In Focus: Syrian Revolution – Syrian Women Get Abused by Forces Loyal to Alassad
Within the last two years of Syrian people daily life: Syrian woman beard a significant burden of violations, on one hand and as all the Syrian people she shared men all kind of violations made by Alassad troops and in the other hand she also borne the pain of losing the man stand by her; when her husband and the father of her children get killed, arrested or disappeared. She also endured the pain of losing her own kids. Not to mention that all the Syrian women without discrimination suffered from the crimes of torture, rape, abduction by Alassd troops
This reports lists five key facts:
1- Victims
2- Arrested and kidnapped
3- Raped
4- Widows
5- Refugees
6- Women in the media
7- Recommendations
First – the Victims:
Alassad troops represented by Army , Shabiha , intelligence , killed 4257 women documented by name , date , place , photos, and the way in which they murder ( shelling – breaking in – field executions , from the beginning of the revolution to 20th of February 2013, Among the victim women
– 1362 Girl Child
– 102 Infant girl less than 2 years old
– 138 old ladies more than 50 years old
– 3 women in media
– 8 teachers
– 6 in the medical field ( Physician and Pharmacist )
– Shockingly 20 ladies tortured to death in security branches cellars
– 22 non- Syrian : 14 Palestinian , 3 Lebanese , 2 Iraqi , 1 Egyptian , 1 Sudanese , 1 Japanese
In his interview with Sunday Times newspaper, Bashar Alassad the Syrian president and the commander of the Armed forces wondered about the names of the alleged victims killed by his troops
As a reply to him , SNHR provide full lists for all the women killed by his troops :
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Bj18tlYYKBdEFKUlFqdTNSdVk/edit?usp=sharing
Some of Alassad troops women victims:
1- Engineer Nada Al-Masry
She appears in the photo next to her son Abdullah Tarsha, they were killed by Syrian government forces on 27/1/2012 when an armored of Alassad military forces shot their vehicle.
http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/nada.jpg
http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/nada1.jpg
http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/nada3.jpg
2- Ms. Fatima Khosrf
She was killed with her newborn baby Abdul Majid Khalid AlKassim, when Syrian government forces shelled Al Bayada eastern village of Homs in 04/09/2012
http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/fatma.jpg
3- Two sisters, Alaa and Israa Tohma
Engineer Esra Tohma and her sister Alaa were killed in Bosra Asham, Dara by a sniper bullet of Alassad troops while they were passing the street on 11/18/2012.
http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/alaa.jpg
4- Razan Al-Qises
She died cause of the random shelling of Alassad troops on Bloudan, Damascus countryside . She was married and has two children that were wounded by shelling on 13/08/2012; one of them lost his foot ..
http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/razan.jpg
5- Haga Rashida Al-Yaseen
She is the wife of the victim Mahmoud Alboiadana, mother of the victim Abdelwakel, grandmother of the victim Khaled, aunt of the victim Abu Hisham and mother of activist Abdul Hamid, she is from Baba Amr/ Homs and killed in 12/1/2011
http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/rshde.jpg
Second : The Arrested Women
Alassad troops arrested or abducted at least 6405 women, including about 1000 female university students, from nearly 194,000 detainees. According to the standard of enforced disappearances ” Enforced disappearance takes place when a person is arrested, detained, abducted or otherwise deprived of their liberty by government officials or by organized groups or private individuals whose actions are condoned by the government in some way.
This is followed by a refusal to disclose the fate or whereabouts of the persons concerned, placing them outside the protection of the law. Enforced disappearance is a crime under international law, prohibited by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, among other international standards. ” Enforced disappearance is a dehumanizing practice which has long-lasting and damaging consequences for both the disappeared person and his or her families and loved ones. It is a particularly cruel human rights abuse because it is of a continuous nature, particularly for families and loved ones of the victim who often wait for years to learn the truth about the victim’s fate. This is applied to nearly 1200 women most of them were abducted by gangs working for Alassad troops known as “Shabiha”. Most of the abducted women are from Homs, Lattakia and Damascus countryside.
Arrested women treated with no regard to human nature or humanity. They are systematically and violently tortured also more than 700 cases inside security branches cellars
As a prove SNHR documented 20 women victims tortured systematically to death in condition that violate human rights and all international laws
In this regard Following link : lists of all documented women tortured to death with their details as displayed in link : https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Bj18tlYYKBeGVaU0VNTnprYnc/edit? usp=sharing
SNHR was not be able to document hundreds of cases , cause of reluctance of many parents to cooperate in this issue even denying that their daughters has been arrested for many reasons , most of them fear of bad reputation such as rape ,harassment , shock on sensitive area or nudity .
– Most detainees are 17-29 years old
– Most cases of detention documented by the SNHR were in the long-distance bus stations when traveling from one province to another in order to study in universities. – The arrest on campus comes in the second position.
– The third one is the arrest after breaking in houses Ladies in security branches had the worst periods of detentions in particular
Testimonies of ladies were in Alassad prisons
– Lady ( L . E ) couldn’t announce her full name for security reasons , she has been detained in Security Branch No.227 known also as Area Branch , before they moved her to Adra Prison , She said : ” more than one hundred detainee go to the bathroom each hour , so I was avoiding going there as much as possible , it cause a stomachache and other complications , The Nurse in the prison was mocking from me when I asked him for —in my period , and purposely waiting for the next day – I couldn’t bear the bad words he used with me , so I decided to cut my clothes into pieces to use them in my period , which cause me many health problems . Aunt M.G ( She is a doctor ) asked him to give me therapy , I called this medicine as chalk cause it never helpes me to get better at all . I still suffering until I was released from prison after 8 months of my jail
– For More than one and half year , Colleague student Doaa Akrama was arrested without any charges and wad jailed in Adra prison / Damascus , none of her family met her since then , her fellow cells which has been released told us that they beat and electrified her through investigations then stopped torturing her physically and started physiological torture , led her to lose her temper many times , in spite of that preventing her from the right of visit gave them freedom to manipulate her by through lies , deceit , and fabricate unreal incidents to cause her more breakdown .
– In the ninth of February 2013, Ms. Wafaa Alakla – 35 years old – arrested at Alassad army checkpoint with her three children (the older one is 14 years old ) and even the taxi driver who was carrying them , her husband was also arrested for a month and half and was released after investigating that he has no activity . He disappeared for a while and no one knows about him or Ms. Wafaa and her three kids anything at all making her family don’t know what to do .
Alassad troops also arrested many ladies of society , Teachers , Old women and young girls , Now high class ladies and rural girls sharing the same penalties cause they decided to take a side against the Syrian government .
– Mrs. Hanadi Faisal Alrifai – Daraa –arrested in 16-3-2012 ,for more that 7 months suffered within the cruelest ways of tortures physically and psychologically , in one charge only is to help one solider to get his mother , She tells stories about the suffering of girls who met them in prisons
– Colleague student Adawia Hamad also arrested with six of colleague and held several months in one of the security branches in charge of formatting coordination in Raqa university , although her father is causes of Jasim Hamad –head of political security branch in Dier Alzoor , No one is able to know her destiny and her colleague even time
– Physician May Jandali – 50 Years old –arrested in Adraa prison since 7-11-2012 , she participated with first demonstration in 25-3-2011 from Umayyad mosque in Damascus , and participated also with women sit with many intellectuals and other women in Midan neighborhood in Damascus , she was arrested at checkpoint when she was coming back to home .
The abductions taking place systematically at military checkpoints by forces loyal to the Syrian government “Shabiha” and they ask for a huge amount of money against the release of the victim.
This was negatively reflected by the asylum and escape out of the country as the network statistics indicate that more than 70% of the refugees are women and children.
The distribution of detained women by Syrian governorates is approximately as following :
– Damascus: 1650
– Homs: 1400
– Lattakia: 970
– Aleppo: 850
– Daraa: 625
– Hama: 475
– Idlib: 350
– Deir Ezzor: 85
SOME WOMEN VICTIMS OF THE SYRIAN GOVERNMENT FORCES :
– Jumana Abdul Hakim, a student at the Faculty of Civil Engineering first year, she was arrested on 15/5/2012 by air security forces that stormed the campus.
http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/jomana.jpg
– Isra Al-sayad, a student from the city of Al-Kaswa, she studies at the Institute of Technical Inspectors, she was abducted by Syrian security forces after leaving the Institute building on 29/10/2012.
http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/israa.jpg
– Rahaf Al-Laham, a student at the Faculty of Science at the University of Damascus, she is from Al-Mohajreen, Damascus, she is 21 years and she was arrested on 22/11/2012
http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/rahaf.jpg
– Rama Yasser Al-Asas, born in Damascus 1/4/1986
An arrest warrant was issued by the Palestine Branch against her forcing her to escape until 27/08/2012, where she was ambushed by the security men who requested a ransom to release her. After the payment of two million Syrian pounds, all contact channels with her were cut and nobody knows anything about her.
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– Nurse : ( A. R ) Hama – her work in treating wounded civilians is a crime , when Air intelligence discovered that A.R treating wounded people , Their elements broke in her house , stole it, and destroyed furniture , she has been arrested for three months exposed within to the worst and cruelest kind of physical torture , to the time they released her and other 20 girls in prisoners swap with free army
Third : Sexual Assault Against Women in Syria
Sexual Assaults by Alassad troops includes verbal trespass, direct sexual harassments happened during inspection at checkpoints within the city or parts militerised by Alassad troops , and during raids curried out inside the city with Alshabiha , or during detention or abduction of girls inside security branches cells
1- Sexual assault during raid and breaking in which is the most common , more than 4000 cases
2- Sexual assault inside security branches cells , more than 700 cases
These statistics are proximately because of the extreme difficulty to get access to accurate figures on this particular subject , but we were able through our team widespread in all Syrian governorates and by listening to tens stories of the arrested women and accumulated during the long experience , testimonies and research survey make our estimation the closest to reality
Some patterns of documentations:
1- Conscript of Syrian army admits committing 5 rapes , three of them in Altal / Damascus countryside and two in Almaza neighborhood in Damascus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk2wwc9M5CU
1- Testimony of a woman came out of jail narrates rape cases of 16 years old girl
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWx8sOwHWwc&feature=youtu.be
2- Damascus – Qudsaia suburb : People found the bodies of two girls , their age estimated of 17 years , has been kidnapped by Shabiha ,their bodies have been burned and throw it into a cellar in a residential building , We couldn’t identify them
Dier Alzoor :
1- The first rape case included a mother and three of her daughters
The case of rape took place in Alkazia checkpoint in front of Alassad hospital , where Alassad troops shut down the whole family on the checkpoint and took the female towards grave aria where they all raped ( according to the eyewitnesses X ) he told the story to SNHR member and he is still alive
2- Second rap condition :
Happened for two ladies in Qusor neighborhood during breaking in by Alassad troops and took place in the same time of executions of large number of activists and families
Eyewitnesses told us that Alassad troops forced two ladies to go into one of the houses and then those ladies coming out in a horrible situation , their clothes was cutting off and signs of rape appeared on them
Tens of rapes cases took place in Sahl Alroj and Korine towns in Idlib , when Alassad troops and Shabiha stormed the town , frequent cases of large number and survivor who recounted incidents that took place there in Friday 22 February 2012
Syrian Lady called Salma 28 years old – mother of four children ( three girls and one boy ) admitted with tragedy of being raped by Alassad troops in Sahl Alroj and Korine towns
Salma said that 36 ladies was raped when Alassad troops broke down those towns , she was crying bitterly .
Fourth – Widows:
1- SNHR documented more than 30 thousands married has been killed , leaving their wives widows
2- Enforced disappearance : almost 19 thousand married men among more than 60 thousand individuals are enforced disappearance , that led to 19000 women don’t know whether they are married or widows , is her husband a life or Alassad troops executed him , which make us back into time to 1982 in Hama , where at least 18000 married men disappeared and the city suffered for decades of this situation
Fifth – Refugee, Half Million Women Refugees in Neighboring Countries:
SNHR estimates that’s more than 70% of the refugee are women and children , the main reason for leaving Syria is fear of rape and violation
SNHR statistics about refugee in neighborhood countries more than exceeded 1,4 million refugee in January 2013 , that’s mean we have almost one million women and children refugee in the neighboring countries
Sixth – Women In Media:
Media feminist had the larger role in revolution Media , the first victims of the media in the city of Homs a few days after the outbreak of the revolution where young girl Tahani Khalaf Hilal al-Khalidi by a sniper bullet while she were filming from the balcony of her house in Khalidiya district in Homs
The first Media victim martyred in the Syrian Revolution (Female)
– Samar Shaban arrested twice cause of her media activity by writing on walls in Damascus , she is a student in Sharia institute , no one of their family know anything about her , and they are afraid to be tortured to death by security men in the prison
– Shaza Almadad – journalist , born in Qamishli 2 -10-1986 , live in Damascus , arrested in 1-11-2012 – she has been called for investigation more than one time in internal branch of state security , she wrote her opinion about Syrian affairs freely on her page on facebook that’s was her only crime
http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/61400_489627794402129_375765787_n.jpg
– Ayat Alhalabi – medicine university – killing and arresting didn’t prevent her from participating in demonstrations and transmit to social networking sites ,which running by tens of females activities . they aim to transmit the Syrian people voice to the world , and sometimes solidarity with detainees and talk by their voices , or framing idea
– Sherine ALhaik : among leader activist on social networking sites , her blog known as Tabashir
Add to many activist who specialized in media to communicate with satellite T.V , audio and video media , especially at the beginning of Syrian Revolution and before the reporters of some station was able to entre Syria , which was and still closed in front of Media Stations
S.H said : At the time that most people thought that filming and protection of demonstrations is a man job , she never went in a demonstration , not that they do not believe in its importance, but because it has something important to do with her colleagues in coordinating ( 60 %of them are women ) , she used to film demonstration after planning for the time and place , and choose appropriate place for the camera , while another one monitor the end of the street from her Balcony , and be the one who call other and warn them if security elements show , to avoid them arrested and shot , she continued you may find this way is so old but it avoids a lot of people get arrested cause there are a lot of paid informers for Alassad troops in our area
Seventh – Results and Recommendations:
SNHR conclude that Alassad troops committed all types of abuse against of Syrian Women
1- Crimes against humanity , according to article 7 of ROME STATUE OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT :
(a) Murder;
(b) Extermination;
(c) Enslavement;
(d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population;
(e) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law;
(f) Torture;
(g) Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity;
(h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court;
(i) Enforced disappearance of persons;
(j) The crime of apartheid;
(k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.
2- 2- Crimes against humanity , according to article 8 War Crimes of ROME STATUE OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT :
a) Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, namely, any of the following acts against persons or property protected under the provisions of the relevant Geneva Convention:
(i) Willful killing;
(ii) Torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments;
(iii) Wilfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health;
(iv) Extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly;
(v) Compelling a prisoner of war or other protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile Power;
(vi) Willfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial;
(vii) Unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement;
b) xxii) Committing rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, as defined in article 7, paragraph 2 (f), enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence also constituting a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions;
Recommendations
Immediate and urgent intervention to ensure the maintenance of security and civil peace and to stop the instantaneous violations against Syrian women
The United Nations and the Security Council to take their responsibilities towards the Syrian women and pressure on the Syrian government to release thousands of detainees at full speed and bring the perpetrators of crimes to International Court Ganaúat
