
When the Arab spring swept across the Middle East and North Africa in early 2010, news around the globe was flooded with photographs of the protests in Libya, Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, and Syria. There, clearly visible among the protests, were thousands of women out on the streets demanding a better life.
Once the energy of these street demonstrations moved to the negotiation table, these women were nowhere to be found. The traditional and patriarchal mentality of the region foreclosed any opportunity for them to be involved in the political solutions in a meaningful way. One by one, these countries descended back into various forms of authoritarianism.
We were watching this from northern Syria and we wanted to take a different path. Unlike other nations in the region, northern Syria emerged from this moment with a governance system in which women make up 50 percent of the decision makers at all levels of governance, including in diplomacy. This system was possible because of organizing amongst the local communities, and has blossomed into the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). It now implements gender-equal governance in a third of Syria, a region that includes Arabs, Syriacs, Turkmen, Armenians, Yezidis, and all the ethnic minorities in the region.

As we implement this system that integrates women, we are reaping the benefits as a society. But it hasn’t been easy. It takes a long time and many conversations to make meaningful shifts in society’s opinions, and traditions. I was a part of the project from the very beginning, when we were just building the new structures, amidst the chaos of the Syrian civil war. At first, even when we were involved, men would not take us as seriously as they took themselves. But we worked together as women to build each other up. As the conflict has gone on, and our system has grown and matured, women have gotten more experience, and men’s opinions have shifted. Instead of being siloed into the social sciences, humanitarianism, or philanthropy, women in our region have taken their seats at the decision making and negotiation tables, where we still sit. Women like Ilham Ahmed and Hevrin Khalef have shown that it is possible for women in Syria to be at the forefront of political change. Our project is slowly changing the social common sense about gender relations in the region, with meaningful on the ground change for women and the society at large.
The lack of female participation in peacemaking and decision making isn’t only a problem in the Middle East. Across the world, statecraft and diplomacy has historically been the purview of men, with very few women. We are only starting to see what women’s meaningful participation in governance means. In recent decades, we have seen many powerful women break historical barriers at the highest levels, like Hilary Clinton, Madeleine Albright, Benazir Bhutto, Angela Merkel. In 2000, the UN passed UNSCR 1325, which urged “all actors to increase the participation of women and incorporate gender perspectives in all United Nations peace and security efforts.” The resolution recognized that integration of women’s perspectives is important at all levels of peacemaking and reconciliation processes. Women bring new perspectives to issues across the board, from the military to the economy. Women are often uniquely embedded in their local communities, meaning they can intervene sooner, to stop youth radicalization for example, and advocate for the right resources to go to the right places, avoiding inefficient and costly missteps.
Recent research is backing up this common sense, and showing that the more women are involved in diplomacy, peacemaking and negotiation, the more successful and stable the agreements will be. So far, this has certainly been our experience in northeast Syria, and we would welcome scholars and academics to engage with our experience. In a world that seems to be on the verge of even deeper conflict, we hope our experience and efforts can be a source of inspiration for women and men across the world who are trying to build lasting peace.

