The Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) and the Syrian Women’s Council (SWC) met in Raqqa to discuss perspectives on Syria’s political situation and the future for the country. The meeting brought together the women’s office of the SDC with the SWC, an umbrella group representing women working within the DAANES, NGOs, and political parties and more working across the DAANES territory.
The meeting place in Raqqa, the current capital of the DAANES and the former capital of ISIS, was itself symbolic. The city has made huge advances for women’s political participation and collaboration since the end of ISIS’ brutal three year occupation. As in other areas of DAANES, women’s organizations are thriving in the city and women share equal political power in local governance. But there is still an uphill challenge with the traditional culture of the region, and the ongoing decade long conflict. Discussions in the meeting centered around how to provide training and capacity building for women working in political processes and decision making under these conditions. The organizations that make up the Syrian Women’s Council do their best to provide such education from their own experience, and various international organizations work in some of the gaps. But still, the need far outweighs the current resources.
The meeting took place against a complicating and accelerating geopolitical situation as well. Media Medawar, the media director for the Syrian Women’s Council commented that the rapprochement between Ankara and Damascus “is dangerous for the Syrian people.” Turkey occupies parts of the Syrian territory, and many women on the SDC and the SWC were themselves forcibly displaced by Turkish invasions. There is an abiding fear that such rapprochement could reify demographic changes, and further entrench inter-Syrian issues in favor of Turkish geopolitical desires. In the areas it occupies, Turkey also dismantled the uniquely structured gender-equal governance system the DAANES had built, a first in the region and in the world, which has shown promise to shift the stability calculus in the region.
As the situation in Syria inches towards some sort of resolution, the women of the SDC and SWC agreed that women’s participation will decide how sustainable such resolutions will be. Women are well positioned to foresee potential stumbling blocks from a grassroots level including enduring risks for the extremism that has plagued the country. Equally as important will be cooperation among women across Syria, and the meeting also discussed how to continually strengthen relations with counterparts in other regions of the country.