Syria rallies demand release of jailed women, children

By Meryem Goktas

AL-BAB, Syria (AA) - As the world marks International Women’s Day, demonstrators in northwestern Syria are urging the international community to take immediate action to secure the release of women and children still languishing in Syrian prisons.

Friday’s demonstrations were organized in support of the Conscience Movement, an alliance of individuals, rights groups and organizations who demand the release of women and children from the jails of Syria’s Assad regime.

Rallies were held in the towns of Azaz, Al-Bab, Cobanbey and Bizaah in Syria’s northeastern Aleppo province.

According to the Conscience Movement, more than 13,500 women have been incarcerated since the Syrian conflict began in 2011, while more than 7,000 women remain in detention where they are reportedly subjected to torture, rape and sexual violence.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency at the rally in Bizaah, Marwa -- a female Syrian engineer who did not give her full name due to security concerns -- called for the immediate release of jailed Syrian women and children.

“As relatives of those who are still behind bars, we came here today to demand their release,” Marwa said. “We hope these rallies will help achieve that objective.”

Maryam al-Ali, a young girl who attended the rally in Bizaah, said her father had once been jailed by the regime.

“My father was held in an Assad regime prison for a year and a half. He was finally released two years ago,” she said.

“But his friends still remain in prison and we are demanding that they be freed without delay,” she added.

The Conscience Movement was founded last year after an all-female international convoy made global headlines by raising awareness about the abuses suffered by female prisoners of the Assad regime.

In March of last year, the 55-bus convoy made a three-day journey from Istanbul to Turkey’s southern Hatay province near the Syrian border, where 10,000 women staged a massive rally marking International Women's Day.

Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in early 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected ferocity.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been killed or displaced by the conflict, mainly by regime airstrikes in opposition-held areas.