This decision responds to the requests of the international community after the fall of the Al Assad regime, and takes place after the controversy generated by a spokesman for the rebels, who said that women were unfit to hold a military position.
The jihadist authorities of Syria have announced the creation of the Office of Women's Affairs in the midst of the process of setting up a new set of provisional institutions, in response to requests from the international community, following the fall two weeks ago of the regime of the former Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad.
The person in charge of the department will be Aisha Al Debs, identified by the National Salvation Government, the political arm of the jihadist and opposition armed coalition led by the authority of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), as a “humanitarian activist” who has worked for years in the Syrian province of Idlib, the jihadist stronghold in Syria.
The appointment of Al Debs, as well as the creation of this office, take place after the controversy generated a few days ago by an HTS spokesperson, Obaida Arnaut, who told Lebanese broadcaster Al Jadeed that women were unfit to serve in the military because of their “biological nature.”
"Tasks must necessarily be compatible with the role that women can play."If we say that a woman is taking over the Ministry of Defense, does that fit her essence and biological nature? It certainly does not. Can she perform like a man? She cannot," the spokesman said.
In response, and in statements collected by Syria TV, Al Debs promises that the new Syrian authorities “will give women the opportunity to participate in community work in all its aspects according to their skills,” and announced that women will have a “outstanding participation” in the national dialogue to shape the new Syrian reality.
March for women's rights and a secular state
Hundreds of people gathered on Thursday in the central Umayyad Square in Damascus, which has become the center of popular expression since the overthrow of the Al Assad regime, carrying banners and chanting slogans in defense of a strong and diverse civil society in a secular country that respects all religious sensitivities.
They also called for democracy and to defend women's rights.
“We want democracy, not a religious state,” “Syria, a free and secular state,” chanted the protesters, men and women. “There is no free nation without free women,” read a banner.
“We Syrians, men and women, have a role to play in building the new Syria,” said Majida Mudares, a 50-year-old protester. “The era of silence is over,” added this retired official.
The march took place without incident and is the first political message on the streets directed at the interim government that took power in the country led by the Islamist coalition headed by the Levant Liberation Organization (LEA).Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS in Arabic), a group that inherited the Syrian subsidiary of Al Qaeda.
The mobilization, which is planned to be repeated in the coming days in other parts of the country under the control of the Government led by Mohammed al-Bashir, was promoted by the most liberal sectors of Syrian society, opposed both to the Al Assad regime and to any religious imposition that may now arise in the territory.
(With information from Europe Press)
Source: INFOBAE and Aurora