Brisbane: Women’s political participation is often treated as a measure of a country’s commitment to equality and democracy.
Earlier this year, Syria’s new leader, President Ahmed al-Sharaa, described his country as moving in a “democratic direction” after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship in late 2024. He said:
If democracy means that the people decide who will rule them and who represents them in the parliament, then, yes, Syria is going in this direction.
Yet, in Syria’s recent parliamentary elections, women only won six seats in the 210-member body. Exclusion was not merely reflected in the outcome; it was engineered into the very structure of the process.
Assad ruled Syria with an iron fist for more than two decades through widespread repression, war crimes and systematic violence against civilians.
Parliamentary elections were highly controlled, with Assad’s Ba’ath Party and its allies dominating every vote. Women held between 6 per cent and 13 per cent of seats from 1981 to the end of Assad’s tenure, according to estimates from a global organisation of national parliaments.
Although the parliament had little real power, it served to legitimise Assad’s rule through the appearance of a democratic process.
In December 2024, al-Sharaa’s Islamist-led coalition took advantage of the power vacuum created by the decline of Iran’s regional influence and the collapse of its allied armed groups to oust Assad and dissolve Syria’s symbolic legislature.
Al-Sharaa’s rise was initially hailed as a potential turning point toward political reform and reconciliation. However, early signs suggest that entrenched patterns of marginalisation – especially of women – are continuing to shape Syria’s politics.
The recent parliamentary elections in early October did not factor in the people’s will, nor were they permitted to vote. They weren’t involved in the process at all.
Instead, the elections were overseen by a government body called the Supreme Judicial Committee for Elections, appointed by al-Sharaa. Its composition was revealing: nine men and only two women.
The process was complicated and deliberately exclusionary.
The Supreme Judicial Committee was tasked with forming electoral subcommittees around the country, which then reviewed applicants for individuals to be appointed to electoral colleges. Only those selected were allowed to participate in the voting process or nominate candidates.
Ordinary citizens had no direct role in the election.
Under this framework, the electoral colleges selected representatives for two-thirds of the parliament seats. Al-Sharaa will appoint the remaining third.
Unsurprisingly, women’s representation in the subcommittees was minimal. Drawing on raw figures published on the official Syrian election website, women only constituted about 11 per cent of all subcommittee members (18 out of roughly 180 nationwide). agencies