DAMASCUS, Syria (North Press) – While she was jogging as she used to every day, 27-year-old Nour Farnaz (a pseudonym), an IDP from Deir ez-Zor residing in Sahnaya in Damascus, was subjected to a sexual assault attempt that causes her panic whenever she remembers the incident.
Olive groves in Sahnaya, which is characterized by its density of olive trees, have turned from a relaxing place for families into one of the most dangerous places for women, as it increasingly witnesses incidents of harassment.
Farnaz, a medical student at Damascus University, recalls that day: “In March, in the afternoon that day, as usual I went out for jogging, wearing my headphones listening to music, and then I was shocked with a hand grabbing my body from behind.”
Immediately, Farnaz started shouting, insulting, and attempting to hit him until he managed to run away.
During the incident, two young men, driving a car nearby “kept watching and did not even move,” she said.
“They sarcastically looked at me and they did not even ask me if I needed help,” she added.
“At the end of the road there are restaurants where weddings are held, and the area often witnesses shooting incidents,” according to her.
Farnaz did not file a report with police regarding the incident, “because police officers’ looks themselves, for a situation like mine, is another harassment. Additionally, it will change nothing,” she added.
“I will never step foot there again, for me it is enough to be panicked since then,” she indicated.
There is a narrow road that passes through olive trees, where people go either for exercise in the morning, walk, sit among the trees, and eat, and fast cars with tinted windows attend evening parties.
Following repeated cases of harassment and assault, 42-year-old lawyer Laila Tahmaz (a pseudonym), who used to jog with her 19-year-old daughter every day at dawn, said, “Now I go out at different time, accompanied by my son and daughter, to avoid disturbing incidents.”
Tahmaz expressed her sympathy for the victims of these incidents, whic occur everywhere in Damascus.
Women are always exposed to these situations “as a result of society’s neglect of holding such people accountable; rather, they tolerate them and blame women,” according to the lawyer.
The Syrian Penal Code distinguishes between the types of assault according to their degree, the most severe of which are rape, then harassment, then indecent acts, and then violation to public morals, and these crimes (except for rape) are misdemeanors that carry a prison sentence of between three months and three years.
Article 506 of the Syrian Penal Code states, “Those who indulge in enticing a minor below 15, or a girl above 15, for indecent acts, or addresses them in an indecent way, is subject to 3 days of detention, a penalty of 75,000 Syrian pounds, or both.”
Yazan Marzouq (a pseudonym), a real state office owner in the town of Sahnaya, who is married and has a son, goes out as often as possible with his wife by car to the olive groves, hoping to find the person who previously molested his wife.
“I will not resort to security services or the judiciary to regain my right, as I am sure that whoever conducts such acts is one of them, or protected by them,” he said.
28-year-old Warda al-Sobhi (a pseudonym), a mother of one residing in Sahnaya, no longer visits the olive groves after “being subjected to verbal harassment more than once by some gatherings of youth.”
She concealed the incident from her husband and her family “to avoid problems that she might face.”
36-year-old Raw’a Muhammad (a pseudonym), an activist in the field of protecting women from gender-based violence, told North Press, “Harassment is not a new phenomenon in Syrian society.”
The absence of legal deterrents and the failure of its articles to meet reality are major reasons for the spread of such phenomenon.
The societal inferiority of women, and the stigma that may follow her as a result of being exposed to an incident that has nothing to do with her, prevents her from filing a complaint or informing anyone regarding it, Muhammad says.
Even if she dares to file a complaint and resort to the judiciary, proving the incident or identifying the perpetrator, who may be protected by the government, may become an impossible task and make her pursuit of justice useless, according to the lawyer.
“In light of the security, judicial, and societal failures, all Syria, not only the olive region, will become dangerous places where residents generally and women specifically will not be able to live,” she elaborated.