BY Journalist Hafidar Khalid

-In a world dominated by chaos and turmoil,everyone is in search of perfection, striving for a better future, wandering through realms of imagination, unaware of the shifts occurringaround them in principles, values, and morals. Everything seems to be losing its luster and brilliance under the weight of the idealized life promoted by online platforms. This life of perfection, which has become merely a figment of imagination, unfolds to the rhythm of a bitter reality that burns both the green and the dry alike, it is the dream of many today.

Innocent lives are being lost as acts of violence against women and children escalate. Women endure the harshest conditions of life in the twenty-first century a century many claimed would be one of women’s liberation, freeing them from outdated molds, constraints, slavery, and patriarchal, gendered mindsets. Yet, it has turned into a bloody arena where women’s lives are squandered, violence against them is legitimized, and their bodies are exploited by the global capitalist system across various aspects of life—especially in its unjust wars, where women and children find themselves at the heart of the dangers arising from these bloody conflicts.

Women face daily violations and various forms of violence. Through camera lenses and television screens, we witness tragic scenes in war-torn and violated Syria. Following the rise of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham to power, the country experienced severe abuses against the Alawite community, with Alawite women bearing the brunt of crimes and massacres committed against them. One of the most notable cases is the murder of the children of the Syrian Alawite mother, Zarqa Sabahiya, who guarded her children’s bodies after they were killed based on their identity in the massacres that took place along the Syrian coast. During this ordeal, she was subjected to humiliating sectarian slurs—a stark scene that illustrates the magnitude of the tragedy experienced by Alawite women before the eyes of the world.

 

Yes, that crime shook social media and touched the conscience of every person claiming humanity. Her famous word, “I resisted”, still resonates in the minds of honorable Syrians, as she used it to affirm to these mercenaries that she would not surrender to the violence of their attacks, the filth of their ideology, or their extremist traditional jihadist approach.

Despite the promises made by officials of the Transitional Government to Mother Zarqa to punish the killers of her sons, the perpetrators remain free to this day, having not been held accountable or brought to justice. All the assurances given by the Transitional Government have gone up in smoke. Alawites, especially women, continue to live in fear, anxiety, and tension after enduring the bitter consequences of war and violations that amount to war crimes—from abductions, provocations, and killings through field executions, to looting, theft, and the spread of terror via sectarian and racist slogans, as well as the imposition of laws and regulations that reveal the rigidity of mindsets and their methods in excluding women from public life.

 In Syria’s coastal region, entire families were massacred, retaliatory killings were carried out, and homes and shops were looted. All of this reflects the core of the jihadist ideology adopted by these mercenary groups—an ideology well‑known for its hostility toward women’s freedom and struggle, insisting that women must stay in the background, never at the forefront. Their rigid, fossilized mindset leaves no room for women’s activism.

Only months after the massacres committed against Alawites in the Syrian coast—atrocities that echoed widely around the world—new attacks began in mid‑July against the Druze community in southern Syria, particularly in Sweida. The people of the region demonstrated remarkable wisdom and courage as they faced assaults aimed at targeting their very existence.

Factions operating under what is known as the Ministry of Defense carried out severe violations, including field executions of prisoners and detainees, massacres against civilians, mutilation of bodies, and beheadings. There were also cases of mass killings, enforced disappearances, kidnapping, looting, and destruction of property, alongside sexual and gender‑based violence against women and girls. Sacred symbols were desecrated, Druze clerics were forcibly shaved, and hate‑filled online campaigns escalated—depicting the Druze as traitors and infidels, calling for their murder, and even inciting the killing or kidnapping of Druze women.

All these brutal crimes aim to eliminate Syria’s original communities. These groups view the country’s rich diversity, plurality, and vibrant social fabric as a threat to their own existence and their extremist ideology—an ideology born from the womb of the Muslim Brotherhood doctrine, which exploits individuals in the name of religion and weaponizes sacred values to promote its dark agenda.

Once again, crimes against women are committed under so‑called “legitimate” pretexts, and no one is held accountable. No authority investigates or pursues justice. On the contrary, online platforms circulate slogans that legitimize the transitional government’s policies—often with the open support of various parties.

All the scenes and events we witness in the region indicate that we are moving toward a model reminiscent of the emirate established by the Taliban in Afghanistan, where women were stripped of every basic element of life and entirely excluded from public life—as if we are heading toward an even more complex and cruel existence.

In nearby Gaza, Palestinian women endure extremely difficult lives, struggling to secure basic necessities like food and water. At the same time, they are unable to provide proper medical care for their sick children due to the collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system, Israeli restrictions on vital medical supplies, and the continued targeting of hospitals and medical staff, as well as ongoing massacres.

Shifting our focus from Syria to Africa, specifically Sudan in the northeastern part of the continent, the country has been gripped by a brutal conflict between the Sudanese army and Rapid Support Forces for three years. This war has intensified the suffering of civilians, particularly women. Recent UN reports have highlighted growing evidence of systematic and deliberate use of sexual violence in Sudan. Displaced women from Al-Fashir have reported killings, systematic rape, and the abduction of their children, leaving women trapped between oppression, violence, and death.

In Sudan, women’s bodies have become battlegrounds in a war devoid of ethics or humanity, especially due to the reduction of safe spaces and the lack of secure areas where women can seek protection or even the simplest psychological and social support, as clashes rage between the warring factions. According to official statistics, 11 million women in Darfur face hunger and sexual violence. These harsh realities serve the ambitions of patriarchal power, which uses war as a pathway to rule through the killing and targeting of women. This raises urgent questions: Where is the world for Sudan? Where are humanitarian organizations, women’s associations, and the UN? The global community continues to fail, leaving Sudanese people in dire need of basic sustenance and security amid the ruins of war.

Violations, harassment, and crimes against women persist in Sudan and Afghanistan. Will the world merely watch, or will these women’s appeals be heard? Who will heal the wounds deepened by war and the oppressive policies dominating all aspects of life in these troubled lands? In such regions, death surrounds women from every angle.

In Afghanistan, the situation mirrors Sudan. The UN has reported that Taliban restrictions have made women’s work nearly impossible, sharply reducing their access to offices and fieldwork, while the internet blackout further isolates working women. Control and oppression are reinforced through coercive practices, such as prohibiting access to hospitals without wearing the burqa and denying treatment under the guise of “modesty,” turning the healthcare system itself into a tool of repression while the international community remains largely silent.

It is not only Libya where women face bullying and cyberattacks through the circulation of private videos and threats, forcing some young women, out of fear of society and family, to take their own lives. Cyberbullying has thus become one of the most brutal forms of psychological violence against women, spreading unchecked and unpunished. Women in Libya remain vulnerable to all forms of violence, with no protective laws and no serious efforts to combat it.

In Tunisia, official reports revealed 22 cases of women being killed within just two months by husbands or family members, highlighting that protective laws are insufficient against domestic violence, compounded by persistent cultural and social pressures.

Violence knows no borders; it is practiced against women worldwide at an alarming rate. A study published last month reported that 107 women in France were killed by their current or former partners in 2024 alone. These killings, often justified as “honor crimes,” are in reality cold-blooded murders. Society has drowned itself in terminology that legitimizes violence against women, such as “restoring honor” or “family shame,” masking the brutal truth: patriarchal power harshly governs women, ignoring their physical and psychological suffering.

The systematic violence faced by women today highlights the long road ahead in eradicating this scourge. As Abdullah Öcalan notes in his Manifesto of Democratic Society, “Women created society, built the home, and fed their children. There was a women’s clan, a women’s society. She became a goddess and ruled humanity for 30,000 years… Marriage meant imprisonment at home. The bride is adorned and confined within the household, and when women are restricted in this way, they are trapped in massive servitude; they cannot endure it, explode, and chaos ensues, ending with men beating them. Newspapers are full of such reports: one in a thousand men is beaten, but 99% of the time men beat women.” This analysis accurately reflects the daily reality women face.

Amidst this reality, thousands of women and hundreds of women’s organizations continue a steadfast struggle against all forms of violations. These organizations develop strategies to raise collective awareness, enabling women to confront both psychological and physical violence and to resist patriarchal concepts that undermine their existence. The struggles of Kurdish and Arab women have achieved significant progress and continue to inspire, serving as examples for women worldwide to unite against the wars and oppression they face today.

We have explored numerous factors that exacerbate violence against women, methods of resistance, and the harsh realities women endure. While some still pursue “perfection,” promoting idealized lives on social media, the reality is starkly different. Today, women live under policies of ruling regimes that control every detail of their lives. Real struggle against violence begins by rejecting the false, idealized images spread by social media and television, which distort the lived realities of society, particularly for women.

Violence begins when reason stops; the path to ending violence against women passes through struggle, organization, and persistent resistance to policies that legitimize abuse. Collective feminist struggle is the path to women’s liberation, dignity, and freedom. Let us adopt the motto: “No to Violence Against Women… Life Is Better Without Violence… Let’s Make Our World Free From Violence Against Women