Women Now vigil in remembrance of Jo Cox MP. Women Now. All rights reserved.
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 deep: for Syrian women, every act of violence committed in the war is 'ideological and terrorist' in nature, constructed upon the logic of the extermination of the 'other'. Based on this approach, female activists have led protests against all kinds of dictatorship and terrorism, from the Assad regime to ISIS, while also risking their lives to protest and lead campaigns for the liberation of detained prisoners, and against child recruitment. Some of these stories have been heard; some were documented in a 2015 Badael report. Many other stories have not made the headlines.
