The problem with Syrian men…

This is a rant. Beware, this is a rant! If somewhat tempered…

Ok, so I’ve warned you. But in reality I’ve been meaning to write this for a long time now, pretty much since Sept last year. Please note though that I’m only really talking about the capital Damascus. I suspect, although don’t know, it’s worse in certain areas of Syria. That was certainly the case in Aleppo anyway, where, surprisingly, men are even more desperate there.

So what’s my problem this time? You’re asking. Well it is to do with the public behaviour and attitude of a lot of Syrian men towards foreign women, liberally dressed Syrians (meaning no hijab) and over-liberally dressed Syrian women (of which there are very few and can only be found in the Christian quarter of Damascus.) – And all others within that specified range.

Having witnessed their attitude to the above mentioned ladies on a continuing basis, I’m very disenchanted, yet simultaneously sympathetic towards the victims. The behaviour ranges from (in order of frequency, firstly the most frequent) horrible perving stares, poorly executed sexual noises (these can be quite funny at times), sex related comments, purposely bumping into, coming close to and finally groping women. Thankfully the last on that list is the least frequent.

In a supposedly ‘religious’ country, where Islam is mentioned more often than not, this is completely hypocritical behaviour.

The degree to which a woman has to plan here public behaviour is a sad reflection of the extent of the problem. Keep your head down. Don’t make eye contact with Syrian men (unless you want to immediately jump in bed with them, which is what they’ll think) and don’t respond to the aforementioned behaviour; because it only results in ridicule.

Even my own attempts to aggressively (not violently, I’m not goin to a Syrian jail for nuthin’, no siree!) deal with such culprits is pointless; likewise you face only ridicule or incredulity from the person in question.

But for the sake of the many deserved good Syrian men, I’m going to try and put this in a little bit of context. Firstly, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many outstanding guys here, which would never do the above. Unfortunately for a foreign woman here it is very difficult to make friendships with Syrian guys, so the frequent and resounding experience of most foreign women tends to be rather depressing. Furthermore, the treatment of women in countries such as Egypt and Kuwait is reportedly worse and in some cases, like the latter, far worse. So it seems to me that the more conservative the society, the worse she gets treated on the street.

Interesting contradiction eh?

Ba'athis set new records

Syria closes EU-funded Human Rights Centre

Barely 11 days since it opens and it gets shut down, that must be a new record even by Syrian Ba'athi standards!