The town of Marayan in rural Idlib has incubated a conference under the title “Women for the Better”, which proposed, on Thursday 29 March, affairs related to gender-based violence, under the supervision of “Humanitarian Restoration Hope,” which states its belief in the abilities and capacity of Syrian people, thus, seeks to empower and enhance.
Mervat al-Besh, one of the conference’s organizers, told Enab Baladi that the event proposed issues that serve to generally introduce violence as the United Nations defines it, in addition to its types, forms and the ways to prevent it. During the conference, a number of women, who succeeded to impact society, were honored.
Al-Besh described the conference as an awareness initiative, “in the shadow of the wide spread violence,” which she attributed to a number of reasons, the most important of which are: “the massive and repetitive displacement, security conditions, traditions, lack of education and the prevalence of ignorance.”
Woman choosing to work has positively reflected on their families, according the initiative’s organizer, for “the spread of violence is preventing women from preserving their families, because battered woman usually reflects her situation on her children, whose behavior changes to gradually take a violent form.”
The conference came as a result for the polls that have been conducted for the three-past months, which targeted the most involved social segment, according to al-Besh, who pointed out that the event will be repeated in the same location in the upcoming days.
Enab Baladi interviewed some of the attendees, including Ahmad al-Hamoush, who said “it was necessary to explain the idea of domestic violence in an expanded manner, which can be justifiable sometimes. Still, the people who are ignorant about it must know all its details.”
He proposed solutions to the problem, the most important of which are “not to expand on matters that might confuse the oriental woman, through limitation not prevention of some of these matters, in addition to clarifying right behaviors from wrongful ones and trying to overcome the shortcomings.”
For her part, Um al-Noor, a woman based in Idlib, said that violence is “massively” spread in the community where she lives.
Um al-Noor believes that through the conference, “women’s awareness can be enhanced, so they would know their duties and rights.”
“Humanitarian Restoration Hope” Organization was established as an association in 2015 to be registered in Turkey in 2016. The organization functions in woman and child protection field and has a team specialized in war remnants.
The organization offers its activities in the Atmeh camps through its headquarters in the city of Idlib. It also has an office in the northern countryside of Idlib, according Mohammad Halaweh, an administrative official in the organization.