Social media monitor: Syrian Women’s Friday

This year, the international women’s day had a special significance in Syria; it was a Friday, the day opposition supporters take to the street to demonstrate against the regime in a tradition they have kept since March 2011. The protests on Friday, March 8 were held under the title The Friday of the Syrian Rebel Woman. On that day, opposition supporters expressed their gratitude for the role women have played during the revolution.

"A Friday for the Syrian rebel woman; because she is a martyr, a detainee, a mother of a martyr, a sister of a wounded, the wife of a detainee and the lover of [a man who] has disappeared; because she is Syria in entirety"
“A Friday for the Syrian rebel woman; because she is a martyr, a detainee, a mother of a martyr, a sister of a wounded, the wife of a detainee and the lover of [a man who] has disappeared; because she is Syria in entirety”

Activist Catherine al-Talli posted the following comment on Facebook:

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“This year, the rebel women of Syria are the most wonderful women in the world …I can say that they are the most important element that ignited the revolution, in addition to the children of Deraa”

Cartoon artist Saad Hajo also saluted Syrian women:

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” Behind every great revolution there is a people half of which are women.”

Activist Aktham Naisse reminded Syrians that showing women the respect they deserve requires a legal reform:

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“Women in our country will not be respected unless the personal status and inheritance laws, as well the articles in the penal code that [facilitate] crimes of honor are abolished…”

United Nations Observers FSA’s ‘Guests’   

A debate started on social media outlets last week after Free Syrian Army, FSA, fighters detained 21 Pilipino observers from UNDOF, the UN peacekeeping force operating in the buffer zone outside the occupied Golan Heights. The observers were later released on Saturday, March 9 after they had been detained for three days. The group responsible for the abduction said that they had acted in reaction to what they said was UNDOF’s facilitating the movement of regime forces in the buffer zone.

Activist Mustafa Hadid suggested that the UN force is not exercising its full role in the buffer zone:

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“…the occupation gang [the regime’s forces] have no right to deploy heavy weapons into the buffer zone. The question is how did the Israelis approve of that??? And what is the observers’ role? Isn’t it their duty to notify the Security Council of the violations committed by the regime? Or is it Israel that decides, according to its own interests, what a violation is or is not?”

An Internet activist who works under the pseudonym Urjuan al-Shami criticized the opposition for what he considered being dragged into the regime’s game:

"Confrontation in the Golan would relief Bashar [al-Assad] and give him the means to win the war; don't make this mistake. The international media, that has neglected the revolution for months, now has nothing to talk about except the UN observers…"
“Confrontation in the Golan would relief Bashar [al-Assad] and give him the means to win the war; don’t make this mistake. The international media, that has neglected the revolution for months, now has nothing to talk about except the UN observers…”

A Million Syrian Refugees

The millionth Syrian refugee was registered in Jordan according on Wednesday, March 6, according to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, which declared that the number of refugees could reach 3 million by the end of the year.

Activist Ali Abu Hawwash tweeted, saying that this number is itself a tragedy:

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“A million Syrian refugees = a million stories…a tragic record”

Aljazeera’s TV host Faisal al-Qassem commented on this news, mocking the allegations usually made by the Syrian government about victory

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“UN: ‘The number of Syrian refugees has reached a million’. Now I know what the victory that the Syrian government is talking about is”

Aleppo’s “Yellow Man” Abused by FSA

The “Yellow Man” has been Aleppo’s sensation for the past 25 years; Abu Zakkour, who is in his sixties, dresses fully in yellow and has a blond a moustache. He is usually around the main squares of the city, where passers-by stop to have their pictures taken with him. His taste in clothing remained a mystery for the Aleppans, until FSA fighters pushed the man to confess in front of the camera: “I’m a poor man; I dress in yellow and people have their photos taken with me for a 100 Syrian pounds [around $1].

In this YouTube video, published on Saturday, March 8,  FSA fighters appear beating and  kicking the man then plucking his moustache, while accusing him of a being a fasfous, or a snitch for the regime.

While some activists said that the video is fabricated by the regime, many others accused the FSA of misconduct, saying that they were outraged by these practices that are no different than those committed by official security forces.

A post published on Al-Mundassa Al-Souriyya blog highlighted the resemblance between this video and another in which security forces appear abusing a detainee.

Pro-opposition director Khawla Ghazi commented on Facebook, saying:

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“The Yellow Man is part of the memory of Aleppans; he coloured our lives with a vibrant, peculiar colour… To humiliate this man with such brutality is an indicator of the degree of the devastation that we suffer from…”

The Washington-based director of the Syria Justice & Accountability Center Mohammad al-Abdallah posted the following comment on Facebook:

"To those who posted a video yesterday, showing shabbiha [regime thugs] plucking the beards of clerics, I say please comment on this video –[it shows] the detention of a poor, old man. Beating and humiliating him like this is a conduct that could only be that of shabbiha, even if they supported the revolution… Even if the man was irrevocably convicted…[of being an informant], this conduct remains illegal …"
“To those who posted a video yesterday, showing shabbiha [regime thugs] plucking the beards of clerics, I say please comment on this video –[it shows] the detention of a poor, old man. Beating and humiliating him like this is a conduct that could only be that of shabbiha, even if they supported the revolution… Even if the man was irrevocably convicted…[of being an informant], this conduct remains illegal …”