Feminist movements between cultural heritage and revolution: Northwest Syria. (English)

Feminist movements between cultural heritage and revolution: NW Syria.

This research focused on the impact of cultural heritage, i.e. customs and social norms on the participation of women in public life, both pre- and post-2011, the year in which the Syrian revolution began. A series of 18 semi-structured interviews were conducted with Syrian women in NW Syria to explore and better understand how cultural heritage had affected the feminist movement before the revolution, and the impact that the revolution has had on the movement, as well as the challenges that it now faces. The study reveals that much of Syria’s patriarchal cultural heritage, reinforced by legislation and the regime’s policies of discrimination against its opponents were the primary reasons for the lack of effective participation by women in public and political life pre-2011. However, the revolution has created new spaces and opened-up new opportunities for women to organise themselves more formally, in order to participate in the public sphere.