Euromed Rights Search

Religious cleric calls women working in civil society “recruits of the UN and the West”

1 Aug 2021

August 2021: Osama al-Rifai, a prominent religious cleric and head of the Syrian Islamic Council from the opposition accused Syrian women working in civil society organisations of being “recruits of the UN and the West” to diffuse ideas about “what they call women’s emancipation and gender” in a sermon. Al-Rifai currently resides in Turkey, having left Damascus at the start of the war, and was on a visit to northern Aleppo at the time.

See Al Hurra, August 2021 and Al Monitor, August 2021.

Counter-response

Response from Musawa Syria