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Rahaf Aldoughli, Lancaster University
When I imagine Syria, the first thing I see in my mind are the statues of the late Syrian president, Hafez al-Assad, in military garb: there is one in almost every square. But it’s not just about statues in urban spaces, this muscular image of the nation permeates popular culture: Syria is symbolically depicted in songs and stories as a nation of warriors. And, since the 2011 uprising, this link between Syrian masculinity and warrior status has, if anything, intensified.
But the coronavirus has hit all sides very hard. The impact of COVID-19, combined with new sanctions in the form of the US Caesar Act, which targets sources of income abroad for the Assad regime and its enablers, has halted hostilities for the time being. .
In this context of economic and political turmoil, the current president, Bashar al-Assad, has had to resort to adopting new strategies to prop up the finances of his regime. This has included going after his cousin Rami Makhlouf, a loyalist to the regime, for hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid back taxes.
Another revenue-raising exercise has been the recent reform of the military service law. This has established a new level of exemption fees: one category for Syrians living abroad and another for Syrians within the country. So, for the first time, some male residents of Syria, including academics, can evade military service by paying a fee, without having to leave the country.
The new reform has also imposed a charge on people who, for medical reasons, were exempted from military service, now have to pay, despite not being able to physically carry arms (we have to say that ‘those who are destined for service in offices ‘) This reinforces the link between being a healthy Syrian and serving in the military, while at the same time bringing more money to the regime’s coffers.
Militarized virility
In the two Syrian constitutions (1973 and 2012), military service is compulsory for men. The sacred notion of fighting and dying for the nation has been part of the regime’s propaganda imposed on children through compulsory military service in Baʾath-affiliated organizations such as the Syrian National Organization for Children (felling) during the primary stage and the Union of Young Revolutionaries (al-shabibah) in high school.
In a landmark speech in July 2015, Assad emphasized the relationship between national “belonging” and military service, saying: “The homeland is not for those who live in it or have their nationality, but for those who defend and protect it.”
His wife Asma al-Assad reinforced this masculinity narrative when she met a group of female soldier volunteers on Mother’s Day in March 2018 and praised them in comparison to men who avoided mandatory military service.
Your presence on the battlefield marks a new victory and a whole new era … When you are able to sacrifice your soul for the nation, this is the new era and this is the true equality between men and women … Now you have proved to everyone that you are a human being … a human being has a strong determination that cannot be defeated.
Masculinity and postwar Syria
For some men, this perpetuation of the stereotype of the male warrior has contributed to an identity crisis. At a recent roundtable with some 50 men who had fled conscription and were living in the UK, many of the men expressed a sense of anguish that they had not defended the nation.
Some came to the conclusion that they were not worthy of being Syrian without the honor of bearing arms for their country, while others expressed their desire to die again in their homeland. One of them told me: “I feel like I have failed my mother … Syria is our mother.”
But the latest reform to Syria’s military service law reflects the regime’s new priorities in the fight against COVID-19, which requires money, rather than fighting the regime’s enemies, which requires soldiers.
It is important to note that the reform targets Syrian men in the diaspora and those living in Syria who can pay rather than join (accepting that some men had always corruptly paid bribes to avoid military service). It is a shame that the male body is still considered cannon fodder or a source of cash for the country, and it will not prevent men from feeling that the constitution, which stipulates that military service is a “sacred duty” and undertakes to build “physically” as less masculine if they don’t join the military and sign up to protect the nation.
Rahaf Aldoughli, professor of Middle Eastern politics, Lancaster University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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