Maria Al Abdeh

Yet another pushback for Syrian women to leave the public spaces for the powerful men who behave as if these spaces are their ownership. It is 1:00 pm on a hot summer day in my hometown of Idlib. I was speeding my steps to my mathematics class, holding my books and looking down at the street as good girls do, when I was suddenly hugged. Yes hugged, not grabbed nor harassed as usual.

From the outset of the crisis, women have played a significant role in challenging violent and extremist agendas inside Syria. However, the difference between Syrian women’s definition of extremism and that of the international community is very deep: for Syrian women, every act of violence committed in the war is 'ideological and terrorist' in nature, being constructed upon the logic of the extermination of the 'Other'.