A lot of Syrians still keep in mind the tragic story of 5-year-old girl who was raped by many men Aleppo in 2009; the incident had a tsunami amid State-run media that time where the top news was Bashar al-Assad visit to the girl with his wife Asma, in step to focus on the modern, westernized and tender couple.
However, now and after the revolution, children are brought to Syrian
TV and talk to public in sex jihad and being members of terrorist organization,
like what happen to Rawan and other children.
A day before Rawan’s appearance on Syrian TV, when she talked about
“sex Jihad” and how her father facilitate doing that and she was raped many
times by rebels. Hazem al-Hariri, a third year student in Faculty of Law, from
Aleppo, sat on the same chair and admitted doing crimes he never did.
In fact he was arrested months ago at one of the barriers for having
some revolutionary songs on his mobile. However, on TV, he admitted of being a
spy and conspires against the country besides being a member in al-Nusra front,
and he met Abo Qodada.
Both of them, Rawan and Hazem, spontaneously, from their body language,
revealed the amount of emotional and physical threat they undergone to admit
doing those disgusting acts.
In May 2011, when a bus full of school children under the care of
officer Bassam Talas, was shot at, when it stopped at military checkpoint at
Tal-beseh bridge, when many children were wounded and killed, including Hajar
al-Khatib and officer Tlas, at the time, Mohammed Rostom, who worked in
rescuing the wounded, was kidnapped with an ambulance and disappeared for three
weeks.
Surprisingly, he appeared on Addonia TV, the pro-regime private Syrian
channel, wounded and lying in a hospital bed, to admit committing that crime of
attacking the bus with the help of other terrorists.
Mohammed’s story did not stop at that limit, as he was handed to his
wife and children dead with scars of many operations and some of his organs
were removed.
Dr. Khawla Hassan al-Hadid, a researcher in social science and
psychology, commented on the lack of interest in Mohammed’s case compared to
Rawan’s, although his case took place in the beginning of the Syrian
revolution, which could’ve made it a public opinion case. However, she Dr.
Al-Hadid thinks the reason behind the shock people expressed from Rawan’s story
was because it touches the honor and pride of the community.
She says: " People show great compassion with Rowan’s case, in my
opinion, community did not defend Rawan, it defended its honor and its image,
compassion with Rawan was not purely humanitarian, otherwise, Mohammed Rostom
would’ve had the same interest and compassion. Community reacted to her case in
a gregarious attitude more than defending her. We as a community, are still a
voice-phenomena that reacts but does not interact or do anything.”
Another opinion about the discrepancy in interest in some case more
than others came from Professor Bassam al-Aweel, psychologist and researcher in
a university in Poland as he says: “Eastern society in general, and Syrian
community in particular, are male-oriented societies, where women are under
men’s control.
In Rawan’s and other females' cases, Syrian regime used those girls and
the community in the same time, and later, the community, unintentionally used
Rawan once again, to express its interest and concern about honor, in the same
time, community is helpless in defending its honor and dignity in other issues
"
The professor sees that the “sex jihad” remain has media interest,
because of that the regime used it and Rawan’s case had that huge interest.
In regard to the disappointment that detainees or their parents feel
when they do not have the attention they think they should’ve had, or when they
feel discrimination in supporting them, Hazem’s brother wrote on his facebook
page: “Everyone wrote a status for Rawan, we are people ready to cry our lost
honor featured in a weak girl, not our honor that featured in a strong man
standing like a mountain, Excuse me Hazem, please wait for more 6 months and
try to stay alive, and when your story involved “sex” please let us know, and
we will wide spread solidarity campaign for you.”
Salim Qabbani, one of the activists who was arrested and brought on
Syrian TV channel on August 2012, commenting on the subject of discrimination
in interest saying: “the distinction in support and sympathy leaves
psychological and emotional scars to detainees, from my experience, no one
sympathize with me apart from some close friends, I was frustrated and
disappointed, especially when some people accused me of treason and they
believed what came in my confessions on TV, which made me regret joining the
revolution” He added that he did not get out of the house or talk to anyone for
more than a month.
Qabbani sees that victims need support and sympathy regardless of their
sex and more than the support is already available. He thinks that men are not
stronger than women in facing the horrible emotional and physical torture in prisons,
after which, they need, not only sympathy, but treatment as well to be able to
carry on their life.
Salim believes that Syrian society is not yet capable of understanding
or dealing or declared cases of mental, emotional and physical abuse in prisons,
either for women or men, though it is harder for women as she is considered to
have lost her “honor."
Moreover, he considered campaigns and even sympathy with raped women,
nothing more a “facebook bubble” as they keep saying that every raped woman is like
their sister or daughter, but secretly they pointed and whisper about every
detained woman as she must have raped.
In his article titled “Rowan is the new victim to our (likes)”
Journalist Iyad Issa wrote his opinion of the opposition and its way in marginalizing
serious subject and said: “Rawan’s confession degrade the human mind dignity,
it is a moral slip moral could cause an earthquake in the world’s public
opinion. However, from our side, it would not take more that a “status” from a
shower-off or a hollow speech on a TV channel.
Dr. Bassam al-Aweel also agrees with this opinion as he sees our
communities have weak defending mechanisms and he says about that: “it was
expected to use stories of those girls to strip the male-oriented community of its
faults and defects, and to give women the position they deserve in the
community, instead of dealing with the matter in this instantaneous and
emotional reaction as reply to the despicable culture the regime tries to
distribute by disseminating such news and videos about the community’s
women."
While Dr. Khawla al-Hadid says: “In active communities, educated people
and civil society institutions must insist on rejecting the politicization of
humanitarian issues and try to separate social issues from political ones,
although they are interact with each other sometimes, as politicizing of social
issues can cause big social destruction especially in issues related to
children and women and education.
Dr. al-Hadid considers filed a lawsuit against the Syrian media would
be the correct defending mechanism to move the issue to the international and
regional human rights. She wonders about the fate of Zainab Alhosna and Sarah
Also and their families, and if anyone done anything to help in their cases.
She added that the most important issue now is helping other women who are
isolated in camps or inside Syria who do not dare to reveal what happen to
them.
“They need treatment and help to
integrate in community” she added that there is a need to carry on working to
raise awareness, education and to recognize the pre-existing and new social
diseases to build up new values for society to restore its fragility
structure.”
Dr. al-Aweel sees that Syrian society need to adopt the new social
values to replace the emotional, old and reactive values, although he knows
that the process of building social values is cumulative process which needs
long time.
Finally, we must admit there is a promising change in the way of
dealing with victims who were raped during the Revolution, but some specialists
consider that transformation is still sort of isolated attitudes especially
there is no accurate statistics to document the number of people who were raped
or humiliated.
Researchers hope that shift to be in terms of ideas and behaviors not
just at the level of empathy and compassion. We hope that Syrian revolution has
really changed the community way of looking at the “body” especially women’s,
and to look at her as a human being, not just a fragile mirror of honor.
By Silva Koriyya; Translation by Yusra Ahmed
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