Stand up Asma Al-Assad !!!
Posted: April 17, 2012 Filed under: Middle East | Tags: Asma al-Assad, Bachar al Assad, bloodshed, petition, Syria, Syrian Revolution 5 Comments »
Over the last year, hundreds of people, children, women have already died in Syria… Bachar Al-Assad has been closing his eyes in view of this awful and bloody situation in his own country! So has Asma Al-Assad! But is high time Asma to stand up, to speak out and to care about your people! Stop being afraid and please act for all these dead innocent children!
You are the wife of a ruthless ‘criminal’, but first of all you are a woman and a mother of young children! You are supposed to be the voice of all Syrian women! You must take responsibility! Stop protecting your own life and your own confort, go fighting for your people and stop the violence against women and children!
Women, Men, everyone around the world, be yourself involved in the protection of Human Rights by signing this petition : Asma Al-Assad: Stop the bloodshed in Syria
I don’t know where you get your information, but your position is uninformed and foolish. Just today the president and first lady were preparing aid packages to be sent to citizens in need. If you knew the truth of the situation in Syria, you wouldn’t call President Al Asad a criminal. Far from it, he is a great leader who has cared for his people unfailingly. He has responded to the legitimate concerns of Syrian citizens and has done everything in his power to protect the citizenry. Your blog claims to want “a better world for women worldwide.” Tell me, how can women in Syria have a better world if they lose a leader who protect their rights to freedom of religion, to dress as they like, to attend college at the expense of the government, to drive, etc., and become trapped in a country ruled by Muslim extremists, the Muslim Brotherhood, who would deny them those same rights?
Dear Leila,
I am not pretenting to be an expert of Syrian society but with reports from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, my comments are clearly based on real facts, thus I do not think my position is uninformed. However, the aim of my blog is to let everyone share his/her ideas with respect and listening without considering people’s thoughts as « foolish ». Although I do not understand what you stand for but I respect your point of view and your choice to defend Bachar Al-Asad’s position.
The report from Human Rights Watch urges President Bashar al-Asad to « stop blocking websites, stop government censorship of local and foreign publications, amend or abolish the vague provisions of the Syrian Penal Code that permit the authorities to arbitrarily suppress and punish individuals for peaceful expression » among many other demands.
Another report from Human Rights Watch, (http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/world/2012/20120222-UN-HumanRightsCouncil-Syria-Report.pdf) points out that « The Government has manifestly failed in its responsibility to protect its people. » The Security Council of the United Nations Organization finally condenms “the violence in Syria and calling for those responsible for widespread human rights violations to be held accountable”
(http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/un-security-council-s-resolution-syria-underwhelming-2012-04-14)
If as you say, President Al-Asad and his wife were preparing aid packages to be sent to citizens, then it’s high time that they do so… but don’t you think it’s too late? Then this article was about Asma Al-Asad, I do not know the conditions of women in Syria therefore I do not expound my opinion regarding Bachar Al-Asad’s acts towards women but only about his way of treating his people since he has been at the Presidency in June 2000 and more in particular since March 2011!
Dear Lauren,
I apologize for sounding as if I was attacking you. I do get frustrated and should choose my words more carefully. I believe that at this time, we all need to verify our sources and consider their reliability before spreading news as fact. I don’t believe that Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International is part of a plot to spread lies about what is happening in Syria, however, they do get their news from Western media, the US and the UN. When I said foolish, I meant it is foolish to believe whatever we are reading without consider the source, its motives, its access to facts, etc. And I am referring to all of us, not specifically you. In this case, your sources are misinformed. My frustration comes from a place of knowing how much personal security and freedom Syrian women enjoyed under Bashar Al Asad until last March. What the West calls a popular uprising, Syrians call an armed attempt by the Muslim Brotherhood, the US, UN, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar to overthrow the legitimate government. After a year of government attempts to stop these terrorists, after people’s lives have been thrown into turmoil and their homes destroyed, the vast majority of the population is staunchly behind the president. When I was in Syria over the past ten years, I had access to all websites, including Facebook and other social media. Emergency Law was on the books, but people were not detained without reason, “disappeared in the night” and persecuted for their political beliefs. There are enemies of the state, however, primarily the Muslim Brotherhood. The Syrian government has denied them the right to operate in Syria, with the full support of its populace, as the people have no interest in becoming prisoners of an extremist Muslim government. President Asad was not punishing people for peaceful protests. He specifically told the army not to fire on peaceful protesters – my source by the way, is me. I heard him say it with my own ears in a speech on state television shortly after the turmoil began. The Syrian government has said many times that there were NON-peaceful protesters, or rather, insurgents who would start a “protest” with signs and banners, marching down the street, and then open fire on civilians. When Al Jazeera arrived on the scene and the army came, Al Jazeera would videotape footage and report that the Syrian army was firing on peaceful protesters. Al Jazeera is owned by Qatar. I’ll post the link on my blog to an interview with a reporter from Al Jazeera who resigned over journalistic integrity. He said he is not a supporter of the Syrian government per se, but when he told his Bureau Chief that he and his cameramen witnessed armed men crossing the border in April 2011 and fighting with the army, he was told that Al Jazeera isn’t covering “that” story. The following month he brought in actual video footage. He was again told they weren’t covering that story. Al Jazeera and other media continued to say that the government was firing on only peaceful protesters. That’s why journalists were forced to leave the country. Because they wouldn’t or couldn’t report the truth.
I’m glad you want to promote women’s rights. I’m a woman and I do too. Muslim governments in the Middle East are some of the worst abusers of women’s rights. Please look up the Muslim Brotherhood website and see what they say about women. Please check out my blog and see what news is coming out of Syria. My sources are my personal experience in the country over the years, my brother and his family, my sister and her family, and personal friends, all still in the country, Syrian websites (run by citizens), and Syrians here in the US with family in many different parts of Syria. I receive news from Latakia, Aleppo, Damascus, Homs and various outlying areas. By the way, after the initial student protests in Damascus, which were peaceful, President Al Asad met with the students and discussed their concerns. Since then, he has lifted emergency law, rewritten the constitution with a new bill of rights which explicitly states equal treatment for women (which they actually already enjoyed), removed the ban on alternate political parties and put the new constitution to a referendum which passed with over 80%of the vote. He has agreed to hold parliamentary and presidential elections, and has explicitly stated that if the people do not reelect him, he will step down. Since he took office in 2000, I will tell you my personal experience. Women can move freely through the country, they can attend college (paid for by the government), they can live alone, have any religion or none at all, discuss politics and disagree with the government policies, use the internet, marry or not, as they choose, wear whatever clothing they want, drive cars, own property, testify in court. And since Bashar Al Asad took office, I have seen the standard of living in Syria steadily increase. You say the Human Rights Watch says his government has failed to protect its people, but that is precisely what they have been desperately trying to do, by stopping armed terrorists who kill people in the streets, set off suicide bombs and murder and mutilate people who won’t help them. The Syrian people are crying out for the West to stop demanding that their president step down, and stand aside while he and his army stop these people from tearing the country apart. So this is what I stand for: the safety and security and freedom of the people in my country. I don’t defend Bashar Al Asad, he needs no defense. He has acted in the best interest of his citizens. Your point of view is based on lies. I know you don’t realize this, but I hope you will dig deeper and find credible sources without any more motive than wanting to live in peace and freedom. The news coming out of Syria quoted by Western media is coming from the very people seeking to overthrow the government and institute a Muslim government. I don’t want them to succeed. I want people to choose their president through elections, not by force. I want my family to be safe and not to be persecuted by Muslim extremists and as long as the President does everything he can to try to protect the people, he will have my support. If those reports you quote were true, I would have been against him from the beginning, but they are full of lies. Thank you for considering what I have to say.
Dear Leila,
I carefully read what you pointed out and thank you for sharing with me such very clear arguments. I’ll try to reply concisely.
First of all, I have to agree with you regarding my Western view. I always try to get information from different media and different countries but obviously it’s not easy when the first main barrier is the language, therefore as I do not speak Arabic I cannot have a ‘local view’ in the Middle East for this case. That’s why as well for me and I guess for any “lambda” people in Western Society, it is very hard to understand Syrian Revolution, how did it exactly start? What for? How come did it peacefully start and finally got to massacre?! However, I could see through documentaries thousand of Syrian people in the street burning and/or destroying Bachar Al-Asad’s portrait and statue… So, if the Regime was so good to them, why did they start up?
Look, it’s a very complicated topic but I truly think through facts from the UN and the International Security Council, and videos from Syrian students (Youtube videos – sorry, another American source but maybe one of the most powerful worldwide social media) that Bachar Al-Asad is not the great leader you think he is, he does not treat well his people otherwise he would have accepted help from International Community to struggle armed terrorists who murder, mutilate people in his streets and overthrow his regime…but we always get back to the beginning: I’m European, I cannot give any personal arguments as I’m not Syrian, I do not live in Syria and I do not have friends in this region of the Middle East either, therefore I cannot understand from the inside the Syrian Revolution.
My first idea in this article was simply to talk about the video showing the lack of actions of Asma Al-Asad! She might have done some good work for women’s conditions as you say, but she’s been shopping the last couple of months in Europe! As First Lady, you do not leave your country when your kids are dying under your eyes…Don’t we say that “A good captain never leaves the ship until passengers have been safe?!”
She’s now back in Syria because of travel restrictions, so let’s see if she is going to go down the streets and help her people…
Thanks for considering my thoughts.
Regards,
Lauren
Lauren,
Please read my repost of a blog from Friends of Syria, published today. There is a report from Human Rights Watch, which you deem a credible source, regarding the violence of terrorists against the security forces and civilians in Syria.