An international conference was held on Wednesday to raise awareness of the suffering of women and young girls imprisoned by the Syrian regime.
The Conscience Movement held the conference with participants from 45 countries, including Syria, Britain, South Africa, Ecuador, Qatar, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Brazil.
Among the participants are Baroness Pola Uddin, a member of the British House of Lords, Zwelivelile Mandlesizwe Dalibhunga Mandela, chief of the Mvezo Clan Traditional Council in South Africa and grandson of Nelson Mandela, and Ana Belen Marin Aguirre an MP from Ecuador.
The conference aims to draw international attention to the situation of the Syrian women in prisons during the Syrian civil war and the torture and extreme violent sexual crimes they are subjected to.
The movement issued a statement indicating that more than 13,500 Syrian women have been detained since the war started in March 2011. Of those, 7,000 are still imprisoned and often suffer from torture, rape, or sexual violence.
The international initiative was founded last March, after an all-women international convoy gained international success by raising awareness of women imprisoned by the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
