Women of Syria; gap between legal provisions, political exclusion

The question of Syrian women; all aspects political, military, cultural and educational - remains highly controversial. While Syrian women stress the importance of legally securing their rights, the transitional government seems to strive towards establishing a single-political-state while keeping women politically marginalized from decision-making posts. Regarding political marginalization of women, the situation resembles the previous regime.

The 2012 constitution, established in the era of Ba’ath regime, included two provisions related to women. The first one was Article 23 which stated that “the state shall provide women with all opportunities enabling them to participate effectively and fully in political, economic, social, and cultural life, and shall work to remove restrictions that prevent their development and participation in building society.” Article 33(3), meanwhile, affirmed that “citizens are equal in rights and duties, with no discrimination among them on the basis of sex, origin, language, religion, or belief.”

However, these two clauses were left to remain only on paper since the ongoing reservations of the regime in regard to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and inconsistencies between the constitutional system and the existing set of laws, especially personal status, penal and nationality laws, made the two articles lack any substance that could be enforced.

As a result of the Syrian revolution, the topic of women and their rights have again come into focus. In Syria, women proved their exceptional ability to make sacrifices and resist. For many years, Syrian women have shown their exceptional ability to take care of households and families almost alone.

However, their sufferings have not been limited to it. Their sufferings were connected to the issues of displacement and migration, as well as difficulties experienced in refugee camps and countries where refugees settled. Nevertheless, Syrian women have shown their ability to efficiently handle civil organizations and humanitarian, media, cultural, and human rights institutions. Thus, they have succeeded in making achievements that prove that although oppressed socially and politically, women can manage to be competent, resilient and firm.

However, this broad civic and humanitarian presence has not translated into a commensurate political presence.

Women and their role in the transitional phase

The outcomes of the current transitional phase have revealed a worrying decline in women’s representation within decision-making centers, particularly in the new parliament.

Elections for the People’s Assembly were conducted through unconventional mechanisms, relying on electoral bodies appointed by the executive authority, while one-third of the Assembly’s members were directly appointed by the head of the transitional government. This mechanism has sparked widespread debate over the extent to which it is compatible with democratic standards of representation and its ability to reflect the will of the people.

The process resulted in extremely limited female representation, with only 21 women among 210 members, representing just 10 percent. This figure is even lower than women’s representation in the parliaments of the former regime and significantly below the rates of female representation found in parliaments across the region and the world.

The problem is not limited to the People’s Assembly. The greater challenge today lies in expanding women’s participation in executive, judicial, and senior administrative positions, and in ensuring equal opportunities in decision-making.

This weak representation has drawn sharp criticism from women activists and rights advocates, who have argued that the absence of women is not merely a matter of imbalance, but rather points to systematic exclusion that strikes at the heart of justice and reproduces patterns of marginalization that prevailed under the former regime.

In a notable development, the government’s 22-member cabinet included only one woman: Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Hind Kabawat. This reflects a severe lack of female representation and a clear absence of equitable political participation.

These concerns were further heightened with the beginning of the 2026–2027 academic year, when statements by a parliamentarian concerning what he referred to as the “feminization of education” sparked widespread anger among women’s circles. The remarks also raised broad questions and were viewed by women’s rights advocates as a return to the mindset of the Ba’ath regime. If the discourse on democracy and equality is genuinely serious, they argue, these principles must first be reflected in the education system itself.

Kurdish women between exclusion and the challenges of integration into state institutions

While the transitional government resorts to ambiguity and denial to distance itself from responsibility for creating an exclusionary environment for women across much of Syria, its intentions toward Kurdish areas appear more explicit and deliberate.

The issue of the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) carries particular symbolic weight in this context. The exclusion of the YPJ from the process of integration into the army is viewed not simply as a security decision, but as a deliberate political position that effectively determines in advance which forms of women’s authority the new state is prepared to accept and which forms it seeks to exclude.

This perception is reinforced by the continued presence of actors associated with systematic violence against Kurdish women leaders, most notably the case of the assassination of Hevrin Khalaf, Secretary-General of the Future Syria Party. The subsequent promotion of a mercenary who was responsible for the assassination has been interpreted by many women activists not merely as another instance of exclusion, but as a clear institutionalization of a policy of impunity.

If restricting women’s participation across much of Syria is framed through general rhetoric and ambiguity that allows the government to deny responsibility, then in Kurdish areas it appears more visible, direct, and tangible, because there are already established and active women-led institutions.

The question that remains today is: Can a transitional government that claims to represent the aspirations of all Syrians achieve genuine reform while excluding half of society from the decision-making table?.

ANHA