Thank you for this insightful and thoughtful interview. As someone who works for an INGO that has been providing aid and support to Syrians in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan for the past 10+ years, this update is helpful in understanding the complexity of the situation now, and some of what might lie ahead. I want to be as optimistic as Ms. Mrie -- and I see no reason why she shouldn't be, to be honest -- but as I grow older I am increasingly convinced that men, categorically, are no longer capable of building civic, social, and economic structures and systems that are less harmful and more equitable (if they ever were).
Women, categorically, are better at this, but they are never given the power or the freedom to even try (except in extremely isolated and rare circumstances). In this region, where women are more obviously disempowered and oppressed generally, I fear we will end up seeing more of the same -- sectarian conflicts that place religious interpretations (and, let's face it, raw power) over anything resembling democracy, along with the usual corruption wrought by external players and the private sector, bearing promises that are too good to be true. Whether Syrians can collectively and collaboratively build a truly diverse, inclusive, and accountable civil society and free and independent press, where human rights are the foundation of the state apparatus and all policy and law, and where truth and reconciliation lead to national healing and increased unity, really remains to be seen.
I believe in them as much as I always have, but some things, regardless of the country, seem never to change. There is a reason why their next-door neighbor, Iraq, has banned literally anything that publicly discusses "gender." Subjugation of women as equal, powerful, and influential active citizens is so deeply entrenched in the world generally, to say nothing of the region, I fear Syria will end up looking a lot like Iraq -- stable, perhaps, but not equitable or really democratic (despite how many democratically-elected women sit in its parliament).
Compassion, care, and basic fairness are virtues widely characterized as "feminine," and these are fundamental to the kind of recovery and rebuilding the Syrian people are facing (or any people recovering from this kind of trauma). I'm sure there will be others who say, "you can't reduce such complexities down to something as simplistic and binary as 'men and women,' and women are just as bad as men, blah blah blah." OK, well, direct me to some concrete examples of women building and sustaining -- over centuries -- vast, oppressive violent empires; point me to the women dictators who have committed genocide and disappeared hundreds of thousands of innocent people; show me the massive international economic systems controlled by women that rob everyday people of their dignity. Show me the women heads-of-state and billionaires who are calling the shots in our volatile geopolitical landscape. The burden of proof is on those who say "it's not about gender," because we have the history of humanity as our evidence.
And it isn't an either/or -- it's the difference between having only men make decisions that impact millions of people and having men and women (and other genders while we're at it) working together and grounding their approaches in compassion, care, fairness, humility, mutual accountability, and trust. I really hope they can do it, but men with power rarely give it up and will always resist accountability for the harm they've done.
It will be a disaster. Sorry. Western media has some sort of movie Nostalgia for revolution that ends up in a good place. It never happens. Just look at Egypt Libya etc....
Thank you for this insightful and thoughtful interview. As someone who works for an INGO that has been providing aid and support to Syrians in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan for the past 10+ years, this update is helpful in understanding the complexity of the situation now, and some of what might lie ahead. I want to be as optimistic as Ms. Mrie -- and I see no reason why she shouldn't be, to be honest -- but as I grow older I am increasingly convinced that men, categorically, are no longer capable of building civic, social, and economic structures and systems that are less harmful and more equitable (if they ever were).
Women, categorically, are better at this, but they are never given the power or the freedom to even try (except in extremely isolated and rare circumstances). In this region, where women are more obviously disempowered and oppressed generally, I fear we will end up seeing more of the same -- sectarian conflicts that place religious interpretations (and, let's face it, raw power) over anything resembling democracy, along with the usual corruption wrought by external players and the private sector, bearing promises that are too good to be true. Whether Syrians can collectively and collaboratively build a truly diverse, inclusive, and accountable civil society and free and independent press, where human rights are the foundation of the state apparatus and all policy and law, and where truth and reconciliation lead to national healing and increased unity, really remains to be seen.
I believe in them as much as I always have, but some things, regardless of the country, seem never to change. There is a reason why their next-door neighbor, Iraq, has banned literally anything that publicly discusses "gender." Subjugation of women as equal, powerful, and influential active citizens is so deeply entrenched in the world generally, to say nothing of the region, I fear Syria will end up looking a lot like Iraq -- stable, perhaps, but not equitable or really democratic (despite how many democratically-elected women sit in its parliament).
Compassion, care, and basic fairness are virtues widely characterized as "feminine," and these are fundamental to the kind of recovery and rebuilding the Syrian people are facing (or any people recovering from this kind of trauma). I'm sure there will be others who say, "you can't reduce such complexities down to something as simplistic and binary as 'men and women,' and women are just as bad as men, blah blah blah." OK, well, direct me to some concrete examples of women building and sustaining -- over centuries -- vast, oppressive violent empires; point me to the women dictators who have committed genocide and disappeared hundreds of thousands of innocent people; show me the massive international economic systems controlled by women that rob everyday people of their dignity. Show me the women heads-of-state and billionaires who are calling the shots in our volatile geopolitical landscape. The burden of proof is on those who say "it's not about gender," because we have the history of humanity as our evidence.
And it isn't an either/or -- it's the difference between having only men make decisions that impact millions of people and having men and women (and other genders while we're at it) working together and grounding their approaches in compassion, care, fairness, humility, mutual accountability, and trust. I really hope they can do it, but men with power rarely give it up and will always resist accountability for the harm they've done.
It will be a disaster. Sorry. Western media has some sort of movie Nostalgia for revolution that ends up in a good place. It never happens. Just look at Egypt Libya etc....