Future Syrian Governments Must Address Women’s Right to Equality

Alia Ahmed

The Syrian constitution and laws contain many articles that are unjust to women and treat them unequally compared to men.

Although the constitution was amended soon after the start of the protest movement in Syria, these changes did not abolish any of the discriminatory statutes, neither in the constitution nor in any other legal texts.  

Discrimination against women begins at the highest level, with the constitutional requirements for selecting the president of the republic. The fourth paragraph of this article stipulates that the president’s wife must be Syrian, thus implying that the president is a man.

But discrimination against Syrian women exists in the legislation governing their daily lives, not just their political ambitions. The following three issues, and their treatment under the law, have a negative impact on women in Syria. Future legislators must address these issues, which include so called honour killings, marital rape and a woman’s right to grant citizenship to her children.

1. Honour Killings

A male killer may receive a lesser sentence for honour crimes than for other murders due to “mitigating circumstances”. According to article 548 of the penal code, if his wife, daughter or sister commits adultery or otherwise engages in “debaucherous sexual relations” and he kills, harms or hurts her or her partner “unintentionally,” he should be imprisoned for “no less than two years.”

In 2009, the minimum penalty was set in an attempt to discourage honour killings after many perpetrators walked free without any punishment. There are no accurate studies on whether this punishment, which remains very light compared with the sentences for other types of murders, has succeeded in decreasing the number of honour killings. The ministry of interior declared in November 2011 that Syria was third after Palestine and Yemen for having the most honour crimes out of any Arab country committed on its territory in 2010.

In addition to complex cultural factors that contribute to this practice, widespread acceptance of honour crimes makes it easier for girls to be killed based on the mere suggestion that their values have been compromised by an illegitimate sexual relationship.

A study by researchers Bassam Mohammad and Huweish al-Saleh in Homs showed that a quarter of all murders committed in the city between 2007 and 2008 were justified as honour crimes, and that 70 percent of time the killer was under 18 and a brother of the girl. It is worth noting that the forensic medical examination found no evidence to sexual intercourse in 72.2 percent of the cases, suggesting that the murders were carried out based on pure suspicion, or because the girl had violated the customs and traditions of her family or society.

A report issued by Human Rights Watch found that girls’ fears of being killed by their families discouraged them from reporting crimes of rape or sexual assault, which have become more common since the beginning of the crisis in Syria. This may cause the perpetrators of these crimes to evade justice after the conflict has ended.

 2. Marital Rape

Article 508 of the Penal Code also gives the rapist the right to claim “mitigating circumstances” if he marries the victim, but he still faces a minimum sentence of two years in prison.

Often, a woman who is raped will marry her rapist in an attempt to protect her honour and atone for his “mistake.” Practically speaking, this allows the rapist to repeat his crime legally once they are married, for the penal code does not consider spousal rape a crime. Rape is defined in Article 489 of the Penal Code as forcing “a woman who is not the wife [of the rapist] to have sexual intercourse with him by force or by threat” and is punishable by “at least 15 years of hard labour.”

This is supported by Article 490, which sets as a minimum sentence “nine years of hard labour for having sexual intercourse with a woman who cannot resist due to physical or psychological weakness or because she was deceived.”

This implies that to have sexual intercourse with one’s wife using deception, force or by exploiting her physical or psychological weakness does not constitute rape. Moreover, there is no explicit legal provision punishing a husband for physically abusing his wife.

3. Woman’s Citizenship Rights

According to the Citizenship Act of 1969, Legislative Decree 276, an individual may only claim Syrian citizenship by the following methods:

• An individual who is born to a Syrian father may acquire the nationality of his country.
• An individual born on Syrian territory may acquire the nationality provided they cannot prove paternal lineage, including children of unknown parentage.
• An individual born to a Syrian mother whose father is unknown may acquire the nationality.

While the state grants citizenship to children of unknown paternal lineage, Syrian women married to non-Syrians are denied the right to pass their nationality to their husbands and children. This discrimination prevents the children of Syrian mothers and foreign fathers from enjoying the fundamental rights of education, employment and unconditional residence in Syria.

The next government in Syria must address these legislative shortcomings, especially since Syrian signed the United Nations’ Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 2003. Despite this important step, Syria has expressed reservations over some fundamental articles, including:

Article 2, which is related to efforts to eliminate discrimination against women in laws and regulations.

Article 9 on the right of equality between women and men in regards to granting citizenship to their children.

Article 16 on the right of equality in all matters relating to marriage and family relations.

Any future authority should work to overcome these reservations and implement the convention in its entirety in order to protect women.