Meet Ayla and Samya. Ayla runs her own beauty salon, while Samya has started a hairdressing business from her home in Homs. Both businesses are still in their infancy but the fact they exist at all is a testament to the women’s bravery, resilience and hard work.

Both Ayla and Samya are survivors of Gender-Based Violence (GBV). Every day women and girls across the world are affected by GBV but in Syria a staggering 8.5 million are said to be experiencing such violence. A new project, supported by Embrace and run by our partners MERATH is helping to tackle this.

Why is GBV particularly high in Syria?

Decades of conflict and violence have left many in Syria scarred by their traumatic experiences. PTSD and other mental health conditions can lead to a rise in violence in the home. As can economic pressures, with many families in Syria living below the poverty line and under huge stresses to meet their basic needs.

Traditional cultural values also play a part. The traditional expectation that wives should be subservient to their husbands, and the continuing practice of early marriages, leave many girls and women vulnerable to exploitation. Samya was married at just 15, partly because of her family’s economic difficulties. “I opposed the decision, but what could a child like me do?”

For many Syrian women experiencing GBV, escaping their situation is incredibly difficult

GBV is not commonly acknowledged in Syria, so often women remain silent in the face of abuse. Many are unaware of their rights or the existence of any support services to help them and believe that GBV is just a fact of life – something to be endured not challenged.

Or, like Ayla, they blame themselves: “I saw myself as nothing but a weak, miserable woman. I used to avoid people, because I felt ashamed.”

Most are also economically trapped, without their own source of income or assets and so unable to leave their abusive husbands. Displacement and the breakdown of social cohesion from the decades of conflict and sanctions have left families more isolated. Women often do not have a support network of family and friends – and even when they do, poverty levels mean few are able to offer any material help, such as paying for legal advice or offering them somewhere safe to stay.

The church-run support centre for GBV survivors

To help address this problem, the Christian community in Homs opened up a support centre to help women like Ayla and Samya, which Embrace is helping to fund through our partner MERATH.

For Samya, who had reached the state of contemplating suicide to escape her ordeal, the centre was literally a lifeline:

“I cannot forget the psychological state I was in before coming to the centre, my dark thoughts and my feelings of loneliness and isolation. I was broken by the violence I experienced… They welcomed me with love, and the case manager sat with me and listened to me talk about everything I had been through. When I left after the first session, I felt relief and happiness, just because I was able to express what was inside me, for the first time and without shame. I suddenly had this vivid hope that this centre would really be able to help me.”

As well as counselling and psychological support, women can access a range of other services through the centre – including healthcare, legal advice to help with things like divorce proceedings and vocational training. It was the training that Ayla found most helpful:

“My biggest dream was to work in a beauty salon. So, the centre referred me to hairdressing, makeup, and nail art courses. Through my participation in these trainings, I became more and more determined to learn and achieve. My self-confidence increased due to the encouragement of the trainers and the case manager. They helped me to engage with others in the first place and to form good social relationships. After these courses, they gave me a sum of money that enabled me to buy the equipment I needed to start my own business in women’s hairdressing and nail polish. It was a wonderful turning point in my life. As I mastered the profession, appointments began to increase and with it my financial income, which made me able to provide for my family’s basic needs.”

Job opportunities in Syria remain extremely limited, particularly for women, so starting a homebased business like Ayla and Samya have both done, is often the first step to financial independence.

Changing attitudes to GBV

The centre is also working to tackle some of the root causes of GBV, with workshops to raise awareness of forms of GBV, the issues of early marriage, the importance of education for girls and to make everyone aware of women’s rights. They also run sessions for boys and talk with family members to help women and their families break the cycle of abuse.

The women themselves have also become powerful champions of change. Samya only went to the centre because a neighbour, who had also benefitted from its services, encouraged her. Samya says: ‘I am also passing the lessons I learnt to my children, teaching them how to protect themselves from harassment, and encouraging them to complete their education. One of my obsessions is now to support my daughters so that they don’t go through the experience or early marriage.’

Ayla is equally determined to make sure her 13-year-old sister is protected from early marriage, “I feel like her guardian, and I don't want her to go through what I went through.”  She believes that her relationship with her male relatives – particularly her brother and uncle – have improved thanks to the conflict handling techniques she now has and she feels empowered to “say “no” to everyone or anything that hurts me. I now set goals for my own life, and I strive to achieve them.”

In a country scarred by years of violence, with its economy and social cohesion in tatters, the challenges facing many women in Syria women, particularly those experiencing GBV, remain vast. But the stories of Samya and Ayla show the huge impact this small project is having – not only helping women escape abuse and transform their lives, but the ripple effect it has on those around them. We pray that eventually those ripples will turn into a tide of change.

No one should have to face the horrors of gender-based violence and we must all continue to fight for a world in which GBV has no place. 25 November is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and the UN is marking this with 16 days of activism – find out more here.

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