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Women Journalists Coalition Hosts Dialogue on Countering Hate Speech in Syria’s Digital Space

The Women Journalists Coalition, in collaboration with Bidayetna Association, organized a panel discussion titled “Our Shared Narrative: As Hate Rises to the Top of Syria’s Trending Conversations”, held on 25 June 2026 at the Bidayetna Association headquarters in Damascus. The event brought together human rights advocates, researchers, and journalists to discuss the growing prevalence of hate speech in Syria’s digital sphere and explore ways to address it.

The session featured founding member of the Women Journalists Coalition, journalist Zaina Erhaim, alongside lawyer Ezzeddine Ezzeddine from Bidayetna Association and researcher Rana Al Sheikh Ali from Darat Salam. The discussion was moderated by journalist Malak Shenwani.

Erhaim presented the findings of a research paper examining the rise of hate speech—particularly sectarian and misogynistic discourse—across Syrian digital platforms, and its impact on shrinking the space for freedom of expression, especially for women and women journalists. The study highlighted how such hostility drives many women to practice self-censorship and withdraw from public debate.

The discussion also explored the media, legal, and social dimensions of hate speech. Participants exchanged practical approaches to curbing its spread, while emphasizing the importance of balancing the protection of freedom of expression with efforts to counter content that incites hatred or violence, violates individuals’ dignity, or deepens societal divisions.

Erhaim stressed that the professional responsibility of journalists extends beyond refraining from reproducing hate speech. It also includes producing alternative content that promotes coexistence, civil peace, and transitional justice, while focusing on the shared concerns affecting the lives of Syrians. She further emphasized the need to pursue two parallel tracks: first, producing professional journalism that contributes to building an inclusive national narrative; and second, avoiding giving hate speech additional visibility by refraining from amplifying or engaging with it in ways that contribute to its wider dissemination.

The session concluded by underscoring the importance of collaboration among journalists, human rights advocates, and civil society actors to develop media, legal, and community-based mechanisms to counter hate speech and promote public discourse grounded in respect for diversity and human rights. Such efforts, participants agreed, are essential to supporting civil peace and strengthening social cohesion in Syria.

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The Algorithm of Fear: Influencers, Impunity, and the Silencing of Syrian Women

Since the fall of the regime, I have tracked coordinated online smear campaigns targeting 20 Syrian women across various professional fields, each attacked under different pretexts. These assaults deploy the well-documented playbook of digital character assassination: highly sexualized language, explicit threats of rape, the distribution of non-consensual images, and coordinated mobs flooding their profiles with hate speech and sexist slurs. Increasingly, these tactics are augmented by AI-generated, gendered disinformation campaigns meticulously designed to destroy their reputations. In addition, engagement-driven algorithms on social media platforms let extreme actors – from all sides – weaponize platforms to incite violence.

To further understand this trend in Syria, I interviewed (either in person or online) 13 women from different backgrounds, 11 of whom are based inside Syria and two abroad. Some resisted the campaigns and decided to stay online, while others had to leave. Ten of them I interviewed, also as part of my work with the Women Journalists Alliance (WJA). Their stories reflect a broader reality, that of Syrian online spaces that have become even more misogynistic and hostile.

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Years of Searching for the Missing: Women Paying the Price of War in Darfur

n times of war, it is not only people who vanish; the answers vanish along with them. Behind every missing person in Darfur stands an entire family living on mere possibilities a wife who postpones her mourning, and children growing up while searching for fathers who vanished without a trace.

Through the testimonies of women from Darfur, this A Humanitarian Story traces the least visible face of war, the lives of those who are still waiting for men who left one day and never returned.

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The Compound Challenges Facing Alawite Women Journalists in Post-Assad Syria

This report examines the compounded challenges facing Alawite women journalists in Syria following the fall of the Assad regime at the end of 2024. It adopts an intersectional approach that links gender, sectarian identity, and the nature of journalistic work in one of the most dangerous environments in the world for media professionals.

Drawing on a qualitative methodology based on interviews with ten women journalists working across diverse media sectors, the report reveals a complex system of security restrictions, social pressures, cyber violence, and sectarian discrimination that collectively shape a fragile and high-risk professional reality.

The findings indicate that women journalists are navigating a profound paradox: an apparent opening in the space for media work alongside the persistence of longstanding structures of control and censorship. Work permits, restricted access to information, and informal directives continue to function as effective tools for limiting journalistic coverage. These constraints intersect with gender-based challenges—including restrictions on movement, sexual threats, and familial and societal pressures—rendering personal safety an exhausting and constant component of their daily professional calculations.

The interviews further reveal the significant role of identity affiliation in shaping the lived experiences of women journalists. Participants reported being subjected to pre-emptive political stigmatization, which compels them to continuously justify their positions, exposes them to sectarian threats, and limits their opportunities to participate in professional events or cover sensitive topics. This dynamic is accompanied by a marked escalation in cyber violence, which all participants identified as the most significant threat at present. Online smear campaigns and incitement targeting their reputation, identity, and bodily integrity have driven many to adopt pseudonyms or withdraw entirely from digital spaces.

These pressures have produced clear psychological consequences, including panic attacks, social withdrawal, a diminished sense of safety, and a reduced capacity to work. They are also compounded by growing economic vulnerability, as some participants reported that their families had lost primary sources of income, further intensifying the precarity of their professional and personal lives.

Accordingly, the challenges facing Alawite women journalists cannot be understood solely through the lens of traditional mechanisms of repression. Rather, they reflect a form of intersectional targeting rooted in both gender and sectarian identity. Meaningful structural transformation in the landscape of press freedoms cannot be achieved without robust protection mechanisms that ensure the safety of the most vulnerable groups. Protecting Alawite women journalists is therefore not merely a minority issue, but a critical indicator of Syria’s post-regime capacity to build a democratic public sphere that respects diversity and safeguards freedom of expression.

The report concludes with strategic recommendations directed at the Syrian government, media institutions, professional syndicates, and international organizations. These measures aim to strengthen protection mechanisms, foster a fair and inclusive media environment, and address the structural roots of gender- and identity-based discrimination. Specifically, the report proposes a multi-level framework to safeguard Alawite women journalists, comprising:

  1. Legal Reform: Criminalizing gender- and identity-based cyber violence while streamlining work permit procedures and access to information.
  2. Newsroom Policies: Implementing institutional protocols to combat harassment, ensure equal pay, and provide psychosocial and digital safety support.
  3. Union Support: Establishing confidential reporting mechanisms and legal aid through professional syndicates.
  4. Funding Standards: Aligning international funding with protection standards and creating flexible emergency grants.
  5. Civil Society Action: Launching hotlines and anti-stigmatization campaigns led by feminist and civil society organizations.
  6. Platform Accountability: Enhancing social media companies’ responses to digital violence, including dedicated reporting channels for women journalists.
  7. Security Training: Capacity building for security actors to ensure the safety of field reporting.

Read the Full report here Compound-Challenges-Alawite-Women-Journalists-Post-Assad-Syria

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From Darfur to Khartoum: How Germany’s migration policies fuelled Sudan’s war machine

Since the outbreak of the Darfur war in 2003, Sudan has been trapped in a cycle of armed conflicts and deepening political divisions. The government under Omar al-Bashir launched a brutal military campaign against insurgents in the region, leading to the deaths and displacement of hundreds of thousands amid international accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

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Fear, power politics and migration: whatever happened to Germany’s ‘welcome culture’?

As Germany debates new asylum restrictions and far-right parties gain ground, migration has become a symbol of broader fears about an unstable world.

Ten years ago, Germany symbolised Europe’s ‘Willkommenskultur’ [Welcome Culture].

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to open borders to refugees in 2015 was framed as a moral and historical responsibility. Public discourse centred on solidarity, integration and humanitarian duty.

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Between barrel bombs and Facebook posts, my body is my battlefield

“Why do you have to always be on the side of those losing?” my mother asked me with a tone of soft blame as I started writing in support of those who used to be pro-regime after the fall of Bashar Al Assad, the Syrian dictator, in December 2024.
She continues with a higher pitch this time: “They have been advocating for you to be
killed, accusing you of being a terrorist and a Western agent for over a decade, and now
you are defending them!”
I realised at that moment how this group of people had shifted in my head from a threat into weaker individuals facing revenge and unjust violations on the day Assad fell. Hence, I automatically shifted to their side, while my mother couldn’t see them as

anything but losers.

This piece is written for Unyielding: Personal Essays from Women Human Rights Defenders”.

Editor: Nadine Moawad
GenderIT Editor: Hija Kamran
Illustrator: Rawand Issa
Layout: Cathy Chen
Proofreading and Copyediting: Lori Nordstrom

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Egypt’s Asylum Law: Protection or a New Restriction on Refugees?

After decades without a national framework regulating refugee affairs, the Egyptian Parliament passed the country’s first-ever asylum law in December 2024. The move was officially described as “a necessary step to organize the status of millions of foreigners residing in Egypt.” Members of Parliament welcomed it as a milestone that aligns Egypt with countries that have formal asylum systems.
However, human rights organizations viewed it as the beginning of a new layer of restriction that threatens the international protection framework — particularly due to the law’s vague language regarding “national security” and “public order,” which could justify limiting refugees’ freedoms or enforcing arbitrary deportations.