The Syrian Network for Human Rights has issued its report on the violations committed against female public figures in Syria, in regions falling outside regime control. A total of 67 cases were documented.
The report revealed that some women who were active in public life, in the media and in humanitarian aid were victims of gender violations.
They were pressured to force them to quit.
Other violations included intimidating women and threatening them by killing, arresting, or attacking them during work. They also faced fabricated charges in order to prosecute them and pressure their families in case they don’t quit their jobs.
Executive Director of the Syrian Network for Human Rights Fadel Abdul Ghani stated that the report documented in one year 67 confirmed cases in Idlib, Aleppo, Raqqa, Hasaka and Deir Ezzor. They are all regions not controlled by the regime.
The report based its data on complaints made by activists who were victims of violations. The complaints were documented through text and audio messages and other data.
In a related context, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented the deaths of 13,843 women over the age of eighteen.
A breakdown of the death toll by the ‘perpetrator’ category is as follows: women killed by regime forces: 75.6 percent, women killed by Russian jets: 9.5 percent, women killed by Coalition aircraft: 5.1 percent, women killed by Turkish forces and aircraft: 0.93 percent, women killed by Turkish border guards: 0.3 percent, women killed by Islamic and opposition factions: 1.45 percent, women killed by militant groups: 1.9 percent and women killed by SDF: 1.4 percent.
Further, a study by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) showed that nearly 145,000 Syrian families are female-headed households in which women are the only breadwinner.
The war in Syria has forced women to work due to poor economic conditions and they have sometimes been the sole breadwinner in light of the forced absence of men, as a result of arrest, death, migration or involvement in the war with one of the parties to the conflict.
This has gradually led to a social acceptance of women’s work.
According to SOHR data, the number of cases of arbitrary detention and forced disappearance of women has reached 154,984 since the beginning of the Syrian war in 2011.