Syrian Women’s Council calls for measures to reduce "shadow epidemic" against women
North-Press Agency
The Syrian Women’s Council has condemned all forms of violence against women in Syria, calling for a reduction in violence against women and finding ways to combat this violence during the coronavirus epidemic.
In a statement read on Monday in the city of Qamishli, the council urged the Autonomous Administration to form a crisis management team to confront what it called a “shadow epidemic”, similar to the crisis management team that was formed to confront the coronavirus.
They called for cooperation with various civil organizations and societies working in the human rights field “to demand that governments implement sanctions and prosecute perpetrators of domestic violence.”
The Council appealed to the United Nations to work to implement all decision and agreements concerning women’s rights, and to guarantee this rights worldwide.
They explained that the coronavirus pandemic “has revealed hidden things, and has rung the alarm and exposed patriarchal culture based on ethical duality, especially in time of adversity and crisis,” the statement read.
The statement added that in recent months, the country has witnessed a prevalence of suicides among women as a result of the psychological pressure they are exposed to as well as harm at the hands of their partners and relatives, pointing to what they describe as “revenge killings of women in several Syrian cities such as as-Suwayda, Latakia, Kobani, and Qamishli.
Mona Abdulsalam, an administrator in the Sara Organization for Combating Violence Against Women, said in a previous statement to North-Press that there was no increase in cases of violence against women, according to information they obtained from the Women’s Foundation.
The quarantine imposed to prevent the spread of coronavirus puts psychological, financial, and economic pressure on members of society in addition to creating social problems, according to psychological counselor Muhammed Ali Othman, administrator of the SMART Civil Activities Organization.
In early April, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for measures to address what he called the “horrific global surge in domestic violence” against women and girls, linked to government-imposed closures implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.