Detention of Syrian women: A weapon of social destruction

After a year of horrifying arbitrary detention, Salam was anxious to be reunited with her family and husband. She knew, however, that things could not go back to the way they used to be. As soon as she was released from Damascus central prison, her husband divorced her. Lonely, frightened and desperate, she had little choice but to seek refuge abroad. Salam’s tragic story is hardly unique in a country where prolonged civil conflict war continues to tear at its social and political fabric.

Not unlike other conflicts, Syria’s current turmoil has seen the gradual instrumentalisation of women as a weapon of war and terror. Not only do these violations inflict physical and psychological trauma on women themselves, but they also break up families and erode Syria’s social fabric, rendering the hope for a return to normalcy more elusive by the day.

Given the prevailing climate of violence, persistent repression from security forces, threats from armed groups, social stigmatisation and the failure of the international community to address impunity and protect civilians, most women are reluctant to come forward and report abuse. This in turn makes accountability and redress, essential for conflict resolution, extremely challenging.

Documentation efforts by Syrian human rights groups indicate that several thousands of women have been detained, while hundreds remain in captivity, often without any contact with the outside world. Testimonies recently gathered by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) of more than 50 formerly detained women, family members and psychologists have revealed a bleak picture; not only of torture, ill-treatment and sexual abuse of women in detention and captivity, but also of the future of Syrian society. Indeed, the detention of women has been used as a tactic of collective punishment with the aim of destroying the identity of the victims, intimidating them and tearing apart the social fabric of their communities.

Since the beginning of the uprising, the Syrian government has gradually engaged in campaigns of arbitrary detention of women, particularly peaceful protestors, activists, dissidents, journalists and aid workers. Although many were released shortly after, some were kept longer to exert pressure on their families or to deter their relatives from joining anti-government protests. State media publicly denounced these women as “terrorists”, “saboteurs” and even “sex slaves” for “terrorist groups”.

As the war intensified, security forces began conducting widespread systematic raids on opposition strongholds and used checkpoints to randomly arrest women, detaining them for lengthy periods before releasing them; usually following the payment of a bribe or as part of prisoner swap with opposition groups.

To acquire bargaining power in negotiations with the Syrian regime, a number of opposition groups also started resorting to abduction of women. As a result, Syrian women have become indiscriminately targeted by most parties in the conflict.

The situation in the women’s section of the central prison of Damascus gives a glimpse of the detainees’ plight. Women are held in appalling and dehumanising conditions, packed into overcrowded dark cells regardless of their age or health condition. The situation is even worse in secret underground detention centres, such as the infamous Branch 215 of the military intelligence where physical and psychological torture, sexual harassment and abuse are rife.

Another ordeal awaits detained women upon release. Most former detainees suffer from stigmatisation and rejection by their own families and society at large. Syrian society, and especially conservative communities, tend to associate the detention of women with rape and consequently with shame for the family and wider community. Like Salam, many women have been divorced following their detention, while others decided to conceal their detention for fear of shame and social rejection, or have gone into exile to escape social stigma. Fear of a similar fate has pushed entire families into refugee camps across Syria and in neighbouring countries, thus aggravating the refugee crisis.

The detention of women feeds a vicious circle of violence and retaliation and prolongs the conflict. Holding perpetrators accountable for the arbitrary detention of women and gender-based violence is not only a moral and legal imperative, it is also essential to break the cycle of violence and set the path for future peace and reconciliation. Without strong community-based programmes designed to identify sexual violence and detention survivors and enable them to come forward for assistance, many victims will remain invisible.

It is more crucial than ever for the international community to support Syrian civil society groups in their efforts to lay the foundations both for the rehabilitation of the victims of torture and detention and for important changes in the deep-seated, discriminatory societal attitudes such victims.

The international community should also ensure that women’s rights groups, as well as influential Syrian women, are included in future peace negotiations and transition processes. Such inclusion is essential for rebuilding communities and creating sustainable peace in Syria and the wider region.

Mathieu Routier is the Middle East and North Africa Officer at the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN).

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.