Mrs. Asma Al-Assad: Syrian women – a symbol of strength

DAMASCUS, March.8, (ST)-Mrs. Asma al-Assad visited on Tuesday the “Syrian women producers” market, which is being held at the historical Hejaz Station in Damascus on the occasion of International Women’s Day.

 

Mrs. Al-Assad toured the market and talked to the women who are participating in this event about their products and their small projects, the way of how they started and developed them, the methods they use to promote the products, and the obstacles they face in their work.

 

She said: “I am proud to be with you today. We and the whole world are going through difficult and hard conditions that have affected every aspect of our human life, all sectors and all fields, mainly business sector.”

 

Mrs. Al-Assad went on to say: “if we need strong determination and steadfastness in order to be able to overcome all those difficult challenges that affect all sectors and all fields, then certainly in the production sector, in particular, we need this determination and steadfastness more, not only because of the sensitivity of this sector, but because production is the only way for many countries to develop themselves in normal conditions and so that they can preserve the necessary and natural minimum in exceptional circumstances.”

 

“Some might say that this is a general and beautiful speech but we need a tangible aspect. When we want to see a tangible aspect we have to benefit from and have an idea about the experiences of other countries that were exposed to a destruction bigger than what our country has been exposed to. In spite of this, these countries were able to rebuild themselves and to develop their society…There are other experiences about countries whose economy had completely collapsed but they were able to re-operate factories and produce  national industries and achieved economic renaissance,” she stated. 

 

Mrs. Al-Assad added: “ It is certain that the  question in everyone’s mind is how can we produce under siege? The answer is : How we can break the siege if we do not make production… Part of the siege is external and it aims to block the arrival of main items ..So undoubtedly there is shortage of some items in markets but we try to maneuver to get them even at a higher cost… However, the most dangerous part of the siege is the internal one and  low production… And this is in our hands… And this requires cooperation between producers like you and the state.” 

 

“Today, the policy of the state is clear with regard to supporting and encouraging small and medium projects not because of the war and siege but because these projects are considered an economic power for the majority of countries…whether these countries are strong and large or small, rich or poor, these projects constitute the general basic pillar of the economy and create opportunities for jobs… Thus the policy of the state in this regard is a priority and it started  after the issuance of the law  in 2021 which allows the establishment of banks for facilitating the process of giving loans to small and medium projects… During this year, these banks financed and gave loans to around 50.000 projects of the value 61 billion Syrian pounds,” she clarified. 

 

Mrs. Al-Assad added: “ You might notice that I mainly focused during my talk on production and I said nothing about the role of woman although the title of the exhibition today is “Syrian Woman Producers”. In fact, the role of woman in business and production  is not new as she has been effective in these fields since tens of years… The new angel in the role of woman is linked to the current circumstances… The Syrian woman has fought and resisted and contributed to making production  alongside man, so she introduced herself as a member of resisting the effects of war, and a member who is able to change the track of war and not a victim of it, and as a symbol of strength and not weakness.” 

 

She concluded by emphasizing that  this strength is the result of real belongingness to homeland and society  and the determination to turn time , money and resources into successful and creative projects and investments. 

 

Basma Qaddour