Syrian Ghaida Al-Odat has received a political asylum from Switzerland but continues to work with Syria’s residents, to raise the awareness of their own rights. She is concerned about Syrian people having received political asylum in the countries neighboring Syria, forasmuch as, according to her, they are defenseless, many times they make an appeal against violence and do not acquire any assistance from the government: “There is no law, there is no defense, there is no government which will take care of them, even the UN does not take care of them.”
As stated by her, the governments of Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan should work instead of talking. To our remark implying that those countries are not democratic and oftentimes they violate the rights of their own citizens, Ghaida Al-Odat referred: “This is the reason why we do not say that they should live a good life, we know that very difficult problems are in place in these countries, but we want them to defend the rights of their refugees as much as they can, to defend the humanity. We do not ask to give them a citizenship, this is the least we can do for them. And why do we speak of human rights if the UN cannot defend them? Is it a show? We do not want a show, we want a real project particularly for the women and children.”
Asked what issues Syrian women face in those countries, Ghaida Al-Odat hesitated to give an answer inasmuch as women are afraid to voice those issues: “In Jordan and Turkey, they do that in the name of marriage. It is about religion, which accepts the marriage with young girls. They need help, the family needs help. Especially if the family does not have a father, what can they do? What can the mother do, if she cannot work for her family? Perhaps they think that will be useful for the girl, but in a certain time the girl will be alone with her little child – without a husband, for it is not a real marriage.”
We asked to refer to the issues of the Syrian refugees residing in Europe: “It is very good that in Europe refugee rights exist, but the majority has racist views there and cannot accept the refugees. Those people do all that under the law, the law defends the refugees, series of crimes are carried out in the name of law, and they strive to hurt the refugees. We speak of democracy, we say that it has taken place in Europe, but no – they can pay attention to the rights of their citizens, but cannot do that for all. A lot of things take place in Europe, assuredly, it is not what happens in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, however, issues are in place here alike.”
Ami CHICHAKYAN
