On the role of women

The question of the role of women in the Revolution and Syria to come is at the best of times marginalized and at the worst dismissed altogether. Women have been at the heart of the Revolution in one way or another. What people seem not to recognize is that the Revolution would have fallen by now were it not for its women, and were it not that they are the power that protects, saves, nurtures and gives the strength to continue, yet the role of woman has always been disguised by understatements and male-imposed sublimations.” Madonna”, mother, sister, wife and so on, but never the woman who is equal to man. I have always maintained that the strength of the Arab world lies in its women, rather than its men. Were it not for the Palestinian women, their strength of character, their unwavering courage and dedication, their legendary fortitude, the name of Palestine would have grown fainter and much more invisible to the world. The Syrian women of the Revolution and of Syria to come are of no less stature and they will teach us all that the marginalized, the underestimated, the suppressed,and undervalued will raise wounded Syria from the abyss and with the latent life forces residing in them will also help to save it.