UK Muslim peer pledges support for jailed Syrian women

By Meryem Goktas

ISTANBUL (AA) - Britain’s first female Muslim member of the parliament has vowed to raise her voice in support of the Syrian women and children imprisoned by the Bashar al-Assad regime.

Thousands of Syrian women continue to languish in Syrian regime prisons, suffering torture and sexual violence, including rape.

In an exclusive interview with Anadolu Agency in Istanbul, member of Britain's House of Lords Baroness Manzila Pola Uddin said Wednesday that the international community "failed very sadly, very miserably" so far to help these women.

The Baroness participated in an Istanbul conference hosted by the Conscience Movement, an alliance of individuals, right groups and organizations aiming to secure urgent action for the release of women and children in Syrian prisons.

The conference drew participants from 45 countries, including Syria, Britain, South Africa, Ecuador, Qatar, Kenya, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Greece, Pakistan, Congo, and Malaysia.

Baroness Uddin said that thousands of innocent women remain unlawfully detained in Syria "at a time and age when the conscience of the world always rightly says that there is not going to be anymore suffer".

"We are standing together and we will do our utmost to ensure that their voices [of Syrian imprisoned women] are spoken out loud," she said pledging her solidarity for these women.

"I hope that their freedom will be imminent," she added.

The Baroness said that the goal is to ensure that the Conscience Movement reaches audiences "where there isn’t enough awareness and understanding" on this issue.

She said she spent many years at the parliament on raising awareness on women who have been used as a weapon of war in conflicts.

"Respect, honor, reparation, and apologies are very critical points of engagement in any created peace," she said.

She said that the U.K. right now is "busy" with Brexit, which she said led to "not giving full attention to a number of very important political and international matters".

"This movement [Conscience Movement] cannot be at the cost of Brexit," she said, adding that it needs to be ensured that the U.K. "honors its international and humanitarian obligations".

The Baroness also praised Turkey’s efforts which "generously provided a home for those who needed at the most vulnerable stage in their lives".

She said that the Turkish government, including other governments such as Greece and Jordan, need to be "definitely honored" for their efforts in hosting refugees.

Speaking about around 2,000 children from the Calais camp who the British government refused to take, the Baroness said that the U.K. "failed in the most disgraceful, most disheartening manner".

Calais was the main transit point for migrants and refugees trying to reach the U.K. until French authorities dismantled the so-called Jungle camp in October 2016, once home to up to 7,000 people.

- Rohingya issue

The Baroness said that other wars and conflicts around the world need to be more addressed by the international community.

She said that in Bangladesh an estimated number of 70,000 thousand Rohingya women who have been raped by Myanmar forces gave birth in the refugee camps.

She said there are a significant number of men and women who arrived at Bangladesh without any recourses, any home, any status or any IDs.

The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world's most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.

According to Amnesty International, more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly women, and children have fled Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh after Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community in August 2017.

The UN has also documented mass gang rapes, killings – including of infants and young children – brutal beatings and disappearances committed by Myanmar state forces.

"Therefore it is really important that this movement [Conscience Movement] is much more significant for others who have no voice," she added.

The Conscience Movement is an international initiative established last year after an all-woman international convoy made global headlines by raising awareness of the abuses suffered by women jailed by the Assad regime.

The Conscience Movement is supported by more than 2,000 NGOs and thousands of people from 110 countries.

While the priority at the conference held in Istanbul on Wednesday was the release of the Syrian women and children, the Conscience Movement will also work on cases of women and children who suffer in war and conflict zones across the world.

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.

According to UN figures, hundreds of thousands of civilians have been killed or displaced in the conflict, mainly by regime airstrikes in opposition-held areas.