In this episode of Gendering Geopolitics, New Lines’ own Emily Prey sits down with Rajaa Altalli, the co-founder of the Center for Civil Society and Democracy and member of the Syrian Women’s Advisory Board for the U.N. Special Envoy for Syria. Together, they discuss the potential roles that women should play in Syria’s politics moving forward, the process of reconciliation in the country, and need for the establishment of representative democracy in the post-Assad era.
Emily Prey:
Hello. Welcome to Gendering Geopolitics, a special edition series of the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy’s Contours Podcast. Each episode will consist of conversations with scholars and practitioners from around the world about issues of gender and international affairs. My name is Emily Prey, and I’m the Senior Non-Resident Fellow of Gender Policy at the New Lines Institute, and the host of Gendering Geopolitics Today.
As democracy and democratic processes are being stretched to their limits in many countries around the world, including here in the U.S., today we will be delving into a story of hope and opportunity. On December 8th, 2024, the Assad regime in Syria collapsed during a major offensive by opposition forces that surprised everyone with its swiftness. In a time of geopolitical upheaval and regional instability, the fall of Damascus provides Syria with a historic opportunity to decide its future.
Today, I’m joined by Rajaa Altalli, the co-founder of the Center for Civil Society and Democracy, which has worked to build a stronger and more pluralistic civil society in Syria by supporting organizations and individuals in the pursuit of democracy. Rajaa is a member of the Syrian Women’s Advisory Board for the U.N. Special Envoy for Syria, established in January 2016 to integrate women’s perspectives in the Syrian peace process. She serves as a senior fellow at the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies at Seton Hall University, and held the Sergio Vieira de Mello Endowed Visiting Chair in Spring 2022. She co-chaired the U.S. Civil Society Working Group on Women, Peace, and Security from 2021 to 2022.
Thank you so much for joining me today, Rajaa.
Rajaa Altalli:
Thank you so much for hosting this important podcast, Emily.
Emily Prey:
So can you begin by telling me a bit more about what the Center for Civil Society and Democracy is doing to support the democratic transition in Syria?
Rajaa Altalli:
Yeah, the story begins actually in 2011, when the Syrian people went to the street to demand freedom, justice, and democracy in Syria. We came together, a group of Syrian activists at that time, and we said, “Inspired by the Syrian revolution, we want to establish an organization, a movement in order to really strengthen civil society in Syria, as we call it, the fifth power in the country, and also to promote democracy.”
So in December 2011, we decided to establish CCSD, and from there, actually we, even during the difficult times, during the bombing of the Assad regime to different cities, or during the detentions and torture that the Syrian regime actually committed against many, many peaceful demonstrators and politicians, we decided to continue working to raise awareness about the importance of having a democratic country. It’s very important. We have some principles and value that we work toward in Syria, and we work with many Syrians to achieve it, such as equality, separation between religion and state, working toward decentralization in Syria in order to have more equal distribution of resources. We, from our name actually, we work toward a democratic state.
And after the end of the Assad regime in December, as you said, Emily, it was very, very important for us that it’s not only important to say that we are working toward building Syria as a democratic state but also the transition itself; it’s very important to be a democratic transition because democracy is not only saying or just to say “We will hold elections” or “we will have inclusive government.” Democracy is a practice. It is important that there will be a community participation, there will be inclusive governance. And so far, almost two months now since the end of the Assad regime, we are still looking for a more inclusive transitioning government in Syria.
And with that, I want to highlight that during the last 13 years, CCSD played a very important role in pushing for more women and youth in civil society participation in the peace process. And unfortunately, we are not seeing women participation in the transition in Syria yet. There are many women leaders who have been working nonstop actually in the last two months, but also in the last 13 years, in order to push for more, better situation in Syria. But even with that, we see marginalization against women, we see discrimination against women. There is no women participation, not only… At CCSD, we are calling for 30% women participation, but not even very close to this percentage. We are getting there. Until now, for example, in the government itself, there’s zero women in the transition government in Syria.
And this is very, very essential, and especially it’s not really a democratic process yet, and this is where CCSD is pushing actually. So we are working on media, we are working with civil society organizations. We are working with youth activists and also with community leaders in order to push for more coalition building, democracy building, partnership building in order to really establish a democratic culture and democratic system in Syria.
Emily Prey:
Thank you so much, Rajaa.
Speaking of the importance of working toward a democratic state, I think that lines up our next question very well considering the political situation in the United States right now. How have the new Trump administration’s executive orders on foreign assistance and the freezing of foreign assistance affected your work and the situation on the ground in Syria?
Rajaa Altalli:
Yeah, thank you so much for this question. I mean, CCSD, one of our programs, it’s a civil society empowerment program where we support local organizations, mainly in northern Syria, northeast and northwest of Syria. And actually, immediately after the executive order went into place, we communicated with many of our partners, beneficiaries, but also our local partners. And they showed many concerns, many fears about mainly education in Syria, agriculture in Syria where it’s affected, so it’s affected the food security of people, the basic rights for children, like education.
Regarding CCSD, for example, we were affected by holding training empowerment programs for women, and also for holding campaigns for more women’s participation and women’s engagement, community engagement; but really, life-saving support is very, very essential, like I talked about, like food security, especially through agriculture, I talked about education, but also it is very important when we are talking about water, electricity.
The U.S. government has been very, very generous with supporting Syrian people in the last 13 years. And when the Assad dictatorship ended, we were very optimistic of building a partnership, especially people and actors who are working toward building a democratic state in Syria. We don’t have a democratic state at the moment, so building a democratic state, we want allies, we want supporters, and we were looking for the U.S. government to be our ally and supporter for that.
Emily Prey:
Now, you mentioned women’s participation earlier, and we know from the Women, Peace, and Security agenda that when women are meaningfully involved in peace processes, those processes are more likely to last. Peace is more likely to be sustainable and more durable.
How important is it that women are involved in the transitional justice processes in Syria right now, and are women being involved? Because we know that Syria’s transitional president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led the rebel offensive to overthrow Assad, has been noncommittal on whether women would have equal rights and access to power in this new Syria.
Rajaa Altalli:
Transitional justice is very essential in Syria for many reasons. The first reason that the human right violation that was committed in Syria by the Assad regime since 1970, and especially since 2011, has been enormous. I talked about torture in the security forces. I talked about tensions and bombing, but also the Assad regime used chemical weapons, used starvation as a tool of war, used killing and raiding cities, destroying city, actually, even not providing essential services such as water, electricity for people as a punishment because they were part of the Syrian revolution or a part of that movement against Assad. So it was collective punishment and it amounted to crimes against humanity and war crimes. And it wasn’t only the Assad regime; there was many other actors who committed human rights violations.
So with that, because there are many different types of human rights violations, and I don’t want to forget gender-based violence and violence against women, this is very essential. With that, that means that there will be more sophisticated process when we are talking about achieving justice in Syria. And when we talk about transitional justice, we really look into a victim-centered approach and also gendered approach. And the women, especially on the detention file and torture file, now we call it the missing people because there are many, many people who are missing in Syria still, even after the end of the Assad dictatorship and the release of many detainees, but there are many missing people. And the family, the woman has been leading the search, the advocacy, raising the voices about their husbands, brothers, fathers, sons, also other members of the family, and also for women as well.
So definitely women need to be as centered in the transitional justice process, but also it’s very important to be an inclusive process for women and for all other actors. So as I talked about, there’s diversity in the human rights violations, but also there’s diversity in the locations, the geography, the different type of revenge that was committed. So it is very essential to be as inclusive as possible.
And I know we are talking about forgiveness. Forgiveness is part of something internal, like per person. It’s very important we are talking about reconciliation, how Syrian people can reconcile with each other in a way that really prevent human rights violations from happening again, and also allow more people in order to show, express their feelings, the trauma that they went through, the injustice that they have suffered. Instead of when there’s official mechanism, they are able to suppress those frustrations and fear and concerns. They don’t think about personal revenge or take their justice by their hand, basically.
Emily Prey:
Reconciliation will definitely be key in ensuring serious democratic transition. And so lastly, I wanted to ask about what recommendations do you have for Syrian, regional, and international actors to guarantee women’s meaningful participation in Syria’s peace and security processes?
Rajaa Altalli:
There are recommendations that I want to share. Start with Syrians first. We are on this together. I know that our country, our beloved country, Syria, has been destroyed. And I know that the situation, the economic situation is really deteriorated. The basic services like water, electricity is not there. But together, we can solve the problem, and together by really supporting each other. CCSD, on December 8th, we launched a call for partnership. We are calling to partner with Syrian’s internal actors in order to end the violations in Syria to build a democratic state, a pluralistic state, where separation of powers is guaranteed, rule of law is guaranteed, and human rights protected, woman rights protected.
So together, Syrians, we can do this. If we want to work individually, the transition will be led by one party and one actor. It won’t lead to a democratic and pluralistic state, which will help the country rise from the destruction that it went through in the last 13 years.
For international actors, I would really recommend to support Syrian women and Syrian civil society in order to be able to contribute to the transition in Syria widely and be present. It’s very, very essential that supporting the transition in Syria is conditioned with women participation of at least 30% women participation in the transition. This is not only one position, it’s not only the executive government. It should be we are talking about the legislative, we are talking about judiciary, we are talking on the local level, on the regional level, on the national level. Woman participation, civil society participation is essential.
We don’t want war in Syria. We want peace in Syria and in the region. This won’t happen without women and civil society participation in taking decisions for peace, not war.
Emily Prey:
Thank you so much, Rajaa, for sharing your insights on the democratic transition in Syria and the importance of women’s participation in peacebuilding, and for taking the time to join me on this episode of Gendering Geopolitics.
Thanks to our audience for tuning in and please head to newlinesinstitute.org for more information and to explore our other podcasts and publications.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not an official policy or position of the New Lines Institute.
