition to women’s rights, however, lies in extremist
Muslim groups in Syrian society who strongly influence government decisions to
maintain women’s unequal status under the laws and the personal status code.
Syrian women’s groups have limited abilities to combat this opposition or to
effect social or legal change in women’s lives due to the government’s severe
restrictions on freedom of association.
The Syrian constitution, ratified in 1973, delineates the same rights, freedoms, and responsibilities for women as it does for men. Article 45 of the constitution declares, “The state guarantees women all the opportunities that enable them to participate fully and effectively in political, social, cultural, and economic life. The state works to remove the restrictions that prevent women’s development and their participation in building socialist Arab society.” Yet, no laws protect women in the event of gender-based discrimination, and no formal mechanisms exist through which women may complain to the government if they do encounter discrimination.
The Syrian legal system derives from French civil law, Turkish law, and Shari’a (Islamic law). Although the constitution guarantees “full rights and opportunity” for all citizens, exceptions exist in the nationality code, the personal status code, and the penal code that do not afford women full and equal status as citizens. The personal status code, the body of laws regulating family relationships and inheritance, makes women legal dependents of their fathers or husbands and denies women status as full legal adults in matters of marriage, child custody, and divorce.
The nationality code of 1969 prevents a woman from passing Syrian citizenship to her non-Syrian husband or to her children, a right that is enjoyed by Syrian men.[vi] Furthermore, in 1962, about 120,000 Kurds were stripped of their Syrian nationality. Along with their descendants, these Kurds remain stateless, a total of 275,000 to 290,000 people, unable to obtain a passport or, in many cases, any official identification documents.[vii] This serves to disrupt numerous daily-life activities for both Kurdish men and Kurdish women, such as the ability to travel, own property, attend school, and obtain employment.
The Syrian judiciary is divided into secular and
religious courts and is constitutionally independent from the executive branch.
The secular courts are under the jurisdiction of the ministry of justice and
hear both civil and criminal cases. Separate religious courts serve different
religious groups concerning matters of personal status, family, and inheritance.
While spiritual courts handle marriage, divorce, and custody cases for Druze and
non-Muslims, the Shari’a court administers all other family law cases for Syrian
citizens.
In addition to these courts, two additional court systems
were created under emergency laws: the Supreme State Security Court, which hears
cases involving threats to political and national security, and the Economic
Security Court, which hears cases involving financial crimes. Neither male nor
female citizens prosecuted within this system enjoy constitutionally guaranteed
rights to a fair trial. Human rights organizations estimate that the Syrian
government is currently holding between 800 and 4,000 political prisoners, many
of whom were tried in the security courts.[viii]
Women are treated as full persons in the civil and
criminal court system. In the Shari’a court, however, a woman’s testimony is
considered to be worth only half that of a man. While there are no additional
legal barriers to women’s access to justice, social barriers prevent them from
taking advantage of the judicial system to the same extent as men. For example,
women are discouraged from presenting their claims in police stations, which are
largely staffed by male police officers, for fear of experiencing shame,
discomfort, or sexual harassment.[ix] The state of emergency, imposed by the government in
1963, further deprives both women and men of their constitutionally guaranteed
rights to justice.
The penal code of 1949 affords women special protections
from verbal and physical harassment and violence perpetrated by men, yet a
number of other laws deprive women of these protections, usually for the sake of
family “honor.” For example, Article 508 of the penal code states: “If there is
a contracted marriage between the man who commits rape, sexual abuse,
kidnapping, sexual harassment and the victim, then there is no charge or the
punishment is stopped.” Victims’ families may favor this option in order to
mitigate public scandal. Many women do not have the choice of refusing marriage
in such cases either due to family pressure or due to fear of further harassment
and social stigma.
The penal code condones violence against women. Marital
rape is not a crime in Syrian law, and women have no legal recourse should their
husband assault them.[x] Furthermore, a judge may legally reduce the sentence for
a man convicted of a so-called “honor crime,” —the murder or beating of or
causing injury to his wife or female family member for alleged sexual
misconduct.[xi]
Adultery is a crime in Syrian law, but the conditions
required for proving adultery in the court are different for men and women. In
presenting a case against his wife, a man may produce any form of
evidence—witnesses, physical proof, or written documents—before the judge. A
woman, in contrast, may only present written evidence of her husband’s
infidelity. Additionally, the husband must have committed the crime of adultery
inside the family home in order to be charged, while a woman may be prosecuted
for committing adultery anywhere.[xii] The
punishment for adultery is more severe for a woman than it is for a man. If
convicted of adultery, women may serve 3 months to 2 years in prison, while men
serve only 1 month to 1 year.[xiii]
Under the state of emergency, all Syrian citizens are
subject to arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile. However, women’s lower rate of
participation in politically sensitive opposition activities makes them less
vulnerable to arbitrary detention or arrest. A woman threatened by family
members or the community for supposed connection with an “honor crime” may be
held by the authorities for her protection.
In 2003, the Syrian government ratified the UN Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), with
reservations applied to Articles 2, 9(2), 15(4), 16(1)(2), and 29(1).[xiv] The
government found these articles to be incompatible with national laws and the
Shari’a. Syria’s reservations predominantly concern a woman’s right to pass her
nationality to her children, freedom of movement and of residence and domicile,
equal rights and responsibilities during the marriage and its dissolution, and
the legal effect of the betrothal and the marriage of a child. Syria’s
reservations on Article 2 of the convention are most significant, as it is this
article that establishes the purpose of the convention and commits the state to
engage in efforts to eliminate discrimination against women. Syria has not yet
ratified the Optional Protocol to CEDAW.
A small number of Syrian women’s rights activists and
other civil society actors are currently working to improve women’s access to
justice and are advocating for legal reform. However, all nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs) are required to be registered with the government, and all
meetings must be reported in advance to the ministry of interior.
The General Women’s Union (GWU) is the only registered
women’s rights group approved by the government. The GWU follows the Ba’ath
party mandate; its officials are appointed and promoted from within the party
hierarchy. Formed in 1967, the GWU is a nationwide organization that works on
women’s welfare and political participation issues in Syria. It receives
financial support from the government, which facilitates its development
projects involving women in all parts of the country, especially in rural areas.
According to the Private
Associations and Institutions Act No. 93 of 1958, and in line with Ba’ath
Party philosophy, the GWU represents all Syrian women.[xv] However, this assertion by the
government is used to prohibit independent women’s NGOs from registering. It
advises all women’s groups to work under the GWU. This presents serious problems
for independent women’s groups who may not agree with all government policies. A
number of women’s groups, such as the Syrian Women’s League, operating since
1949, do work independently, but their members still face the threat of
arrest and detention.
Independent women’s groups in Syria face tremendous
problems in raising and receiving funds to continue their work due to local laws
that prohibit donor grants from abroad. As a result, unregistered groups find it
difficult to attract members, funding, and participants for their activities.
Many activists work informally and independently at the grassroots level raising
awareness, publishing articles, giving interviews, and holding
forums.
3. The Syrian president and
People’s Assembly should amend laws related to “honor crimes” and adultery that
put women’s lives in danger.
4. The government should
remove all reservations to CEDAW and take steps to implement it locally by
bringing national laws in conformity with CEDAW.
While
the civil liberties, security, and autonomy of all Syrian citizens are
restricted, women suffer additional
restrictions both legally and socially. The personal status code, contained in
Legislative Decree No. 59 of 1983, regulates family relationships and
inheritance and is the single greatest legal barrier to Syrian women’s freedom.
It codifies legal discrimination against women and reinforces the discriminatory
traditions of a patriarchal society.
Syria does not have an official state religion. The
Syrian constitution provides for freedom of religion, and the government
generally respects this right in practice. Most religious activities are free
from government involvement, although the government does monitor some religious
sermons. Syrian Muslim women face some additional restrictions and are not
allowed to marry non-Muslims, unlike Muslim men.[xvi]
Married women are subject to restrictions on their freedom of movement. Syrian law gives a husband the right to prevent his wife from leaving the country by submitting her name to the ministry of interior, although men rarely exercise this right. A woman no longer needs the permission of her husband to obtain a passport. Unmarried women over the age of 18 may travel domestically and abroad without the permission of male guardians. Yet social pressure restricts many women from traveling or living alone.
The Syrian marriage contract legally allows women to
stipulate any provisions in the marriage contract. However, in practice, most
Syrian women are unaware of this right and fail to exercise it. Marriage
contracts are generally prepared according to existing patriarchal traditions in
which the male family members negotiate the marriage contract for the bride and
the groom. Less-educated families rely on the advice of the male religious
leader who conducts the marriage ceremony. Women are rarely informed of all the
rights they could claim in a Muslim marriage contract and often sign without
reading it.
Women of all ages are required to have male guardians
contract their marriages, while adult men are free to contract their own
marriages.[xvii] If an adult woman marries without her guardian’s
consent, the guardian may invalidate her marriage.[xviii] The
minimum age for marriage is 17 for females and 18 for males. However, minimum
marriage-age laws are often not enforced, particularly in rural areas,[xix] and a
judge may authorize marriage for females as young as 13 and males at
15.[xx] Because the guardian contracts the marriage, minors are
not able to object to it. Early marriage remains a problem, although the average
age of marriage for women has risen consistently to 25.2 in urban areas and 24.8
in rural areas.[xxi]
Syrian laws governing behavior within marriage
discriminate against women. A woman must obey her husband or risk losing
financial support.[xxii] While polygamy is legally permitted, it is restricted
and relatively uncommon, though more prevalent in rural areas. According to
Article 17 of the personal status code, a husband must seek permission from a
judge to take a second wife and must prove he has both legitimate justification
and the financial means to provide for a second wife. A husband may circumvent
this restriction, however, if he obtains a civil marriage and later registers
the marriage outside the court system by providing medical proof of his second
wife’s pregnancy.[xxiii] Currently, a man’s marriage to a second wife is not a
legitimate reason for a woman to divorce him in the Syrian Shari’a
courts.
Divorce continues to be much easier for men to initiate
than for women and often leaves women unable to support themselves. Article 91
of the personal status code grants men the right to repudiation, the unilateral
decision to end the marriage without naming a reason; the man simply registers
the divorce with the government. In this case, a woman may receive alimony for
up to three years if she can prove she is destitute. Women who are employed,
however, often do not fall into this category and do not receive
alimony.
For a woman to obtain a divorce, she must sue, stating a
legitimate reason, specified as “dissension, prejudice, lack of affinity,
absence or ailments,” after which the court allows one month for
reconciliation.[xxiv] Alternatively, a woman can seek a consensual divorce, or
khol, in which she agrees to return
the dower (a sum of money given to a wife by her husband at the time of
marriage) to her husband.[xxv] In practice, however, many women choose to forgo alimony
from the spouse rather than repay him the dower.
Child custody laws allow a woman to be the legal guardian
of her children only in the event that the father has died or is legally
incapacitated, stateless, or unknown. A woman has the right to have and care for
her children until the age of 13 for boys and 15 for girls. Yet, while the
mother has the right to keep the children, she does not have the same rights as
a guardian. For example, she cannot register her children for school or move
with them. Furthermore, divorced mothers who remarry may lose custody of their
children, but this possibility does not apply to a father who remarries.
Trafficking laws exist and are enforced.[xxvi] Syria also legally prohibits torture in the penal code.[xxvii] Nevertheless, Amnesty International has criticized the Syrian government for human rights abuses including torture. Syrian officials are legally protected from prosecution for any crimes committed while on the job, leaving victims of torture and their families with no avenue for redress.[xxviii]
Syria has no laws to protect women from domestic
violence. Patriarchal social customs tend to tolerate a man hitting his wife,
and women are often discouraged from reporting violence against themselves or
their children. Syrian police officials are not sympathetic to women victims of
family violence and lack gender-sensitive training to deal with such cases. A
woman’s family may intervene on her behalf by speaking to her abusive husband,
but families will rarely tolerate the public attention of a legal suit and will
most often encourage the woman to remain in the
marriage.
It is difficult to know the extent of violence against
women as there are no reliable statistics on the problem. Social custom
discourages families from reporting crimes, and crimes are often masked as
accidents. While women receive special legal protection from verbal and physical
violence outside the home,[xxix] they rarely, if ever, make use of these protections by
reporting the crime. Many women remain silent about abuse, feeling shame and
responsibility, because Syrian society places the burden of sexual morality on
women.[xxx]
Syrian women activists speak openly in the press about
the need to reform the personal status code, and women’s rights groups have
recently held conferences on combating domestic violence. Social discussion of
domestic violence is still generally circumspect, however, despite its presence
in the press and on television. No private or governmental organizations provide
assistance to victims of domestic violence, and information is most often passed
by word of mouth. Charitable religious organizations provide limited assistance
such as shelter, counseling, legal aid, health care services, and
rehabilitation.[xxxi] Nevertheless, due to the lack of government attention to
this issue, a large number of women victims of family violence do not have
access to supportive services.
1. The government should review all laws and eliminate
clauses that discriminate against women; it should bring its family law into
conformity with constitutional guarantees of equality.
2. The government should pass laws to protect women from
domestic violence and provide training to court and police officials on
effectively dealing with these cases.
3. The government should
work in close consultation with women’s rights advocates to establish support
centers for female victims of violence to receive legal aid, counseling, and
related protective services.
4. Media and NGOs should reach
out to families of victims of domestic violence in order to reduce the social
stigma of this problem and provide the families with information on how to help
the victim.
5.
Syria’s Central Bureau of Statistics should gather data on the prevalence,
causes, types, and outcomes of violence against women.
The Syrian civil and commercial codes of 1949 ensure
women’s equality in owning property, managing businesses, and initiating legal
cases.[xxxii] Legally, women also enjoy full and independent use of
their income and assets and are free to enter into business contracts. However,
in practice, women who obtain property through inheritance or by their own
financial means may be restricted from making use of it independently because
many families discourage unmarried women from living alone. Families also expect
women to contribute their personal income to the family expenses rather than put
it aside for themselves.
In accordance with Syria’s interpretation of Shari’a
inheritance laws, daughters are entitled to half the inheritance of sons. Yet,
many Syrian women are not aware of their inheritance rights and may turn over
their lawfully inherited property to another relative. Furthermore, male
descendants from a different line of the family may be able to compete with
female descendants of the deceased if the deceased has no male heirs.[xxxiii]
Non-Muslim women do not have the right to inherit from their Muslim
husbands.[xxxiv]
Education is compulsory for all Syrian citizens up to the age of 11,[xxxv] and all levels of education are free. Nevertheless, there is a huge drop in enrollment rates after the primary level, when students apparently leave school to enter the work force. Fewer girls than boys enter secondary school: the rate of enrollment for boys is a low 41 percent, while girls enroll at a rate of 37 percent.[xxxvi] Many girls who leave school, predominantly in rural areas, submit to family pressures to marry or work. UNICEF has criticized the Syrian government for not doing enough to combat the phenomenon of girl student drop-outs.[xxxvii] Kurdish children who are deprived of Syrian citizenship face further difficulties in trying to enroll in the Syrian school system.
While low participation rates are a problem, Syria has
succeeded in considerably narrowing the gender gap in access to education and
illiteracy since the 1970s. In 1970, 80 percent of women were illiterate
compared to 40 percent of men, while women’s illiteracy rate in 2002 was 25.8
percent, and men’s was 9 percent.[xxxviii]
Women are also receiving university degrees at a rate close to
men. According to UNIFEM, the
percentage of women graduates from Syrian universities was 40.6 and the
percentage of women graduates from professional training institutes was 49.0 in
2000.
In line with the requirements of CEDAW, the government
recently completed a project to rewrite the textbooks used in the school system
to balance the presentation of men and women. Textbooks now show women in
various professions and also emphasize that both Christianity and Islam view
women and men as equals.
In 2002, 29.2 percent of women participated in the labor
force, reflecting a moderate increase since the 1970s. Although women have made
strides in education and labor force participation, very few have reached
leadership positions in business. Women have only begun to infiltrate public
leadership positions and are still excluded from the inner circle of Ba’ath
Party leadership.
Syrian women are not totally free to choose their
profession and are prohibited from working in jobs the government considers
hazardous and/or immoral.[xxxix] Many women who obtain university degrees in medicine,
law, engineering, and the humanities find employment appropriate to their
qualifications, but only 8.7 percent of women have university-level
education.[xl] Women and girls in rural areas often do not receive the
same professional opportunities as women in urban areas and are under pressure
from their families to perform unpaid domestic work rather than complete their
education or seek work outside the home.
Women still tend to work predominantly in low-paid jobs
performing manual labor. They dominate the agriculture sector, contributing 70
percent of agricultural activity, most often as unpaid farming laborers. By
contrast, relatively few women work in administrative, service-oriented,
technical, or industrial jobs, indicating that women are excluded from the
sectors that contribute most to the modern development of the Syrian
economy.[xli] Women also make up a small percentage of the military
and police force. Thirty percent of employed women work in the public
sector,[xlii] where they comprise roughly one-fifth of all public
sector employees. While women who work in the public sector tend to face less
discrimination than in the private sector, they are still largely relegated to
clerical and staff positions.[xliii]
Syria faces a serious unemployment problem as a result of
low GDP growth and high population growth. But with increasing numbers of women
entering the work force, women suffer disproportionately higher rates of
unemployment as they try to break into the labor market.[xliv]
Micro-enterprise loans through the Syrian government and UN Relief and Works
Agency are provided for women at a far lower rate than for men. Furthermore,
agency projects to reach potential borrowers generally target public places
where men are working, and loan guarantee requirements tend to favor forms of
wealth that are more accessible to the male population.[xlv]
While labor regulations insist upon women’s equal access
to job opportunities in the public and private sectors, as well as equal
remuneration for labor, they do not provide any protections in the event of
discrimination.[xlvi] Nevertheless, gender-based discrimination in obtaining
professional employment is reported to be low.[xlvii]
Women are at a disadvantage in the hiring process, however, because women’s
domestic obligations often require them to work fewer hours or prevent them from
obtaining the additional professional training necessary for advancement in
their career. The bulk of domestic responsibilities fall upon women, whether or
not they work in or outside the home.
Labor regulations protect women from arbitrary dismissal
during pregnancy, maternity leave, and sickness related to pregnancy and
delivery.[xlviii] Both private and public sector employers grant 120 days
of maternity leave for the first child, 90 for the second, and 75 for the third.
Women are permitted one hour during the workday for breast-feeding the child.
Childcare is available in all public sector offices, although the quality of
care needs improvement.
The government has not enacted any laws or policies to
protect working women from harassment in the workplace, despite the demands of
independent women’s associations. Due to the lack of reporting mechanisms, it is
difficult to measure the extent of the problem.
Nonprofit organizations
such as Modernizing and Activating Women’s Role in Economic Development (MAWRED)
and Fund for the Integrated Rural Development of Syria (FIRDOS) were recently
registered with the government and work openly to improve women’s role in the
Syrian economy. In addition, the ministry of agriculture (MOA) established the
Rural Women Development Unit in 2000 to manage assistance projects for rural
women who are most in need of information and access to paid
employment.
Recommendations
1. Civil society groups should inform women about
managing their personal finances in order to promote women’s financial
independence from their families.
2. The
Syrian government and donors should support women to create and finance their
own businesses through the provision of loans below market
rate.
3. The
ministry of agriculture (MOA) should involve rural woman in formulating and
implementing MOA plans and programs to ensure that the needs of women are
addressed in development projects.
4. The Syrian People’s
Assembly should enact laws that protect women from discrimination and harassment
in the workplace.
Syria has been ruled by
a military regime since the Ba’ath Party led a coup in 1963 and imposed a state
of emergency. Syrians have no ability to change their government and have
little or no influence on government policies. The government continues to
use the
intelligence services and military to limit any potential opposition to the
regime. Political opposition groups,
religious activists, and independent human rights groups face severe
restrictions on their activities, including the threat of torture and indefinite
detention.
Restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly have
loosened somewhat in the past couple of years, affording women’s groups, both
religious and secular, the opportunity to meet, discuss, and express their views
publicly on issues of importance to them. However, public gatherings continue to
be subject to government controls.
Syrian citizens do not have the right to peaceful assembly. The Private Associations and Institutions Act No. 93 of 1958 regulates the act of association.[xlix] Any meeting, with the exception of religious services, must be registered with the ministry of interior in advance. Permission is often denied and that denial is justified in the Institutions Act by a prohibition against any meeting for which the purpose is “to prejudice the integrity or form of the republican government.”[l]
In practice, women’s
rights activists do meet and discreetly organize conferences and training
sessions on women’s issues. However, it is still extremely difficult and risky
for human rights groups to meet and work openly. In recent years, the government
has arrested a number of human rights activists for attempting to hold public
pro-democracy demonstrations. The police usually disrupt public demonstrations
that are not organized by the Ba’ath Party or government officials, and
participants may be detained indefinitely.
Restrictions on freedom of expression have loosened under
President Bashar al-Asad. The state media now have greater freedom to address
previously taboo subjects—religion, gender, and the governing regime—although in
circumspect terms and with limited criticism. The Syrian government runs all
Syrian television and radio stations and most newspaper publishing houses, yet
independent newspapers were permitted in 2001. Currently three weekly newspapers
are printed by private organizations.[li]
Male and female journalists openly discuss the topic of
domestic violence and the suggested reforms to the personal status code. While
they are not widely distributed, both the pro-government General Women’s Union
and the independent Syrian Women’s League do publish magazines. Although
women write articles for government and private newspapers, many Syrians still
practice self-censorship for fear of repercussions by the state. Most women do
not have access to, or are not comfortable using the media, professional
associations, or NGOs as forums for expressing their opinions.
Although elections in Syria are transparent, they are not
democratic, free, or fair. The unicameral People’s Assembly, Syria’s parliament,
is a 250-seat council whose members are elected by popular vote. However,
elections are mostly orchestrated by the regime. The Syrian constitution
guarantees the Ba’ath Party majority control of the People’s Assembly by
reserving assembly seats for members of the Ba’ath Party and the National
Progressive Front. The government approves all candidates for election, thus
preventing true opposition candidates from running.
Legally, women have the right to vote and be elected on
equal footing with men, but women run for office in far smaller numbers than men
do, largely because Syrian society discourages women from entering the public
sphere.[lii] Women first entered the People’s Assembly in 1973 and
now hold 10.4 percent of the seats, following the March 2003 election.
Women’s representation in the judiciary has increased
since 1970. Today there are 170 female judges (13.38 percent of the total), 33
state lawyers (14.47 percent of the total) and 250 assistant judges. A woman has
held the highest judicial post, as Syria’s general prosecutor, since
1998.[liii]
The executive branch is the center of authority in Syria.
Of the three branches of government, women are most underrepresented in the
executive branch and tend to be assigned posts of secondary importance. The
president, elected by a national referendum for seven-year terms, appoints two
vice presidents, a prime minister, and a council of ministers. Women hold
ministerial posts in the ministry of culture and the ministry of labor and
social affairs and have previously been appointed to lead the ministries of
education and expatriates. Four women serve as deputy ministers, and women also
fill the positions of director-general (11), deputy director-general (27),
branch director (47), and deputy branch director (23).[liv]
While there is no legal restriction on women’s
participation in legislative activities, they tend to be underrepresented. Even
though women are more active in local administration councils and organizations
than ever before, their numbers still remain small. Women’s participation in the
governorate councils is 8.7 percent; district councils, 4.5 percent; and village
councils, 1.3 percent.[lv] In the parliamentary elections of March 2003, 30 women
were elected through the National Progressive Front, but no independent women
won seats.
Syrians do not have the right to form opposition parties.
All political parties must join the National Progressive Front, headed by the
Ba’ath Party, and support the principles of socialism and Arab nationalism. Nine
parties comprise the National Progressive Front, which is guaranteed 167 seats
in the People’s Assembly through a constitutional clause. However, no women are
represented in the highest levels of the Ba’ath Party. While there are no
official religious parties, extremist Muslim groups have historically been the
strongest opponents of the Ba’ath Party. The government monitors the activities
of religious leaders and is cautious about implementing progressive reforms in
women’s rights for fear of agitating Muslim extremists in Syria.
Women’s participation in civic life is unequal to men’s.
While some women provide community leadership through charities and NGOs focused
on women’s issues, they are poorly represented in political parties,
professional associations, and religious leadership. The government prevents the
organization of unions outside its control. However, women have the legal right
to form unions, and they are members and employees of various unions, including
the Union of Agronomists, the Union of Engineers, and the Union of
Teachers.
Women do not have free access to information in Syria.
The ministry of information, as well as the ministry of culture and national
guidance, must approve all Syrian radio and television broadcasts on
government-owned stations before airing. Nevertheless, television satellites are
common, and the government does not interfere with satellite broadcasts. The
ministries monitor all printed material and restrict information that deals with
the government’s human rights record, Islamic fundamentalism, the government’s
involvement in Lebanon, and any material that may be offensive to the country’s
various religious groups.[lvi] Internet access is generally unrestricted, however, with
the exception of certain sites that criticize the government’s human rights
record. A wide variety of information is in theory available to women, but women
often do not know where to find it and may be hesitant to seek it out.
1. The government and the People’s Assembly should lift
the state of emergency and allow political parties to work freely and
participate openly in democratic and fair
elections.
2. The government should reinstitute constitutional
protections for freedom of expression and assembly and free all political
prisoners.
3. The government should encourage and facilitate
independent NGOs to initiate civic awareness campaigns through the media, the
educational system, and religious institutions to encourage women to vote and
run for public office.
4. The government should recruit more women into
high-level decision-making posts, including the ministries of foreign affairs
and the interior, which have traditionally been dominated by
men.
Syrian society traditionally grants men the public sphere
and women the private sphere. Women throughout the country experience various
restrictions on their social freedoms due to religious and social conservatism
that limits their participation in public life. Generally women in rural areas
and lower socioeconomic classes experience greater restrictions on their access
to the public sphere, education, health care services, and marriage and family
decisions.
Women’s freedom to make independent decisions about their
reproductive health has improved greatly as a result of the government’s family
planning campaign that began in the early 1980s. In 2003, the fertility rate was
3.8 children per woman.[lvii] Women can receive information and services, including
contraceptives, from clinics operated by the ministry of health, the Syrian
General Women’s Union, the Syrian Family Planning Association (SFPA), and
private operators. Although the distribution of such services remains illegal,
this law is not enforced.[lviii] Nevertheless, family planning services for women in
rural areas are limited. A culture of son preference prevails in Syria, and
women, particularly in rural areas, are under family pressure to continue to
bear children until they have sons.
Abortion is illegal under any circumstances and is
criminalized under the penal code.[lix] However, many doctors will perform
clandestine operations for a large fee, a price too high for many women. Unsafe
surgical conditions and self-induced abortions continue to endanger women’s
lives. The SFPA advocates openly for the protection of women from unsafe
abortions, although they stop short of promoting the full legalization of
abortion.
Primary health care is free and accessible through public
health clinics, and approximately 70 percent of the population lives within a
half-hour distance from a clinic.[lx] Eighty-seven percent of women deliver
children under the care of trained medical staff. Women in rural areas remain
underserved however, but the proportion of rural women delivering children with
medical supervision increased from 62.3 percent in 1993 to 81.2 in
1999.[lxi]
Although the official age of marriage in Syria is 16
years for girls, courts may permit girls as young as 13 to marry under Syrian
law. According to Syrian women’s rights leaders this practice of marrying
girls at a young age is harmful to women’s reproductive health, interrupts their
education, and increases the likelihood that they will live in poverty.
Syrian women have the right to own and use housing, yet
social custom discourages and often prohibits women from living alone. In the
event of divorce, the law denies most women the use of the marital home for
themselves and their children, and women are generally forced to return to the
home of their parents.
Women’s abilities to influence community life are limited
by the fact that public life is largely the domain of men by social custom.
Instead, women have an influence on community life through their family
responsibilities. They shape attitudes toward social issues and influence the
family’s economic situation by controlling expenses. Within the community, women
are free to speak out on neighborhood and quality of life issues. Women hold
positions in the local government at a rate of about 4.2 percent, yet the
ability of any group to influence policy is limited by the power of the Ba’ath
Party.[lxii]
Women are underrepresented in Syria’s media both in
decision-making positions and as employees. While they contribute in a variety
of capacities including as journalists, script writers, and talk show hosts,
there are very few women in positions of leadership. Women enjoy somewhat
greater freedom of expression in the press than on television, and television
programming is increasingly presenting a positive image of women. Television
dramas regularly draw attention to societal problems that women face, such as
divorce and domestic violence. President Asad’s wife Asma appears prominently in
print and on television as a successful former businesswomen and a partner to
the president.
Women in Syria are disproportionately affected by
poverty. While the rate of women-headed households is low (5.3 percent in 1997),
households headed by women are more likely to suffer from poverty than
households headed by men. Forty percent of women-headed households have incomes
below 6,000 SP, compared to only 16 percent of households headed by
men.[lxiii] Women also have higher rates of unemployment, and their
work more often goes uncompensated. In addition, many women lack information on
how to manage their finances and are therefore unprepared to support themselves
and their children in the event of divorce or widowhood.
Government-sponsored and officially registered
organizations such as the General Women’s Union and the SFPA work openly to
provide services to women and lobby the government for policy changes. However,
independent organizations and activists critical of government policies, and
women advocates belonging to opposition parties, must work more discreetly.
Public discussions of gender-related topics are often limited to
generalities.
1. The ministry of health
should improve the quality of public sector health care and expand reproductive
health services to cover underserved areas, such as rural regions.
2. Media organizations should promote more women to
decision-making positions.
3. The
Syrian government and NGOs should use the media, the educational system, and
religious institutions to encourage women to seek the information they need to
address financial and legal problems.
4. The government should
lift all legal restrictions that prevent women from registering, attracting
members, and collecting funds for independent organizations to work on women’s
rights issues.
AUTHOR: Catherine
Bellafronto is a specialist in business development in the Middle East and North
Africa. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in international affairs at
Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and has worked with small
businesses in Morocco. Ms. Bellafronto conducted the fieldwork for this report
in Syria during the summer of 2004.
[i] Human Development Report (New York: United Nations Development Programme [UNDP], 2003).
[ii] Syria: Country
Strategy Paper 2002 - 2006 (Brussels: European Union).
[iii] Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – Syria (Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL), 25 February 2004), 8. As of June 2003, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine refugees in the Near East listed 409,662 registered Palestinian refugees residing in Syria.
[iv] Military Order, Law No. 2, 8
March 1963.
[v] Men’s literacy had increased from 82% in 1990 to 91% in 2002 (New York: United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Institute for Statistics, Work force information from Table 27, “Gender inequality in economic activity,” in Human Development Report 2004: Cultural Liberty in Today’s Diverse World (New York: UNDP, 2004), 229–32, http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2004/. Contraception information from Evaluating the Status of Women (Amman: United Nations Development Fund for Women [UNIFEM], 2003), 76.
[vi] Nationality Code, Law No. 276, 1969.
[vii] See The Effect of Denial of Nationality on the Syrian Kurds (Damascus: Human Rights Association in Syria, November 2003).
[viii] Country Reports (U.S. Dept. of State, DRL).
[ix] Author’s interview with Syrian women lawyers, Damascus, July 2004. Also see Evaluating (UNIFEM), 10.
[x] Penal Code, Article 439, states: “Rape is considered to
occur when a man forces a woman who is not his wife to have intercourse.”
[xi] Penal Code, Article 192, states: “Judge excuses or
reduces the punishment if a person commits a crime under honor.” Article 242
states: “For crimes committed in a state of passion, the judge may reduce the
punishment.” Article 548.1 states: “Anyone who catches his wife, one of his
female ascendants or descendants, or his sister committing adultery or engaging
in illegitimate sexual relations with another person and who, without intending
to do so, murders, beats or injures his relative and her accomplice, is exempt
from punishment.” Article 548.2 states: “Punishment provided for by the law will
be reduced for anyone who catches his wife, one of his female ascendants or
descendants, or his sister in a suspicious situation with a man and commits
murder or battery or inflicts injury.”
[xii] Author’s interview with Syrian women lawyers, Damascus,
July 2004.
[xiii] Rabea Naciri and Isis Nusair, The Integration of Women’s Rights into the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership: Women’s Rights in Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, and Tunisia (Copenhagen: Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network [EMHRN], May 2003), 19.
[xiv] See “Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women” (New York: United Nations, 18 December 1979), http://untreaty.un.org/ENGLISH/bible/englishinternetbible/partI/chapterIV/treaty10.asp.
[xv] Naciri and Nusair, Integration of Women’s Rights (EMHRN), 41.
[xvi] Personal Status Code, Article 48.2, refers to the religion of the man and woman.
[xvii] Personal Status Code, Article 21.
[xviii] Article 27 states that “if a grown-up woman marries herself off without her curator’s agreement, the marriage contract is kept valid if the husband is competent or made invalid if the curator demands separation of wedlock,” Evaluating (UNIFEM), 14.
[xix] “Convention on the Rights of the Child, Committee on the Rights of the Child, Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 44 of the Convention, Concluding Observations: Syrian Arab Republic” (New York: United Nations, 10 July 2003), http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/898586b1dc7b4043c1256a450044f331/4bd0895f88708624c1256da60053ad50/$FILE/G0342903.pdf.
[xx] Personal Status Code, Article 16 and Article 18.
[xxi] The average age for marriage is 25.1 for women and 28.9 for men: Evaluating (UNIFEM, 24).
[xxii] Personal Status Code, Articles 73 and 74.
[xxiii] According to Article 14, legitimate justification for marrying a second wife may be the first wife’s illness, inability to conduct marital affairs, or sterility.
[xxiv] Personal Status Code, Articles 105–12: Evaluating (UNIFEM), 15.
[xxv] Personal Status Code, Article 95.
[xxvi] Author’s interview with Syrian women lawyers, Damascus, 2004. Law 10 (1961), Articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7 prohibit trade in women.
[xxvii] Penal Code, Article 28.3, states: “No one may be tortured physically or mentally or be treated in a humiliating manner. The law defines the punishment of whoever commits such an act.” Prisons Order, Article 30, states: “It is prohibited for any official or guard to use severity with prisoners, label them with degrading labels or make fun of them.” Torture in Syria, (Damascus: Human Rights Association in Syria, January 2004).
[xxviii] Law No. 14 (1969), Article 16, states: “It is prohibited to complain or file a case against any worker in the administration regarding crimes they commit whilst carrying out their work without a prior order from the director.”
[xxix] Penal Law, Articles 476, 489, 491, 492, 493, 495, 496, 497, 502, 504, 505 and 506, prohibit violence and harassment against women.
[xxx]
Author’s interview with Syrian woman journalist, 14 July
2004.
[xxxi] For instance, Nuns of the Good Shepherd Society in Syria provide limited services to women victims of family violence.
[xxxii] Civil Code, Articles 40 and 46; Commercial Law, No. 149 of 1949, Article 15.
[xxxiii] Author’s interview with Syrian women lawyers, Damascus,
July 2004.
[xxxiv] Naciri and Nusair, Integration of Women’s Rights (EMHRN), 19.
[xxxv] UNESCO, Institute for Statistics, 2001.
[xxxvi] Ibid.
[xxxvii] UNICEF assessment of Syria. Can be accessed at http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/syria.html.
[xxxviii] Evaluating (UNIFEM, 58); Table 24, “Gender-related development index,” in Human Development Report 2004 (New York: UNDP, 2004), 217–20, http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2004/.
[xxxix] Syria’s draft report submitted in 2004 in response to the UN “Questionnaire on Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action (1995) and the Outcome of the Twenty-Third Special Session of the General Assembly (2000),” http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/Review/responses/SYRIAN-ARAB-REPUBLIC-English.pdf.
[xl] UNESCO, Institute for Statistics, 2001.
[xli] Syria’s draft report on compliance with the Beijing Platform for Action, 2004.
[xlii] Evaluating (UNIFEM), 57.
[xliii] Syria report from the Programme on Governance in the Arab Region (UNDP), www.pogar.org/countries/gender.asp?cid=19.
[xliv] In 2000, rates of unemployment in urban areas: 7.5 for men; 28.1 for women. Rates of unemployment in rural areas: 7.0 for men; 13.4 for women. Evaluating (UNIFEM), 54.
[xlv] Author’s interview with Lex Takkenberg, Deputy
Director of UNRWA Affairs in Syria, 1
August 2004.
[xlvi] Ibid.
[xlvii] Author’s
interview with Syrian women lawyers, Damascus, July 2004, and National Team Leader, Syrian-European
Business Centre, 18 July 2004.
[xlviii] Ibid.
[xlix] Private Associations and Institutions Act No. 93 of 1958 states that “‘Association’ shall mean any grouping endowed with a permanent organization, established for a specified or indefinite period and consisting of individuals or bodies corporate, for a non‑profit‑making purpose.
[l] “The restrictions which this Act places on the
establishment of such associations in order to protect public safety, national
security, public order, public health and morals and the rights of others are
the same as those placed on exercise of the right of peaceful assembly in order
to protect the public interest. Under article 2 of the said Associations Act:
‘Any association which is established for an illicit reason or purpose, or which
contravenes the law or the moral code, or the purpose of which is to prejudice
the integrity or form of the republican government shall be null and void.’”
Syria Report to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
in 2000.
[li] The People's Voice, from the National Progressive Front’s (NPF) Communist Party; The Unionist, from the NPF’s Union Socialist Party; and The Economist, published by the editor-in-chief of a Paris-based magazine.
[lii] Election Law, No. 26, 1973.
[liii] Syria’s draft report on compliance with the Beijing
Platform for Action, 2004.
[liv] Ibid.
[lv] Ibid.
[lvi] Country Reports (U.S. Dept. of State, DRL).
[lvii] “2003 World Population Data Sheet” (Washington, D.C.: Population Reference Bureau, 2003).
[lviii] SFPA is a Syrian NGO established to promote awareness of family planning and provide reproductive health services. Penal Law, Articles 523 and 524, ban the advertising, promoting, selling, obtaining, or facilitation of contraceptive use.
[lix] Under Syrian law, a fetus is recognized as a person
before the law and is protected from harm by criminal penalties in Articles 58,
528, and 529 of the Penal Code. “Syria Report to the Office of the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights” (Geneva: UN Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights [OHCHR], 2000).
[lxi] Evaluating (UNIFEM), 74.
[lxii] Ibid., 47.
[lxiii] Ibid., 31.