Unfair War on Syria Hinders Women’s Development Role

New York-The unfair war, which has been waged on Syria since 2011, has hindered Syrian women’s development role and threatened all their achievements, stressed Insaf Hamad, Head of the Syrian Family Affairs Commission.

Hamad, who was speaking during the 58th Session of the UN Committee on the Status of Women, said “cooperation with UN programs on alleviating the repercussions of the ongoing crisis on the Syrian people in general and the Syrian women in particular is a top priority for the government.”

She pointed out that the Syrian government is keen to achieve the development goals of the millennium to serve women and girls as it believes that women are active partners in the all-out development process in the country.

“Syria is proud of being among the world’s pioneering countries whose civil laws have guaranteed women equal rights to those of men in terms of protection, education, job and political participation” she added.

Hamad clarified that by 2011 Syria had achieved remarkable results regarding the achievement of the developmental objectives of the millennium relating to reducing the level of poverty and to enhancing education.

“Health and education services in Syria were completely free of charge before 2011, Hamad said clarifying that 90 percent of the need for medicine used to be met by Syrian factories in 2011 with best international standards and reasonable price before these factories were destroyed, dismantled and shipped to Turkey by the armed terrorist groups.

She stressed that Syria was among the countries which achieved self sufficiency in almost all fields and was among the countries with the least level of debt.

Hamad went on to say that the ongoing destructive war on Syria has undermined the achievements of the past three decades, because of the armed groups’ attacks on infrastructure, services centers, factories and food resources and stores. 

She referred to the Syrian state’s cooperation with UN programs concerned in alleviating the negative impacts of the current crisis on the Syrian people, particularly women, saying that “the government is now providing more than 75% of the humanitarian, educational, food, health and medical assistance which go to the affected citizens. In addition, the government is now fixing the damages caused to citizens’ houses and providing temporary shelters for the displaced.

She regretted some regional and western countries’ anti Syria policies which aim at foiling the efforts of the Syrian government to end the crisis and alleviate the Syrian people’s suffering.

Hamad urged the international community to stop the interference of these countries in Syria’s internal affairs and to pressure them halt their support for the armed terrorist takfiri groups who are committing horrible crimes against women in Syria including rape, sexual and violence and psychological oppression.

 Concluding her statement, Hamad urged attention to Syrian women in the occupied Syrian Golan in the light of the Israeli occupation oppressive practices.

H. Mustafa