Syrian women's century-long fight for sociopolitical change

During the French Mandate, Syria’s women’s movement went from grassroots protest to established force, setting up schools, helping the poor, and calling for rights and votes

Aliaa Abou Khaddour

Syrian women's century-long fight for sociopolitical change

Sawsan Jamil Hasan

last update on 12 Jan 2025

At a time of upheaval in Syria, it is worth remembering that Syrian women helped reshape the politics and social expectations of their nation at a time of upheaval a century ago. Indeed, they are no strangers to forging a new path.

During the French Mandate, women led calls for meaningful reform, mobilising public opinion towards social change with demands that became central to the national discourse and helped create the underpinnings for Syria today. This movement had improved the living conditions and legal status of women by 1946 and was pushing for the right to vote.

Historian Elizabeth Thompson points out that Syrian women sought to mirror the rights enjoyed by their European peers. Her study, The Women’s Movement and the Rise of the Colonial Welfare State in Syria (1920–1946), also outlines how they pushed for basic legal protections for workers, women, and families. The legacy of that effort remains meaningful in a country that is once again setting out to remake itself.

Progress from battle

A century ago, in July 1924, a young woman called Nazik Al-Abid got dressed in military attire and led a battalion of nurses from the Arab Army into battle at Maysalun, west of Damascus. Striding into battle, Al-Abid strode into the history books, a trailblazing fighter for independence and women’s rights.

Wikicommons — Nazik Al-Abid in military garb before the Battle of Maysalun, 1920.

That day was one of defeat for King Faisal’s Syrian Arab Kingdom and marked the end of the state he established after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in October 1918. King Faisal wanted to modernise Arab society, and Al-Abid was a staunch supporter. She pledged to continue fighting for equality after he lost the throne.

Alongside numerous other women, Al-Abid was an activist throughout the time of the French Mandate from 1920-46, which was backed by the League of Nations. She helped establish the groundwork for a politically significant women’s movement that reshaped political culture in Syria after it was, in effect, handed to France.

Before the French Mandate, politics in Syria was dominated by a male elite, with social reforms largely driven by the Ottomans and later by King Faisal. But during and after World War I, grassroots movements began pressing for meaningful reforms. The Syrian women’s movement was one of them, one that had a transformative effect.

Education and charity

Before that, women led the Syrian charitable associations that emerged in the late 19th century. Inspired by Christian missionaries, these organisations established schools for girls in cities to alleviate poverty and promote social progress in line with Ottoman reforms. During World War I, the associations tackled poverty, hunger, and disease.

After the missionaries were expelled by Ottoman authorities, affecting schools and clinics, the Ottomans began backing women’s charities for both social and political purposes. But the Ottoman governor of Syria, Jamal Pasha, grew fearful that Syrian women might incite a revolution against the Sultan.

Syrian women led calls for meaningful reform and mobilised public opinion toward social change with demands that became central to the national discourse

His concerns heightened following bread shortage protests in 1916, which he suppressed by executing Arab nationalist leaders. As Thompson notes in her research, these protests were a contributing factor to change. During this period, the Ottoman Empire was in decline, with Syrian nationalists seeking to overthrow it.

State-funding schemes were in place to drive social change and alleviate poverty, and women from the urban elite were gathering hungry children from the streets and offering them baths, medical check-ups, literacy lessons, and training in manual labour.

Among these women was Adila Bayhum Al-Jazairi, the founder of the women's movement in Damascus, as documented in Ghada Hashem Talhami's The Historical Dictionary of Women in the Middle East and North Africa.

Light of Damascus

After Faisal's ascent to power and the formation of the Arab National State, al-Abid also sought governmental support to establish two associations: Al-Najma Al-Hamra (The Red Star), inspired by the Red Cross and Nur Al-Fayha'a (Light of Damascus), to promote Arab culture through girls' education and a newspaper.

At the same time, Mary Ajami, a pioneering journalist and founder of the Al-Arus magazine, set up the Christian Women's Club with financing from King Faisal. During his brief reign (1918-20), women's associations merged social progress with the political aim of establishing an independent Arab state, showing Arabs' state-building abilities.

Mary Ajami, a Syrian poet and pioneering feminist writer in Arabic, who launched the first women's periodical in Western Asia called Al Arus, 1915. pic.twitter.com/AgMZBvCymJ
— Historic Women Daily (@historicwomens) April 16, 2024

Al-Abid and her peers advocated for women's suffrage in the Syrian Congress, citing women's wartime contributions and highlighting American and British examples. While she had support, it was postponed due to public protests.

The Arab Congress proclaimed sovereignty over Greater Syria in July 1919, and Faisal became king in March 1920, but the French military dismantled the kingdom, parliament, and nationalist ambitions by July 1920. With Faisal exiled to Rome, state backing for women's associations ended.

Funds were redirected to French charities like the Red Cross and Goutte de Lait (Drop of Milk), weakening the Syrian women's movement. The French authorities also closed Al-Abid's school and the Red Star Association, compelling many Syrian activists to join French-administered associations.

Against the Mandate

It was not long before Syrians revolted against the French Mandate, beginning in 1925. During this time, an independent women's movement—the Syrian-Lebanese Women's Union—was established.

Around 30 women convened to draft petitions to the League of Nations and support rebels hiding in the Ghouta region. Al-Abid and Al-Jazairi were both key figures in the Union, as was Thuraya Al-Hafez, who, in 1928, would become one of Syria's first female teachers.

Nazik Al-Abid and Adila Al-Jazairi were key figures in the Syrian-Lebanese Women's Union Union, as was Thuraya Al-Hafez, who became one of Syria's first female teachers

The Union established women's committees in various cities and convened its first conference in Beirut in 1928, which was attended by more than 1,000 women representing up to 40 Syrian and Lebanese associations. Initially, the programme focused on social (rather than political) issues.

Delegates called for more girls' schools and the teaching of Arabic and history. They sought financial aid for the sick and elderly, as well as for prisoners. They also demanded stricter hygiene standards in (and inspections of) bakeries because bread baked in unsanitary conditions was believed to be spreading disease.

Finally, they urged reforms to personal status laws grounded in Sharia (Islamic law), including raising the minimum marriage age to 17, restrictions on polygamy, inheritance laws giving equal shares for women and men, and the right to seek a divorce. These demands were inspired by reforms for women introduced in the newly emerging Turkish state after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

At the time, French Mandate authorities in Syria were blocking similar reforms because they needed the backing of conservative Syrian politicians. Yet women's demands were nevertheless creating a new political culture in Damascus, one that aimed to secure full political rights for women.

Suddenly, Syrian women were being seen as active citizens, driving calls for reform. Marrying later meant they could stay in school longer, equal inheritance rights meant they could fund political initiatives, and the freedom to leave oppressive marriages meant they could lead better lives.

Conservative resistance

Syria's colonial rulers and the country's religious authorities worked together to obstruct and push back against these calls for change. In 1928, High Commissioner Henri Ponsot allowed the election of a constitutional assembly but later opposed the adoption of a national constitution that would grant ultimate authority to local representatives.

Syrian leaders—many of whom had politically-active wives—established the National Bloc, which had a profound impact on Damascus's political culture

By 1930, Ponsot introduced a constitution that vested supreme authority in the French High Commissioner (himself) and secured the parliamentary election of tribal leaders and large landowners—all key conservative allies of the colonial regime. In response, nationalist leaders—many of whom had politically-active wives—established what became known as the National Bloc.

It won a parliamentary majority in 1936 but nonetheless faced criticism from more radical nationalists, so to solidify its urban voting base, the Bloc aligned itself with Islamic groups. This pragmatic alliance led to the rejection of civil marriage and personal status law reforms in 1938 and significantly weakened the women's movement.

By then, the movement was having a profound impact on Damascus's political culture, chiefly by bringing social issues into political discussions. Many of the movement's leaders were educated women working as teachers, using their professions to advance social mobilisation.

Al-Hafez, for instance, founded Dar Kafalat Al-Fatat (Girls' Sponsorship Home) with Saniyah Al-Qabbani in 1930. It initially served 20 girls, mainly orphans or those from impoverished backgrounds. By the time it closed in 1965, there were 400 students enrolled.

Al-Hafez won support from middle-class women and actively participated—alongside her students—in nationalist protests, calling for better wages and improved working conditions for women. Likewise, Al-Jazairi founded a girls' school in 1931 that focused on teaching nationalist issues in Arabic. She managed the school for decades, cultivating generations of politically active graduates.

Challenging convention

Beginning in the 1920s, literary salons run by women became crucial hubs for social and intellectual exchange. Mary Ajami established one in her home and drew prominent nationalists to speak, including Fakhri Al-Baroudi and Fares Al-Khoury. She challenged societal conventions by hosting both men and women together, and by the late 1930s, a series of women-led lectures at the Arab Academy in Damascus—a venue once reserved exclusively for men—were being organised by the Women's Cultural Club.

Maryana Marrash, a Syrian writer and poet of the Nahda, by Ṣābūnjī, 1913. She revived the tradition of literary salons in the Arab world and was the first Syrian woman to publish a collection of poetry. She may have been the first woman to write in an Arabic-language newspapers. pic.twitter.com/iI834T31Xl
— Historic Women Daily (@historicwomens) April 8, 2024

The early women's movement had limited success in achieving reforms or significantly improving the conditions of women and citizens in general. For instance, it did not win the right to vote for women, as championed by Al-Abid and Ajami. But they persisted, as did the organisations they established and the people they inspired.

The movement evolved and became more organised after independence, particularly in the 1940s, when younger women were joining the Communist Party, whose women's section spawned influential national figures such as Maqbula al-Shalak and Falak Tarazi. In July 1942, Tarazi urged women to become Syria's 'social engineers' while balancing family responsibilities.

Such messages drew criticism from conservative and religious figures, but the momentum was apparent. By 1948, collaboration with the Communist Party led to the establishment of the Syrian Women's League for the Protection of Motherhood and Childhood in several provinces.

Today, as Syria rebuilds not only its state institutions but also its societal fabric, the country's new leaders may give thought to the pivotal role played by Syrian women in a similar endeavour in the first half of the 20th century.

Then, as now, the advancement of women and the safeguarding of their status and freedoms means battling the state's more conservative forces. But in 2025, the momentum is once again clear.

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