Hundreds of people demonstrated at Damascus for democracy and women’s rights in the new Syriafor the first time since the fall of the capital to a coalition led by radical Islamists. «We want it democracynot one Religious state», “Religion belongs to God and the nation to everyone”, “Syria, a free and secular state”, chanted the demonstrators, gathered in the emblematic Umayyad square in the center of Damascus.
«For 50 years we have been under the rule of a tyrant who has undermined political action and parties. Today (…) we want one Secular state and democratic,” he declared Ayham Omar Hamchoa 48-year-old prosthesis maker.
The context of the fall of Damascus
Damascus fell on December 8 against a coalition of armed groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a radical Islamist group. The president Bashar al-Assad he fled to Moscow. The new authorities have said they will respect freedoms and promised to “guarantee the rights of all”, but many fear their Islamist bent.
HTS claims to have broken with jihadism, but the group is still classified as a movement «terrorist» from several Western countries, including the United States.
Protesters and civil resistance
Only a few armed fighters, some of whom were wearing balaclavas, were present at the demonstration site and roamed among the demonstrators. One of them stated that «the Syrian revolution he triumphed by force of arms”, before being mocked by demonstrators who shouted “enough with the rule of the military”.
“The Syrian women they have always participated in riots,” the actress said Raghda al-Khatibstressing that women ‘protected protesters, cared for the wounded and were imprisoned during the uprising against the government of Bashar al-Assad. The peaceful revolt of 2011, quelled in blood, has degenerated into one civil war which divided the country and caused more than half a million deaths.
Women and their role in the new Syria
Thursday’s demonstration was “a pre-emptive attack” aimed at preventing the establishment of a conservative regime, the actress wanted to believe, and “the people who took to the streets against a murderous regime they are ready to demonstrate again.”
A politician of the new authorities, Obaida Arnaoutcaused an uproar a few days ago when he stated that it was “premature” for “the women are represented in ministerial or parliamentary positions”.
In Assad’s Syria, who fiercely opposed the Islamists, with the party Baath initially driven by the idea of having a secular state to unify the Arab countries, women occupied 20 to 30% of ministerial and parliamentary positions. Arnaout argued that women have “a particular biological and psychological nature” that must be taken into account. The Syrian women participating in the demonstration booed him.