This brief addresses the multilayered challenges and systemic barriers faced by Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) and women more broadly across Syria in the aftermath of fourteen years of conflict, the fall of the Assad regime, and under the current government.
It reflects findings from Femena’s field research in Syria in June 2025 and consultations conducted throughout 2025 and early 2026 with Syrian WHRDs, women-led initiatives, civil society organizations, victims’ associations, and WHRDs residing across the country.
The brief reflects the myriad difficulties and hardships facing Syrian society following the war, including forced displacement, economic collapse, and shrinking civic space, and highlights their disproportionate impact on women and girls. It documents heightened vulnerability to gender-based violence, barriers to healthcare and education, rising sectarian violence, deepening social divisions, technology-facilitated harassment, and the exclusion of grassroots WHRDs from decision-making, aid, recovery, and justice processes.
Despite serving as frontline responders providing humanitarian assistance, protection services, psychosocial support, documentation, mediation, and community leadership, WHRDs remain underfunded, excluded from decision-making, and insufficiently recognized by national and international stakeholders. The brief also examines concerns over justice and accountability mechanisms, the ongoing mental health crisis, burnout among WHRDs and civil society actors, and the continued politicization of humanitarian aid.
All recommendations reflect the lived realities, demands, and priorities of the Syrian WHRDs and initiatives/organizations consulted by Femena.