– Having the custody of their minor children in case where the uncle is alive and present.
– Passing their nationality to their children.
– Proper inheritance (they inherit less).
– Does not inherit if her religion is different from that of her husband.
– Being considered eligible, on her own, a credible witness in a court.
A young man who reaches the age of 18 can apply for marriage in the sectarian courts, and the same applies for girls starting at the age of 17. Tribal sheikhs and/or judges of the sects can allow the marriage of adolescent girls between 15 and 17 years of age, if it is medically proven to him that her situation can handle the marriage, with permission from her guardian.
If a tribal sheikh or the judge of the sect authorised the marriage of a boy and girl teenager without the permission of the guardian, then each of the boy or girl adolescents have the right to request the termination of the marriage within a period of six months starting from the date of their reaching the legal age of marriage.
However, the most substantial form of discrimination against women within the sectarian court is the refusal to register the marriage of a Druze woman who chooses a man from outside the sect, according to lawyer Sahar Huwaija. In such a case, “inheritance laws are applicable against the women. The father or the guardian is allowed to write only his male sons in his will. The woman is humiliated by being given a share under the name ‘the share of those abandoned’, which is left to the single, widowed or divorced woman.”
According to the book The Judicial System in Syria and Related Things, by lawyer Ibrahim Muhammad al-Qasim, the personal status courts are headed by one judge, and they are subject to being quashed in relation to Sharia courts. In religious matters, cases are subject to appeal, then cassation courts.
Sharia, religious and sectarian courts adjudicate personal status cases, and family and inheritance cases for Muslim Syrians and non-Syrians whose countries apply Islamic personal status laws.
Religious courts hear personal status cases for Christians, Jews and other non-Muslim groups.
As for the sectarian courts of the Druze sect, they are headed by a Muslim Druze judge who has the power to ensure that the Druze adhere to the rules of their sect in the field of personal status, and the rulings of all religious courts can be appealed to the similar circles of the Court of Cassation in Damascus.
The sectarian court was created by Law No. 134 in 1945, according to lawyer Hawija. The appointment of judges of the Druze sect is based on the proposal of the “Druze Religious Board”. The Ministry of Justice issues a decree appointing the person elected by the spiritual leaders as a judge for the Druze sect.
Attorney Sahar Hawija believes that the available option which may be more acceptable than marriage within the Druze sect in the sectarian court system in Syria is “optional civil marriage” (a dual system of marriage), that is, by legislating a law that is approved as an official civil marriage and is a right of Syrians.
Otherwise, maintaining personal status laws through which the marriage or divorce contract is regulated according to the will of both parties should be the applied. Enab Baladi *
Ten years after the Syrian revolution, Syrian women find themselves in a critical situation. Despite much progress and the many rights they have obtained in some areas, there are declines in others. Sometimes there is progress on the level of laws, as in the regions of north-eastern Syria, but societal traditions prevent the progress from being put into practice, so how can we get out of this deadlock? How can Syrian women participate in shaping Syria’s future?
Many of the societal restrictions prevailing in society are still the same, and the Autonomous Administration has not been able to remove them, such as the position on the issue of sex without getting married, or the marriage between people from different religions, as well as homosexuality as part of the structural discrimination practiced against the LGBTQIA+ community. Syria Untold *
Every June, the world celebrates Pride, yet many Syrians still live in fear of oppression from various parties to the conflict, as well as from our own communities. Pride Month should be a time not just for reflecting on what has been achieved for LGBTQIA+ rights, but also for remembering those of us who have suffered, who are disappeared and even killed simply because of our sexual orientations. Aljumhuriya *
In 2012, detainee Alaa Morelli appeared on the Syrian state television under the pseudonym Binan al-Hassan. The government had forced her to do so. They broadcast an exclusive interview with her, under the pretext that she had previously made false statements to Al Jazeera. She was arrested when she was still a university student, and handed a ready-made charge.
“After I appeared on television, people started visiting us,” Alaa remembers. “My father supported me. He stood up in front of everyone and stated in a loud voice that I was on television, and that he considered me a heroine.”
In 2013, a pro-regime channel aired a documentary of three women detainees: Sara al-Alou, Fatima Faroukh and Ferial Abdul Rahim. They were forced to talk about performing “sexual jihad with armed men from the opposition factions.”
When it comes to the survivors of detention, some fingers point directly to rape, but what about the media rape that the Syrian regime practiced against female detainees and forced them to speak on its media screens, with the aim of harming women as a result of their political stand or the political opinions of their relatives!
Sahbaa al-Khodr is a psychologist working in cognitive behavioural therapy. She says that part of her therapy for women survivors of detention consists of re-empowering them to face society’s perception of them and enable them to enter the job market and improve their relationships with their relatives. It is also important to enhance their self-image, and to try to integrate them into society, especially due to the changes they have to face, like separation from their spouses or deprivation of their children or parents. They may not be able to correct these conditions, and here the intervention must be to work on their adaptation to the new contexts with the least possible psychological harm.
Regarding these social practices that haunt many survivors of detention, social worker Amani Sanda told Syria Untold and the Let’s Achieve Justice Campaign that: “Detention is always viewed from a legal angle only to punish the regime.”
“Are there organisations that provided real support and social integration for the survivors?” Syria Untold *
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.
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
