Syria does not need a “handshake litmus test” | The Syrian War

On January 3, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot went to Damascus to meet with the interim leader of Syria, Ahmed al-Shara. The visit took place less than a month after the sudden fall of one of the most violent regimes in the Arab world – the Baathist dictatorship of President Bashar al-Assad.

There are countless issues on the agenda of Syria-Europe relations, including regional stability, economic recovery, post-war justice and reconciliation, the refugee crisis, and more.

However, the Western media preferred to focus on al-Sharaa’s decision to greet Baerbok with a nod and a smile instead of reaching out to him, in keeping with Muslim religious norms. Western media experts characterized this incident as a “scandal” and “scandal”.

A Politico editorial suggested that trivialities like handshakes should become the new “litmus test” of how “moderate” a Muslim leader is. In the name of inclusivity, the Politico article implied that devout male Muslim leaders like al-Shara — regardless of what their religion dictates — should be forced to shake women’s hands or set off “alarm bells” in the West. “When in Rome, do as the Romans” has become “when in Syria, do as the Germans and French.”

As a Syrian American whose father was exiled from Syria for 46 years and whose family friends were tortured and killed by the Assad regime, I find the West’s “litmus test” of Arab leadership fraught with contradictions and simply offensive.

I wonder where the media outrage came from when Britain’s King, Prince Edward, explained that he preferred non-physical contact with ordinary Britons who tried to greet him. Should we offer grace when the reason is personal preference and anger?

No wonder the Western media is trying to impose Western cultural values ​​as a new litmus test for the “moderation” of Muslim Arab leaders. It has done so for decades.

Anthropologist Lila Abu-Lugod’s “Do Muslim women need saving?” As he argues in his book, there is an assumption in the West that “liberal culture is a cultural norm and should be the universal standard by which societies are measured. Those who stay outside the gate are barbarians…”

The characterization of Muslim religious norms as “extreme” is itself a symptom of the hegemonic discourse in which Western norms are disguised as universal ones.

The bad news for those who take this point of view is that Western cultural values ​​are not as dominant as they imagine. Muslims and Arabs also have agency—the agency to choose to adhere to their own religious values, even if they go against prevailing cultural expectations in the West—although the British monarchy has seen us willing to bend those expectations over the fear of COVID. 19 transmission etc.

The media’s focus on trivial things like al-Shara’s clothing or personal demeanor seems trivial in the context of the brutal repression Syrians have endured under the authoritarian Baathist regime for 61 years.

Syrians have their own “litmus test” to evaluate their new leadership, not whether the government’s male government members shake hands with women, but their ability to deliver democracy and freedom, restore and improve civilian infrastructure, unite Syrians and protect their constitutional rights. Most urgently, Syrians are concerned about the new leadership’s ability to steer the country toward peace, prosperity, and stability.

Half of Syria’s population is now displaced, and more than 90 percent of the population inside Syria lives below the poverty line. There is an extreme shortage of food, water and electricity. Unemployment is rampant, the economy is in shambles.

In addition, there is the trauma of living with 13 years of civil war and 61 years of authoritarian rule.

There isn’t a single Syrian family I know that hasn’t lost a family member or friend to Assad’s brutally repressive regime. My childhood friends lost their father, a psychotherapist and US citizen, in 2017 when they went to Syria to mourn their mother-in-law. A relative from Aleppo lost two teenage brothers to Assad’s infamous torture. dungeons. My female cousin spent a month in an underground prison for handing out bread in a poor neighborhood of Damascus during the civil war. Family friends like Heba al-Dabbagh, who spent nine years in a Syrian prison because the regime could not find her brother in the 1980s, shared harrowing stories of torture.

After decades of suffering under one of the world’s most brutal dictatorships, Syrians are desperate for a fresh start. They may have faced unimaginable horrors – mass murder, torture, systematic rape, repression and displacement – but they are not helpless victims. They have a clear vision of the future they want.

If the Western media wants to steer Syria in the right direction, it must practice introspection and understand how its discourse and expectations have been shaped by decades of hegemonic bias. Instead of applying a Western “litmus test” to Arab leaders, it should ask Syrians what they want in their leadership.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.