25 Syrian female and male politicians of different ages and political backgrounds participated in a two-day virtual roundtable discussion titled “Political Violence in Syria with a special focus on Women”. The roundtable took place on Zoom and the purpose of this roundtable was to explore participants’ perspectives on and personal experiences with the topic. There also was a special session devoted to the discussion of political violence against women. This roundtable discussion concluded with policy recommendations on different approaches to achieving a sustainable political solution in Syria. These recommendations were shared with relevant international diplomatic personnel in addition to the United Nations’ Special Envoy for Syria.

The first day of the event discussed a report on political violence in Syria and included the following topics:

• Historical review on the origins of violence in the state
• Analysis of political violence in the history of modern Syria with particular attention paid to the role of Syrian intelligence
• In-depth examination of political violence during the era of Hafez al-Assad with a special focus
• on violence in the late 1970s and early ‘80s (the first phase of limited civil war)
• Study of political violence exercised by the Syrian regime during the era of Bashar al-Assad,
• including violent trends during the civil war
• Analysis of the political violence employed by the Syrian opposition and radical terrorist groups (including ISIS)
• Appropriate policy recommendations based on lessons learned

The second day of the event discussed a report on political violence and women that was produced and included the following topics:

• Literature review on the concept of violence against women
• Historical review of the Syrian patriarchal system and its relationship to violence against women in politics
• Analysis of women’s role in modern Syria
• Study of violence against women in Syria throughout the past decade, with particular attention
• paid to political violence and women’s political participation
• Appropriate policy recommendations based on lessons learned

The project increased awareness of the dilemma of Syrian women’s empowerment through an in-depth analysis of the violence inherent to the patriarchal system. It contributed to efforts to build a strong women’s movement in Syria.