DAMASCUS, Syria (North Press) – In conjunction with the commemoration of the International Men’s Day last week, Syrians circulated on social media posts attributed to the Syrian feminist movement, which focused in their entirety on criticizing the man.
The 19th of November of each year coincides with International Men’s Day, which sources say is a day to highlight the positive role of men and their contribution to life and the promotion of gender equality.
The celebration of this occasion by some Syrians sparked a controversy on Facebook pages and groups about women’s rights and the feminist movement and its definition.
But it is noteworthy that the occasion of the International Day of Men brought with it a female interaction, which was manifested in irritable and quieter opinions about the responsibility of men towards the marginalization of women and their long grievances throughout history.
Reaction to violence
“In my view, feminism is a movement that comes in the context of women’s reaction to male violence in societies,” feminist Sawsan Fattoum told North Press.
The man, according to her opinion, “controls the joints of life and is the ultimate decision-maker in it.”
The activist working for the Kafa Foundation notes that “feminism takes the form of a movement of women and men who believe in activating the stolen role of women and extracting some rights, including participation in decision-making circles.”
The mistake of the feminist movement, according to Fattoum, who lives in Damascus, is mainly embodied in its “inability to change the impression it has created since its inception.”
She added that those who followed the start of the feminist movement, whose aim was to reduce violence and persecution against women, were fully aware that the frequency of violence against women had increased, especially during the war and the successive economic crises.
Fattoum declared that their work focused on the idea of women’s economic empowerment as a first step towards obtaining women’s rights in turn, and stressed “the importance of not breaking the partnership with the man, as the issue is neither confrontations nor challenges.”
Unjustified male hostility
Activist Sarah Shannan said that Feminism is an ideological stream that aims exclusively to equality between male and female. She added, “This is its concept in a simple and free form of complications that many try to introduce into the definition.”
Shannan, who studied at the Department of Education and Psychology from Damascus University, said that she did not consider feminist initiatives to have a real impact, at that time.
“Most of the feminist currents face an imbalance in the transmission of information, especially since the world has become a small village, and anyone can spread their ideas through social media.” Shannan said.
She added, “Since feminism became a trend centered around the rights of the vulnerable sex, so it became a highly emotional issue.”
“So, it is natural that we find a lot of radical feminists because of the victim complex.”
The activist referred to the media distortion that embodied the image of a feminist woman in a provocative manner that caused rejection by the society.
She added, “The woman bears a responsibility in suppressing her. The oppressed woman is the one who establishes and educates the oppressor itself, and as there is a saying that the first enemy of the woman is the woman who raises her enemy herself,” she said.
The activist declared that the fabricated war between the two sexes “is a pure human creation, and therefore there is a systematic force that maintains this war and we do not notice it.”
Sarah Shannan believed that feminist initiatives suffer from diaspora and randomness, as “demonstrations, slogans, and not shaving armpits do not help battered women anything.”
“Male hostility is unjustified, irrational, and complicates the issue because gender equality requires action by both sexes,” she added.
Humanitarian imperative
Alaa Odeh, writer, told North press that the feminist movement was a human necessity as long as the social injustice directed against women exists.
Odeh, who resides in Damascus, added that one of the mistakes of the feminist movement is the difficulty of establishing independent and effective reference entities under the umbrella of the existing totalitarian regimes.
The writer declared that there is a difference between the rational feminists who perform the theorizing out-of-excitement, and “the angry, rapidly-inflamed feminists,” as he described it.
He believed that “work on society should follow two lines; One line targets the top of the pyramid, and another line targets its base.”