How the tale starts

An illustration of child sitting in the road. A small toy is to their right. — Artwork: Haytham Al-Sayegh

“Owning my body wasn’t an option, but I tried”

“I was a young woman under 20 years of age at the time. I thought, naturally, that my body was my own. I thought that I had full discretion over it, to choose with my own will what clothes to wear to express who I am. This, however, wasn’t an option in a region where everyone yields power over the female body except the woman herself. Since childhood, until reaching age 10, everyone takes part in drawing her shape, her clothes behaviour; they determine what she must do, and what she mustn’t do.” SFJN*

“I was 13 years old when I learned to cook pasta at school. I returned home happy. I returned as fast as I could to cook that plate, to give my family a delightful surprise. The teacher in the “homemaking class” taught me and my girl friends how to prepare it. Meanwhile, my boy friends were playing football in the schoolyard. They must have got back home and found their pasta plates ready on the table.”

“I don’t think the genitals of my male friends were enough cause for them to excel over me in sports. I am almost sure that upbringing in the family and in school is the thing that put me into activities that didn’t require my body to move or to consume more space than the one my body already occupies when inert. Meanwhile, all sorts of private and public spaces were being left wide open to them, the boys, even the personal spaces of girls and women too, to do whatever they wanted with. Of course, they would be good in sports, and it will be me who will think she doesn’t like these sports much!” SFJN*

In her paper, Throwing like a girl, Iris Marion Young investigates the phenomena of the movement of female bodies and spatiality. Women are inclined to not apply their bodies fully to physical tasks in an easy and natural way like how men do. Usually, women approach things – in shared spatial experiences – timidly, with uncertainty. That is, we usually lack full trust in our bodies, that our bodies will carry us to our destinations, which makes women in male-biased societies “bodily disabled” as much as they live according to definitions provided by the patriarchal culture.

Our bodies pull us back when we move in these societies. We are imprisoned in these bodies and we are potentially violated on all levels. We don’t feel a sense of safety towards our very bodies. We usually feel threatened, that the body might let us down one day, and as such we cannot believe in it fully. Aljumhuriya *

Previous: Metamorphosis of the body and sexuality

an abstract illustration of a woman in a hijab Artwork by Haisam Al Saiegh

Next: Again, in other plastic boxes

XwhY

XwhY is a reader of gender and sexuality related-content that represents the problems and challenges faced by women and LGBTQIA+ communities in Syria and the region.

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Introduction XwhY

Metamorphosis of the body and sexuality

How the tale starts…

Again in other plastic boxes

A religious undertaking or a patriarchal tendency

Inflicting harm based on difference

Female detainees face a social stigma

A harassment-infested region

Between two camps… and solitude

Tarps fly away with the first gust of wind

Reality and hopes between laws and social traditions

Empowerment vs “slow change”

Syrian women’s path towards political participation…

Women's sports in the face of conservative social norms

Campaigns surveys and shared reports

Audience interaction…breaking the silence.

Sexual diversity star instead of the binary slash

Gender and sexuality reader Visit page

Since they were united in the embrace, they became two no more

A pair they had become

But we cannot say if a woman or a man they were

They appear sexless

But of two sexes each all the same.Visit page

I was 13 years old when I learned how to cook pasta at school. Meanwhile, my boy friends were playing football in the schoolyard. Visit page

How would it feel if we try to put you inside a plastic box with a transparent lid, and let you watch the world from there as much as the world is watching you? Visit page

Al-Hisba / Muhrim / the Branch / abominations / morals / do-gooders / right and wrong / veil and chastity / morality police … “Do we have Islamic feminism? Visit page

Women and the confrontation of violence… between the injustice of society and lacking protection alternatives. Visit page

Mending what has been broken, Female detainees face social stigma after their release from the Syrian prisons. Visit page

when these relations are imposed, in a space that feeds on fears that grow in the heart and mind. Visit page

After this long life, how can you want to preserve the right to life for yourself? You are already destroyed, even God cannot untangle your internal destruction. Visit page

In these forgotten camps, our concern was to secure many of the missing simple and basic things, the most important is how to get water, showers and hygiene. Visit page

Societal traditions prevent the progress from being put into practice, so how can we get out of this deadlock? Visit page

It was funny to read that more than a quarter of women would rather criticize their partner’s sexual performance than talk about money. Visit page

I am specifically calling for intersectional thinking, not to “adaptation”, the intersection between feminist and gender issues with all political issues. Visit page

Professional training, with the aim of supporting local women against extremist and conservative values. Visit page

despite the lack of data, interactive alternatives were in place. Visit page

The impact of breaking the silence and shifting from bullying to dialogue. Visit page

The most challenging aspect we faced while preparing the content was using appropriate language, but it wasn’t the only one. Visit page