NESRİN KELEŞ

Qamishlo- Nafusa Hasso, a lawyer and member of the Women’s Justice Council, spoke to NuJINHA about gender-based violence, femicide, and the pressure on women in the name of tradition in NE Syria. She emphasized that the ongoing war in Syria and Rojava has a negative effect on human behavior and causes the increase of femicide and gender-based violence in NE Syria.

“Laws and procedures should not be flexible under any circumstances,” Nafusa Hasso said that people in Syria have faced a human tragedy for the last ten years. “The increase in femicide, gender-based violence, particularly domestic violence, and social violence are linked with the humanitarian crisis and war,” she told us.

“No reason can justify femicide”

Emphasizing that no reason can justify the killing of women, Nafusa Hasso said, “In order to eliminate violence in a patriarchal society, we should first eliminate traditions, customs, and reactionary social judgments and fight against patriarchal mentality. Forced displacement, ongoing attacks, and economic crises cause an increase in gender-based violence. The factors caused by the war increase not only the rate of femicide but also suicide. Suicide among women should be considered as femicide.”

“We should understand that killing of women cannot be justified in the name of honor or other things. Killing a woman or causing a woman to commit suicide is a crime. The criminals shouldn’t be granted extra good time,” she added.

“A cultural change is needed”

Speaking about the importance of gender-based education, Nafusa Hasso emphasized that laws are not sufficient to eliminate gender-based violence, “A cultural change is needed to eliminate gender-based violence. It is a must to end gender-based violence, femicide and child marriage. We should carry out awareness-raising activities to change the culture. In NE Syria, women’s communes work coordinately with the Women's Justice Council to prevent gender-based violence.”