Many are aware of the fact that, inside Syria’s displaced persons’ camps, women are constantly subjected to sexual extortion. More obscure is what happens to their peers at the capital’s so-called shelters and those of the surrounding rural areas. Here, the identity of the perpetrator may vary, but the women’s lot of suffering and exploitation is just as gruesome. Whether in camps or government shelters, the “sex in return for food” deal is the order of the day.

Since 2012, 20 year-old Reem has been living with her family at the Kafr Sousa shelter in Damascus. For three consecutive months, she had been sexually assaulted by the shelter’s supervisor. Fearing defamation, she did not dare to whisper a word about it.

I met Reem outside her residence back in October of 2017. Terrified, she requested anonymity, both for the sake of her family’s safety and her own.

It had all started the year before when, one day, Reem’s mother sent her to collect the food ration. The family had been living off of this aid since they first moved into the shelter from rural Damascus.  That day, the supervisor in charge of distribution forced the young girl to have sex with him in exchange for her family’s share. The abuse continued for a while. When Reem finally asked her assaulter to stop, he threatened to throw her family out, and tell everyone about what happened between them.

“I was so scared.  I dreaded what would become of me and my family. I kept my mouth shut to protect us. He continued to assault me until he found another, younger girl. Only then did he let go of me,” Reem said.

Reem’s is only one of innumerable stories of Syrian women who have been subjugated to sexual exploitation, physical and verbal harassment, as well as leering, in temporary accommodation centers (shelters for the displaced) in Damascus and its surrounding rural areas. Women are coerced to have sex with shelters’ supervisors and officials in return for humanitarian aid. They are pressured to keep quiet, out of fear of being thrown out, defamed, and their aid cut off. They even risk being arrested, should it ever be discovered that they spoke up.

Women’s ordeal is aggravated by the shelters’ strict regulations.  They are not allowed to leave, even for a few hours, unless they submit an official request, the approval of which hangs on the management’s whim.  This prevents women from finding a job to insure a decent life, escape sexual oppression and the abominable conditions inside the shelters, as I have been told by five such women we met.

During my successive visits to several shelters in Damascus and its rural areas, I have interviewed eight women who have been forced by male managers and supervisors to yield sexual concessions.  Throughout this investigation, I have also met with thirty-five male and female volunteers at the shelters, who unanimously corroborated the systematic scale on which sexual extortion is practiced in exchange for food for displaced women.

But it was impossible to confront the officers in charge of the shelters with such revelations. That would put the victims’ very lives at risk, as well as compromise my own safety.

A report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), titled “Voices from Syria 2018”, upholds that humanitarian aid is being exchanged for sex in many regions in Syria.

The detailed document reveals that “women and young girls inside these shelters are being sexually harassed and exploited by those in positions of authority in return for housing and aid. The most vulnerable are those “without male protectors”: widows, divorcees, and the displaced.”

According to another study commissioned in 2014 by UNHCR, one in every three Syrian women never left her house, or only did so in cases of extreme necessity, for fear of harassment and insecurity.

In yet another study, conducted by UNFPA, in cooperation with the Syrian Ministry of Social Affairs, titled “Situation of Women in Temporary Accommodation Centers in Damascus”, it is shown that 3.5% of women have been sexually exploited after coming to these shelters, including being subjected to leering, and verbal and physical harassment.

The night of the rape

On the morning of January 24th, upon a visit to a shelter hosting over 500 displaced families, I sat with a group of women who told me about the sexual concessions they have to make in order to receive their share of the aid. None of them dared to go into specifics. But perhaps Um Saad, a strong woman in her 40s, speaks for all about the extent of the tragedy when she asks “Who will save us from retaliation if we speak up? And who will defend our rights?”

Hanan, a 30-year old widow and a mother of two, has been living in a shelter in Al-Duweir, ever since the death of her husband compelled her to leave Mayda’a in September of 2014.

I met Hanan outside the shelter on 28 March. She had gotten the permission to leave for a few hours, under the pretext of taking her child to a doctor in Damascus.

Back in 2016, when she went to pick up her food portion, the distributor gave her only a fraction of it and asked her to come back at night for the rest. When she returned that evening, he raped her.

She says that what happened to her is absolutely indescribable: “I could not yell at him. He approached me and began to touch my body. My tongue was tied. I tried to push him away, but he persisted.”

Hanan came out of his room not daring to tell anyone about what happened. For weeks on end, she continued to be raped without any means to escape. For there was no alternative shelter.

Getting advantage of women in need

What emboldens the offenders the most is the absence of the family’s male breadwinner coupled with the women’s lack of any skills that would qualify them for a job and a decent life, leaving them with no other safety net than the basket of humanitarian aid.

35 year-old Huda left the shelter after she could not take the manager’s sexual assaults anymore. I met her shortly thereafter at her house, on 23 July, 2017.

Huda took refuge with her two children in a shelter located in the upscale district of Kafr Sousa in Damascus, after her husband’s death drove her to flee Ein Tarma in Eastern Ghouta, in 2013.

In 2015, the officer in charge of distribution began making advances on Huda. When the latter did not reciprocate, he tried again, offering to give her and her children everything they needed in return for one night with her. Upon her rejection, he retaliated by withholding her food ration for more than three months.

Try as she might to survive, borrowing money and food from neighbours, she could not make ends meet. Faced with two hungry children, she ended up accepting the offer.

In August of 2016, her 9-year old son was diagnosed with diabetes, “God’s punishment for what I have done,” Huda thought. She decided to stop seeing the officer, left the shelter in October, and rented a room in Jaramana. She has since been earning her living working in a sweatshop, and selling homemade food supplies. She was never able to forget the painful details of her ordeal inside the shelter.

Now the head of the Department of Forensic Medicine at Damascus University and the former head of the Syrian Forensic Medicine Authority Hussein Nofal, had declared in June of 2017 that violence against women and children has dramatically increased during the ongoing crisis. The chief reasons behind the upsurge being displacement and rising poverty levels which have forced many families to share housing with strangers or rent small rooms.

Anas has volunteered in three different centers after he ran away from Al Yarmouk Refugee Camp in 2013. He says sexual harassment is raging inside the shelters. He himself has witnessed women being pressured into having sex. Once he saw a woman knocking on the manager’s door in the middle of the night, a price she had to pay in exchange for a blanket, or an extra bottle of baby milk.

Fear of defamation

“I don’t want to ruin my own life,” said one woman I interviewed in September of 2017. She was sexually abused at a shelter in Al Tal city, north of Damascus, a couple months before.

Her words account for the obstacles I faced during the present investigation. They also elucidate why women refrain from denouncing their aggressors by filing complaints. Victims dread defamation. They are petrified of being hurt, arrested, or even excommunicated. Society here blames the victim. Even the woman’s family themselves would shun her.

Thanaa, a woman in her thirties who escaped Meda’a to a shelter, says: “I didn’t dare to tell anyone about what happened to me. I was so scared. He used me repeatedely for sex. I care for my children. I am scared of him. He manages the shelter. He can kick us out anytime. We don’t have any other place to run to. Not to mention that he’s capable of writing a spiteful report against me and have the police land me in prison.”

Victims’ stories vary. So do the facets of their suffering. But one element is common to all: fear.

Wedad, 35 years old, is a volunteer with the Syrian Red Crescent. In 2015 and 2016, she worked at a shelter in Rural Damascus. With her own eyes, she witnessed four women, between the ages of 20 and 40, being sexually exploited by the shelter’s supervisor.

The victims’ silence is the greatest hurdle to Wedad’s work. “I totally understand their fear, she says. They’re weak and vulnerable, especially the ones who have had their husbands killed, arrested or kidnapped. Those women are powerless, with no one to protect them. Their aggressors have power and privilege. Their links with the authorities scare the victims into remaining silent.”

“Who will save us from retaliation if we speak up? And who will defend our rights?”

A center for exploitation

Sociologist Aliaa Ahmed calls these shelters “centers for sexual exploitation of women.” What pains Ahmed the most is the way in which the victims seek to cover up the crime, in order to avoid being blamed. Society’s attitude toward rape victims is to condemn the victims themselves: “if she had behaved decently, none of this would have happened to her.”

Ahmed points out that “it is a common belief that in the absence of a law that protects women’s safety, only their men can fulfill that function. Some women live alone with their children in shelters, which makes them an easy target for perpetrators.”

She explains that “assailants do not stop at anything to coerce women into sex, using force against those who refuse to submit to their repugnant desires. They know that if a woman decided to denounce them, she would be inviting the worst consequences upon herself, and herself alone.  Noting that poor, displaced women in general is the group that is most vulnerable to sexual exploitation. Women coming from areas controlled by opposition fighters are at an even greater risk. Against the latter,  “political reasons” and “security concerns,” are threatening tools for sexual extortion.  “Terrorism” charges are always ready to be doled out to them. They are totally helpless.”

And she adds: “In such circumstances, many women find themselves obliged to submit to their assaulter and remain silent, or else escape and start a journey of endless torment, where they will have to face innumerable risks in search of alternatives that are equally bad.”

Silencing the voices

I contacted Kafr Sousa Police Department to inquire about the number of complaints filed by sexually exploited women. An officer who has served at the department between 2014 and 2015, proclaimed that they have received no more than five complaints from women living in shelters, all concerning “problems” with the shelters’ supervisors.

He added that whenever the police called on the shelter to see these women and issue a proper citation, the supervisor would immediately take the patrol chief aside, and persuade him to drop the issue, belittling it as mere “women trouble.” The case would end here. No further proceedings, no official investigation. Nothing is even documented, thus depriving the abused of her right to file a formal complaint and pursue her case in court.

The policeman observed signs of abuse visible on women who come to file complaints: a messed up hijab here, torn and dirty clothes there, tears, and refusal to tell what happened.

His daily chats with colleagues at the police station leave no doubt that shelters’ supervisors have clout and are more powerful than chief patrols. He and his colleagues have heard numerous stories about women being subjected to sexual abuse as a price for the food aid, the distribution of which is personally controlled by supervisors.

On the other hand, four women from an Adra al- ‘Amaliyah shelter North of the capital filed a complaint against the supervisor who forced them to have sex with him and threatened to expulse them if they refuse, according to volunteers who have witnessed the complaint.

The governorate of Damascus and the Supreme Committee for Relief investigated the issue with residents at the center. But then, the case was closed, as if nothing had happened. The supervisor remained in his position. It was later discovered that the grievants were expelled from the center.

I was not able to find those women. And when I inquired about them at the governorate’s offices, the officer refused to cooperate, claiming we were dealing here with “classified information.”

Minor girls were also molested

I met five girls between the ages of 13 and 15 who have been sexually harassed, one by an officer, the other four by residents and workers of the rural Damascene shelter, back in 2016. None of them dared to tell anyone except their mothers who asked them to keep quiet out of fear for their reputation, and the danger of expulsion.

13-year old Walaa is one of those girls. She and her family were displaced from Adra in 2013 and settled in a shelter near Damascus. Walaa lives with her mother and siblings in a small room. Her mother double-locks the door at night. She lives in fear for the safety of her daughters, ever since her husband was detained in 2014 and she has been kept in the dark about his fate.

Walaa’s mother felt utterly helpless when her daughter came home in tears one day after being molested by the supervisor who gave her the family’s food portion.

Walaa recounts: “first, when he talked to me in a weird way, I didn’t care. I was very tired from the long wait. I was thinking about the dinner my mother was preparing, and I wanted to take the basket and leave quickly, especially that mother always warned us not to hang around the center after sunset. But then he began to touch me. I tried to scream but he put his hand on my mouth and touched my private parts.” She continues, “ I went to my mom. We cried a lot. We didn’t dare take any action. My father has been missing for three years. We know nothing of his whereabouts. Those people can harm us. No one is here to protect us. What can we do?”

Psychological effects

Psychiatrist Mohammed Mohsen reflects on the psychological damage of sexual extortion: “the victim feels oppressed and neglected. Replaying the details of the assault in her head can result in severe depression as well. In some cases, stress, anxiety, and a gloomy view of life could lead to suicide. The psychological harm resulting from sexual coercion needs serious medical attention.”

The law forbids but filing a complaint is impossible

In its “Public Morality Crimes” section, Syrian law distinguishes between “rape” and “honor crime.”

Given the “coercion” element in sexual extortion, the penal code classifies it under “rape.”

However, “in the absence of a clear mechanism for filing complaints, we have lost all hope that those committing such atrocities be held accountable for their crimes,” said Basema Jabry, a board member of the Syrian Women Network.

Conditions of coercion or menace in the Syrian law

“Non-consent necessarily implies physical coercion by violence or threat, or moral coercion, or abuse of power, or abuse of minors. In the absence of these acts, the offender cannot be punished.” (Resolution 886/1984 – Basis 1194 – Court of Cassation – Criminal Chambers – Syria.)

Jabry emphasizes that the law is on the victim’s side, were she to have to courage to report the crime. She adds, however, that “the fears that hold sway over the victims are justified: from fear of parents who play a negative role, to fear of society and defamation, and finally the fear of the offender himself, especially if he is in a position of power.”

*This report was produced with the support of “Open Media Hub”, funding from the European Union, and supervision from Ahmad Haj Hamdo– SIRAJ. Published on Daraj

The post Sex for food in shelters of Damascus and its rural areas appeared first on SIRAJ.

Suddenly, the Syrian girl Reem (36 years ) found herself alone in Egyptian Aswan governorate ‘streets , without any shelter or breadwinner ,after her Egyptian husband Mohammad gave up of her and denying/disavowal of her rights as a result of their “the Arfi /customary/informal “ marriage, which is undocumented at the Egyptian courts .

Reem couldn’t able for documenting her marriage contract from Mohamad because she couldn’t register her divorce from her Syrian ex-husband at the Syrian official departments.

While “The foreigners’ marriage office “ in Egypt is requiring from the foreign woman who desires to marry an Egyptian must have a civil status record clarifying her marital status, and due to Reem still married in her Syrian documents, So she couldn’t register her marriage from the Egyptian Mohamad .

Reem entered to Egypt in April 2012, after she has separated with her Syrian husband, and in the same month of the year 2014, she got married Mohamad and she lived with him at Nasir city and after that in Al Sharkia governorate, for one year and eight months.

Reem is saying that she returned back Syria to see her children , then she returned back again Egypt to find her husband disavowal of her , by a phone call telling her that he got married from Egyptian girl and he started with her a new life, and he don’t want any problems.

Reem couldn’t able for documenting her marriage contract from Mohamad because she couldn’t register her divorce from her Syrian ex-husband at the Syrian official departments.

This investigation has documented during six months stories of six Syrian refugees women, between of them Reem, who they got married from Egyptians by undocumented Arfi /customary contracts, then they were divorced after passing months of the marriage by their husbands, and the disclaimer/disavowal of all the rights, including the alimony, accommodation and joy (amount of money) and confirming/registering the marriage and children’s descent.

he Arfi/customary marriage doesn’t require only a paper signed by both parties at one of the lawyers’ office then they become spouses.

The investigation has monitored the exploitation of the Egyptians men for economical circumstances of Syrians refugees women in Egypt, and due to not having their documents to get married from them by “external ” contract, and thus this marriage will be finished from the husband’s side, and what is exacerbates the problem, the high cost which imposed by the Syrian embassy for extracting documents or amending data and the impossibility of extracting some of it.

That is happened during failure of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in its role in providing the assistance to the Syrians women. In addition inability of the Syrian & Egyptian civil society organizations which is taking care of the woman to provide actual assistance for those women, and the social outlook that accompanies women after divorce.

The woman rights after divorce in the Egyptian law:

1-The alimony: including food, clothes, accommodation and treatment expenses according to article No.1 of personal status law.

2-List of movables things: devices, furniture, value of gold, component of marriage accommodation and the advanced & deferred dowry, according to marriage contract as per articles No.10-20-15 of law No.1 of year 2000.

3-The joy (money ): it is estimated by an expenses and it can be imposed for long period at least two years ,according to article No.18 of law No.25 of year 1929 which added by law No.100 of year 1985.

Passing visa

At 8th of July 2013 , the Cairo airport authorities is returned-back plane affiliated to Syrian airlines to Syria – Lattakia governorate, by virtue of start applying the new entrance measures on Syrians , and that was the date of imposing visa and prior security approval for entering the Syrians to Egypt.

After this date for more than two years, Reem felt in longing for her children in Syria, so she traveled to see them, then she returned back in November 2016 but entering Egypt in this time was not easy, Reem surprised by imposing visa “elusive ” and that pushed her to travel to Sudan, then to Egypt by smuggling way, across the southern border.

Reem is clarifying that after her coming to Egypt she called to her husband, who in his turn has disavowed of her and has married an Egyptian woman without giving her any of her rights.

And that forced her later to resident at “Madkour” garden in Aswan governorate southern of Egypt, and she lost over there her documents including her marriage contract, until “the Syrian commission for refugees’ affairs in Egypt” has ensured her sponsorship and taking care up to date.

“We took Reem to psychiatrist in order to rehabilitate her from the shock which she is exposed to” as saying head of the commission Taysir Alnajar “.

The Reem’s story is similar with the Syrian young girl Kinda (33 years –alias) because she had to get married an Egyptian by Arfi/customary contract, because she doesn’t have the official documents to register her marriage officially, due to her entering to Egypt for the first time illegally across the Sudanese border, but the tragedy’s face in kinda’s story that she has given birth from this marriage relationship.

And she is saying that her husband left her with her infant, and he denied all of his responsibility under the pressure of his first wife, and the young girl with her infant remained without any shelter or sustenance.

Kinda arrived to Egypt in March 2014 , and had lived in one of her relatives house , then she got married in July 2017 from Ayman (alias ), who is working as a teacher in Azhari Institute, and she has divorced in June 2018, after giving birth a baby from her Egyptian husband.

who he is starting to extract new documents for her and her son before the interfering of his first wife and start to threat the lawyer to stop extracting the documents to prevent making kinda’s status legally on the Egyptian lands.

Kinda is saying that “Her husband’s wife has engaged her for him , by her will , in order to have a child , because she couldn’t have children for him but herself turned over her ” clarifying that these pressures finished after the husband divorced kinda.

And she is referring that she accepted the Arfi marriage because she wants to establish a new life and to have a house, good life, and to get rid of material pressures and the burden of staying at her relatives.

The lawyer Yousef Al -Mutani , a member of the Egyptian association for international law , is referring that ” The most prominent reasons which prevent Syrians to register their marriages in Egypt are entering some of them from Sudan by the smuggling way , due to that they cannot obtain an official entrance visa , and that make them violators on the Egyptian lands“.

The organizations inability/failure

Kinda knocked door of the organizations which are concerning in woman, some of them like “The general commission for Syrians refugees in Egypt, Syrians association, Syrian relief committee and Syriana “, but the answer was “we can’t do anything”.

Latifa Daghman head of Suriat Almaadi and Hilwan association, which is an association concerns in woman affairs & refugees integration, is saying that “we cannot do anything toward these cases, because their marriages not documented, so the official departments don’t recognize it absolutely “.

And she added “we are trying in friendly way to communicate with the husband for recovering his wife’s rights, by reactivate the religious deterrent inside him, because we have no other choice”.

Steps and costs of marriage registration for Syrian woman in Egypt:

1- Extracting of civil status record & marriage approval from the Syrian embassy cost of $ 40.

2- Power of attorney of lawyer to file lawsuit at the Egyptian family court to confirm/register the marriage in cost of between $200-500 according to the lawyer fee.

3- After obtaining a verdict in the marriage relationship, the marriage will be documented or extracting birth certificate for the child at “the civil registry “.

“we don’t interfere in like these matters , we only are providing the material, medical and psychological assistances , and in case we received any complain , we are trying to solve it by a friendly ways , in case of failure it , there is no other way ” as saying Taisyer Alnajar , Head of the Syrian commission for refugee affairs in Egypt .

Like kinda’s case, the lawyer Issam Hamed asserts, who is caring about the Syrians affairs in Egypt, that proving of her infant’s descent requires power of attorney of lawyer and file a lawsuit to confirm/register the marriage, then after it, proving of the child’s descent/ ancestry case, and she has been failed in that due to her illegal status at the Egyptian lands.

Half million Syrian refugees

According to the Egyptian president Abdel Fattah Sisi in his dialogue with French journal Le Figaro in October of 2017, the number of Syrians in Egypt reached to 500 thousands, between them 127 thousands registered at “The United Nation High Commission for Refugees’ Affairs” in Egypt according to its electronic website.

This Syrians presence in Egypt has made 10 thousands marriage status, between Egyptian man and Syrian woman in 2012, according the national statistic center for woman, and the number decreased during year of 2017.

Where the foreign marriage office which affiliated to Egyptian Ministry of Justice in registering of 472 marriage status documented at the governmental departments between Egyptian man & Syrian woman.

And at the absence the statistics about the Arfi marriage, the person who prepared this investigation tried to statistic the lawsuits number of “external” marriage which have prepared by three Egyptians lawyers at Cairo governorate.

They were chosen for their specialty in these cases, where the Egyptian lawyer Rabeh Aldaswki has worked on /200/ marriage registration suits among Syrians women and Egyptians men between years of 2016-2018 half of it have been succeeded at least until now.

while the lawyer Yousef Al – Mutani has worked on /110/ marriage registration suits during years of 2017-2018 , and while the lawyer Issam Hamed has worked on /900/ marriage registration suits among Syrians women and Egyptians men between years of 2013-2018.

The Syrian lawyer Firas Alhaj manger of the “Syrian Legal Gathering” is saying “that he is receiving daily calls for inquiring about marriage procedures and clarifying that /10 % /of these cases the husband is Egyptian, and between /60-70 %/of these cases the marriage is undocumented (not registered officially) “.

And the lawyer Issam Hamed is saying that ” 70% of the undocumented marriage cases the woman lost her rights due to the husband’s disavowal“, pointing out that he has met more than /100/ Syrian refugees woman her husband left her alone and disappeared, varied between who was divorced without obtaining her rights, and the other women who did not get the divorce, and some of them have indeed given birth and remained without registration.

The previous marriage‘s maze

“Stay at your friend ,you are divorced “a brief short call, Nadin has received – alias – (39 years old) from her Egyptian husband Amer , to finish by it a marriage life which has kept to 14 months, and Nadin was living with him in apartment at Cairo.

Nadin left her house to visit her friend in Egyptian Obour City, and during her presence over there, her husband divorced her by a phone call, under pressure from his family who was refused the marriage because Nadin was divorced, and he is a virgin and older than him in 6 years and she has a children.

Nadin is saying:”I have come to Egypt, and I has introduced to Amer(alias) by one of my friends , who was working with her in the dairy & cheese plant ,and after two weeks from our meeting , he asked me for marriage and convinced me to accept due to we both are living alone .

I accepted immediately because I was living at one of my acquaintances house in the popular Sharabiya area in Cairo, and my daughter & I were forming a burden on them”.

Amer convinced Nadin in marriage by virtue of Arfi contract, and accepted because she didn’t register her divorce with her previous Syrian husband.

Nadin is clarifying that she don’t have any acquaintances in Syria in order to file the separation lawsuit (breaking up) with her previous husband on behalf of her , and she don’t have the sufficient money for that.

During Nadin marriage with Amer she was facing a fierce opposition from his family, and she is saying that she tried to conciliate with this family but in vain until ending of the matter, by Amer’s acquiescence to his family requests and divorcing her by phone.

After the divorce Nadin tried to looking for Amer in different ways to obtain her rights, but he has changed his residency place, job and his phone number, and she is saying: “No one knows her place like a pinch of salt which has melted (proverb)”.

Nadin one of three girls who were met by the person who prepared this investigation and they have accepted the Arfi marriage due to not registering their old divorce from their husbands, one of them her husband is living with her in Egypt and he is refusing divorce her at the court before she waived to him on her owned estate (property) in Syria.

“The verbal divorce not consider a divorce until confirmation (registering) it in the court“, as was commented on this case by the Syrian lawyer Rehada Abdoush.

And Abdoush added” the Syrian woman who is living outside Syria who desires to register her divorce has to power of attorney one of her acquaintances in Syria to file the separation lawsuit on behalf of her”, clarifying the main problem in this lawsuit, that it takes a long period, it may takes three years, especially in case of insisting the husband and refusing the divorce, and it costs about /$300/ inside Syria, and /$100/ outside it, to be the total amount of /$400/.

Steps of confirmation /registering the divorce for Syrian woman in Egypt in the absence of the husband:

1- Power of attorney of one of her relative in Syria by the Syrian embassy.

2- Certifying on the powers of attorney from the Syrian & Egyptian foreign ministry.

3- The authorized person should power of attorney a lawyer.

4- File a separation suit.

5- Obtaining a separation verdict.

6- Transferring the suit from the court to the civil status registry to change the marital status from married to divorced.

Mixing /confusing the Egyptian & Syrian laws

The confusing between Syrian & Egyptian law is one of the largest problems which is facing the Syrian women during the marriage, according to the Egyptian lawyer Yousef Al – Mutani who is interested about the Syrians cases.

And he is saying:” the Syrians are getting married in their country by the proxy (sheikh), and then they register their marriage at the Sharia court.

while in Egypt there the matter is different ,where the marriage contract is concluded at the foreigners’ marriage office which affiliated to Egyptian Ministry of Justice in case of one of the spouses is foreign, or the marriage contract is concluded at a lawyer office, then power of attorney a lawyer to file a marriage confirmation/registering suit”.

And this is unknown matter by most of the Syrian in Egypt, because this method required complicated documents are:” a new civil status record its duration not exceed on three months and clarifying the marital status and documented/approved by the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In addition to the wife’s guardian approval that he doesn’t mind the marriage and approved by the Syrian embassy, a valid residency, passport, in addition a two health certificates that there nothing prevents the marriage”.

Al – Mutani referred to that : there are many Syrians cannot extract a civil status record from the Syrian lands , because they don’t have relatives in Syria or that the war in Syria is hampering their movement to extract it and they don’t have choice but the Syrian embassy to extract it.

But the documents at the Syrian embassy is considers with a high cost in comparison with the economical status of most of the Syrians women in Egypt, the cost of slow passport extracting reached to /$300/,

And urgent passport cost of /$800/, while the cost of the general power of attorney is /$100/, and a residency deed/ $50 /, and that according to the Syrian embassy website in Cairo.

These prices were the main hamper in front of Kinda, who has got married by the Arfi contract because she wasn’t able to pay a lot of money for her country embassy, so that made her unable to file a lawsuit for confirmation her marriage and also for infant’s descent confirmation/registration.

In this context, Dugman asserts that:” the high costs of extracting documents from embassy form a motive at many Syrian refugees in Egypt for not extracting any documents from the embassy, and for not registering any changing in their social status, because they should pay for any obtained document, during difficult circumstances which they are living here”.

As also most of Syrians who opposite the Syrian regime don’t go to the Syrian consulates & embassies for extracting the documents.

But the lawyer Issam Hamed asserts that in case of the marriage was really happened by the Arfi contract and if the wife desired to confirm the marriage, thus “The United Nation High Commission for Refugee’s Affairs “ in Egypt will bear the cost.

And the Egyptian courts exclude condition of valid residency availability, and he is clarifying that after he has explained this point in an awareness seminar in front of Syrians women , he found that 400 hundred women asked to file a marriage confirmation/registration lawsuit , adding “they was ignorant that information”.

And the Syrian lawyer Rehada Abdoush asserts that the Syrian woman in Egypt in case if she married an Egyptian she can pursue him in a lawsuit for confirmation /registering her marriage.

$140: Not received dowry!

The Syrian woman Ahlam is living with her three children in Al Giza governorate in bad economical circumstances that prevent her & children from renewal her residency and her children residency, until she has received news of the death of her daughter’s husband in Syria.

And that necessitate her travel to Syria, to console her daughter and to be with her, and due to that she doesn’t not has a residency inside Egypt, thus in case she traveled to Syria she will not be able to return back.

“I was working in buffet/cafeteria at one of the institutions to save money for my family, until we started to leave some of the food kinds and meat for making the salary sufficient”. As Ahlam said.

The renewal of the residency transaction is costs about /550 /pounds, and in addition its Delay penalties up to/ 1053 /pounds, for the three first delaying months, and 550 pounds on every three months follow after it, thus the fines has accumulated on Ahlam and that made her unable to extract the residency.

70% of undocumented marriage cases, the woman rights are lost due the husband’s disavowal:

Ahlam went to an Egyptian lawyer called Mahmoud to help her, but he take advantaged her circumstance, to force her to marry him by Arfi contract, to assistance her in extracting residencies for her & her children, after he convinced her that this the marriage is the only way to extract the residency and he promised to help her in extracting the residences by his

acquaintances and bearing its costs.

Ahlam has agreed to marry him after closing all the ways in front of her, and she gave up all the expenses of marriage for him, even he lived in his house in October area at Al Giza.

“He took me to one of his known lawyers’ office by him, and wrote the marriage contract over there and he appointed the dowry in /1000/ Egyptian pound as an advanced dowry and /1000/ Egyptian pounds as an deferred dowry ($ 140), thus I agreed and signed the contract after he convinced me that he will save the money for marriage expenses and extracting the residences”. As Ahlam said.

The Ahlam’s Arfi (unregistered) marriage contract

After the marriage , he obtained a six months residency for her ,and that enabled her travel Syria and returning back to Egypt , and he refused to extract any residency for her children as he promised lately ,arguing that they are adults and can make money.

Ahlam is saying that:” disavowed what he promised me, and he has been coming one day a week and giving me the house expenses between /100-200/  Egyptian pounds (7-14 dollars) and he don’t pay the apartment’s rent”.

All that pushed Ahlma to ask divorce, and he divorced her without giving

her any of her rights including the advanced & deferred /2000/ Egyptian pounds dowry, then he started to threaten her to deport her with her children to Syria, if she did not send him the Arfi’s contract to prevent her obtaining of her rights.

We offered all the obtained marriage contracts regarding the Syrians women to the Egyptian lawyer Mohamad Atef , who specialized in the civil law , and he asserted that the contracts are correct, due to its containing of all data ,including names of the both contract parties , dowry and the witnesses.

(UNHCR) and the favoritisms

In front of these big difficulties which the Syrians women are confronting it, thus “United Nations High Commission for Refugees” is intervened after happening the Arfi’s marriage, where it is powering of attorney a lawyer to file a lawsuit at the court for confirming/registering the marriage and bearing the suit costs.

But in this process “the favoritisms are intervening in it, where the cases are powering of attorney to lawyers with little experience, who are not caring, but they are only filing the lawsuit on behalf the affected woman in front of the court and obtaining their fees from the UNHCR, without the actual interesting in the case details or follow up it at the courts, and that resulted not obtaining the woman her right”, as are

referring by the Syrian lawyer Firas Haj Yahia.

And Haj Yahia added that:”if the lawyer was unspecialized or with little experience, the woman loses the lawsuit, and she will lose her legal, material and literary right”. Pointing that he has met many Syrians women who they suffered from lack of lawyers’ experience.

The lawyer Yousef Al – Mutani is saying:”the foreigners’ marriage confirmation lawsuits have a special mechanism, a lot of the lawyers lose it, due to the lawyer should present a copy of Syrian Civil Status Law documented by the Syrian Foreign Ministry to the judge, to base his verdict upon its articles”.

The lawyer Issam Hamed asserts that more than 70% of the marriage confirmation lawsuits for Syrians women which he has worked on it, he was as the second lawyer in it, after failure of the previous lawyers.

We asked many questions to the UNHCR, about its procedures in case if it is received a complaint from a woman married by Arfi’s contract, and the provided assistance from it, and if it can provide assistance in extracting the documents, but we have not been received any respond up to moment of publishing the investigation.

Since her entering illegally to Egypt in the last of 2016 until now, Reem still does not know which road to walk in, due to the psychological & physical shock which she has exposed to it, and she has been perplexed in returning back to her country for living in it, which the war are grinding it, or staying in a strange country, her husband abandoned her in it, after she has been passed a long distances at the desert between Egypt & Sudan for reaching it.

*This investigation was conducted under supervision of the Syrian Investigative Reporting Unit – SIRAJ. Published on DARAJ.

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