Negotiating what it means to be "free": gender equality and governance in North and East Syria
By: Julia Wartmann (she/her/hers)
In banning polygamy, introducing an alimony provision, and making men and women equal before the law about inheritance, the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration in Northeast Syria’s (AANES) Women's Law far exceeds the Syrian regime's amendments and any previous attempts at gender equality in the region. The creation of institutions, such as the all-female committees and women's houses present new contact points for dealing with gender discrimination. But how do the reforms affect women's daily lives and what are the consequences of implementing ideologically driven social change in an ethnically mixed region that is currently still at war?
The AANES has been lauded for advancing women's rights and fighting off the Islamic State – also with all-female military units. However, people on the ground criticized the gap between what they were promised in theory and the self-administration’s increasingly authoritarian manner of implementing their ideological framework, including the gender equality reforms. The way the Administration enforces gender equality and how its reforms affect people's daily lives therefore needs further investigation.
In 2012, when the Kurdish-led Democratic Union Party (PYD), the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), seized control of Syria's Northeast amidst the ongoing Syrian conflict, democratic confederalism became the doctrine of the Autonomous Administration. Modeled after the political thought of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, the Autonomous Administration endorses a non-state political solution that seeks to liberate nature from capitalism, an idea also prevalent in eco-feminist ideas, that envisions a democracy without a state, and – crucially – pursues the liberation of women from masculine domination.
The promotion of women's rights is a major factor why the Kurdish-led Administration is generally regarded positively by journalists and scholar-activists in the Global North, who view democratic confederalism as a progressive alternative to authoritarianism and patriarchy in the region. Such observers like to claim that it can serve as a model for women's liberation and community building for the entire Middle East, if not the world. Some locals, on the other hand, are concerned about the forceful imposition of the new ideology that they view as increasingly authoritarian.
Beyond the Women's Law, the AANES fosters societal change through awareness raising to educate the roughly two million people who live in Northeast Syria about gender equality and women's rights. Though not exclusively, the campaign targets young women and mothers 'who are the future and responsible for raising the new generation'. Mainly though, it is achieved through mandatory education seminars – called Perwerde – which every prospective administration employee must complete before they can be employed by them. These courses last from one day to several months, during which participants learn about democratic confederalism ideology and how to better manage their lives according to the new norms.
Oftentimes, women's appearances are a marker for communities to distinguish themselves from others. In the framework of democratic confederalism, there is a distinction between women seen as free and those considered oppressed. However, when I talked to people, their interpretations of freedom challenged this clear-cut division; they felt that in imposing their understanding of the term, the Kurdish rulers were establishing new forms of control in the public sphere. This is interesting because it highlights a contradiction: while the gender equality reforms emphasize women's freedom, there is also a push for specific behaviors and appearances.
Even though the situation has markedly improved compared to the time under ISIS when women had very limited freedom, some Arab women in Raqqa feel that the new meaning of freedom enforced by Kurdish leaders is still controlling their behavior, for instance, the banning of the face veil in certain places. This imposition of expectations for how women should behave is a continuation of a long-standing practice where women's bodies are used to establish cultural boundaries.
The efforts to achieve gender equality in the AANES have certainly made progress in encouraging women to take part in public life and politics. However, I have also discovered that the ideals of democratic confederalism can inadvertently lead to new forms of exclusion of those, mostly Arabs, who are portrayed as clinging to religion and the norms and practices related to Islam, and therefore as backward and oppressive towards women. Through my research, I have highlighted that in North and East Syria the meaning of freedom and equality is deeply contested and that this contestation goes through women's bodies. Drawing on feminist theories about subjectivity, I have argued that gender equality is often approached as a developmental project, resulting in two outcomes: the portrayal of women as either free or oppressed. However, the women I spoke to were not simply confined to these labels. They were neither entirely defined by traditional gender norms that prescribe marriage and homemaking, nor were they strictly adhering to the ideal of a liberated woman that requires a specific appearance and lifestyle. Instead, they showcased their agency in their active negotiation of what being free means for them.
Gender equality and social justice were among the main demands of protesters during the Arab Spring as well as protest movements in Iran and other authoritarian states in the region. This speaks of a clear desire for social change amongst these populations. However, conflict and the continuing violence exercised by states and militias, as well as patriarchal laws and practices, stand in the way of equality and justice. The measures taken by the Autonomous Administration to further gender equality have certainly increased women's visibility and participation. And while the passage of the Women's Law is laudable and worthy of emulation, its implementation and the effect the reforms have on people's lives should be closely observed.
Read the full article here: Negotiating what it means to be "free": gender equality and governance in North and East Syria
Each blog post gives the views of the individual author(s) based on their published IFJP article. All posts published on ifjpglobal.org remain the intellectual property and copyright of the author or authors.
Julia Wartmann graduated with a BA in Social and Cultural Anthropology and Arabic from the University in Zurich. She then went on to receive her MSc in International Relations of the Middle East with Arabic from the University of Edinburgh, during which she spent a trimester studying Arabic at Bir Zeit University. She is currently a PhD student at the University of Basel, working at the intersection of International Relations and Gender Studies.