Introduction
The Syrian woman has been a part of the popular movement that begun in March 2011 by preparing and coordinating dozens of demonstrations, carrying banners and cameras, organizing special women protests, being involved actively in documenting crimes, providing medical and humanitarian care. Also, she was suppressed, oppressed, sexually abused, and targeted alongside with the man. Nevertheless, she was always the weakest link in the community as when she lost her husband to become, above all her suffering, the provider for her family.
SNHR documented a simple portion of the violations against women in Syria in no less than 20 report the most recent of which was published on the International’s Women Day 8 March 2014, entitled “Episodes and Pains in International Women’s Day”. Furthermore, it co-published an extensive report in cooperation with the Euro-Mediterranean Foundation of Support to Human Rights Defenders: “Violence against Women, Bleeding Wound in the Syrian Conflict”.
As in every year, SNHR published a report on 25 November, 2014, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, entitled: “The Syrian Woman in The Conflict Flames”. The report documents the various violations perpetrated by government forces, Kurdish groups, ISIS, and armed opposition factions.
The report methodology is based on SNHR’s archive of documented victims, prisoners, and forcibly-disappeared persons who all were documented through the network’s ongoing daily documentation and monitoring program since 2011 in addition to interviews and testimonies made via phone or Skype by survivors. The report highlights 15 testimonies, where some women talk about their experiences as activists then as victims, whilst other women decided to continue struggling and fighting even after they were violated.
However, it should be noted that we were able only to document a simple portion of the terrible suffering of the Syrian women. What this report includes is only the minimum amount of crimes and atrocities given the ban imposed against SNHR by the Syrian government and the extremist factions in addition to Syrian community’s lack of interest in documenting and motorizing as it lost any trust in the international community who haven’t done anything noticeable over the past few years