Kongra Star's Ruken Ahmed urges Syrian women to strengthen organization, political participation

Ruken Ahmed, the member of the Relations and Democratic Politics Agreements Committee of Kongra Star, spoke about the situation of Syrian women during the transitional phase, stressing the need to draft a new constitution for the country that protects the rights of all components and ensures women’s status.

At the beginning of her remarks, Ruken addressed the constitutional declaration issued by the interim government, noting that its content reflects a clear pattern of exclusion and marginalization. She said it was drafted by a specialized committee without genuine participation from women’s forces and Syria’s diverse components.

She added:

“Although the constitutional declaration nominally states in its Article 10 that citizens are equal before the law without discrimination based on gender, this remains abstract and disconnected from real decision-making centers within the transitional authority’s structure. This makes it unable to reflect women’s aspirations in practice, at a time when women’s representation has become nearly absent in the parliament and the new transitional government.”

Exclusion of women from real representation mechanisms

Ruken Ahmed explained that the insufficiency of constitutional texts to guarantee equality, political representation, and legal protection becomes clear when examining governance mechanisms. She noted that Article 24 of the constitutional declaration grants the transitional president the authority to directly appoint one-third of the members of the People’s Assembly, while the remaining two-thirds are selected through sub-electoral bodies supervised by a committee appointed by the president himself.

She stated that this top-down appointment mechanism completely excludes the principle of parity or effective women’s quota, making women’s representation subject to political patronage and traditional power-sharing rather than conscious and independent empowerment.

The declaration reinforces discriminatory personal status laws

Regarding legal protection and personal status issues, Ruken Ahmed pointed out that the constitutional declaration maintained in Article 3 that Islamic jurisprudence is the main source of legislation, and also stipulated that the personal status laws of religious sects are preserved.

She argued that this entrenches existing discriminatory laws in matters of marriage, divorce, custody, and inheritance, and prevents the drafting of a unified civil law that would ensure real protection for women against violence and family discrimination.

Risks to women’s gains

Ruken Ahmed emphasized that the real challenge lies in both flawed texts and implementation mechanisms, but the greater weight lies in the balance of power on the ground. She noted that the text grants almost absolute exceptional powers to the transitional president, while binding constitutional mechanisms for women’s rights are absent.

She warned of a serious threat to women’s achievements, saying:

“The gains and rich experience that women in North and East Syria have built as real partners in shaping law and rights are now facing existential risks under this exclusionary system, which seeks to marginalize advanced pluralistic models.”

She also pointed out that the absence of independent women’s organizations and grassroots councils capable of imposing their will at the national level turns any positive texts into mere ink on paper, in the absence of oversight authority and an independent judiciary.

Consolidation of authoritarian rule and exclusion of women

 Ahmed pointed out that this reality generates major strategic risks, primarily the consolidation of authoritarian rule through granting broad powers to the transitional executive authority without effective parliamentary oversight. She warned that this threatens to reproduce authoritarianism and exclude women and various components from managing the country’s affairs, in addition to legitimizing exclusion through the adoption of the interim constitution without a public referendum. She also noted that women’s issues are being confined to traditional welfare roles rather than being recognized as equal leaders and partners.

Call for organization and struggle for rights

She stressed that confronting these challenges and turning rights into tangible reality requires immediate action to reject marginalization and not wait for rights to be granted by the transitional government. She called for women to organize themselves into independent local councils and associations to impose a democratic reality from the ground up, inspired by organized and successful experiences on the ground.

Ruken Ahmed concluded her remarks by saying:

“This path requires struggle to enforce equal 50% representation in any committees or local or transitional administrations as a condition for their legitimacy, alongside pressure to abolish all exceptional and discriminatory laws and to draft a democratic social contract that ensures a fair civil personal status law, achieves family democracy, and secures women’s economic independence through the establishment and support of productive cooperatives that empower them financially and protect and develop their current gains.”