Problem: Women in Syria constitute 49.4% of Syria's population, and are active participants not only in everyday life, but also in the socio-political fields. Notable examples are president Assad's chief political and media adviser, Bouthaina Shaaban, who also held office as Minister of Expatriates from 2002 and 2008, and Hadiya Khalaf Abbas, the officially elected speaker of the People's Council of Syria and the first woman to have held that position. Whatsoever, the Syrian Civil War put a new obstacle on Syrian women, forcing them to face increasing levels of violence, including war rape, and traditional abusive practices such as honor killings which occur in rural areas and areas held by extremist terrorists.

In the 20th century a movement for women's rights developed in Syria, made up largely of upper-class, educated women. In 1919, Naziq al-Abid founded Noor al-Fayha (Light of Damascus), the city's first women's organization, alongside an affiliated publication of the same name. She was made an honorary general of the Syrian Army after fighting in the Battle of Maysaloun, and in 1922 she founded the Syrian Red Crescent. In 1928 Lebanese-Syrian feminist Nazira Zain al-Din, one of the first people to critically reinterpret the Quran from a feminist perspective, published a book condemning the practice of veiling or hijab, arguing that Islam requires women to be treated equally with men.  In 1963 the Ba'th Party took power in Syria, and pledged full equality between women and men as well as full workforce participation for women.  In 1967 Syrian women formed a quasi-governmental organization called the General Union of Syrian Women (GUSW), a coalition of women's welfare societies, educational associations, and voluntary councils intended to achieve equal opportunity for women in Syria.  Women in Syria have also been integral in acts of nonviolence in response to the Syrian dictator, Bashar Al-Assad. In 2011, conflict was emerging throughout Syria due to the long reign of the Assad family. Throughout the 40 year reign, outbreaks of both nonviolent and violent acts emerged. Assad reacted to these actions by increasing arrests and the killings of Syrian men and women. In response to Assad's increasing arrests and killings, Syrian women and children gathered together. The women and children rallied together and marched to the main highway where they blocked the roadway. This act of nonviolence lead to civilians and military not being able to get where they were going to. This did not make the military very happy. The military came in with tanks and were making various threats towards the protesters but that did not scare them off. Later that day over one hundred Syrian prisoners were released. This was significant because the power women and children had through their nonviolent protest. Their issue of wanting their husbands and sons released from prison was understood by Syrian officials and they knew in order to get the women and children to leave would need to fulfill their demands.

Was the conflict stopped?

Answer with quotes: Assad reacted to these actions by increasing arrests and the killings of Syrian men and women.


Problem: Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins (born Thocmentony, meaning "Shell Flower; also seen as "Tocmetone" in Northern Paiute; c. 1844 - October 16, 1891) was a Northern Paiute author, activist and educator. Winnemucca was born near Humboldt Lake, Nevada, into an influential Paiute family who led their community in pursuing friendly relations with the arriving groups of Anglo-American settlers. She was sent to study in a Catholic school in Santa Clara, California. When the Paiute War erupted between the Pyramid Lake Paiute and the settlers, including some who were friends of the Winnemucca family, Sarah and some of her family traveled to San Francisco and Virginia City to escape the fighting.

With the decreasing pressure of new migrants in the region attracted to the Washoe silver finds, Old Winnemucca arranged in 1859 to have his daughters returned to him again in Nevada. In 1860, open conflict occurred. The Paiute had killed two men who had kidnapped and abused two Paiute girls. Settlers and miners organized a militia, making Major Ormsby lead it by default. He was killed by the Paiute in a disciplined confrontation in the first event of the Pyramid Lake War. Settlers were alarmed at how well the Paiute fought and the ill-prepared miners could not hold their own. The Paiute and whites reached a truce by the end of the summer. Young Winnemucca, Sarah's cousin, led the Paiute as a war chief by then. In October 1860, their grandfather Truckee died of a tarantula bite.  As a mark of development, Nevada was established as a distinct US Territory, and James W. Nye was appointed as its first governor. When he came to the territory, he went to the Pyramid Lake Reservation, where he met Old Winnemucca, Young Winnemucca and the Paiute, who put on a grand display. For the next five years (1860-1865), Sarah and her family frequently traveled away from the reservation, performing on stage, either in Virginia City, Nevada at Maguire's Opera House, or in San Francisco. They were billed as the "Paiute Royal Family." By this time, her father had taken a second, younger wife, with whom he had a young son.  In Nevada, US forces repeatedly acted against Native Americans to "remind them of who was in charge." The Natives were repeatedly accused of raids and cattle stealing. In 1865 Captain Almond B. Wells led a Nevada Volunteer cavalry in indiscriminate raids across the northern part of the state, attacking Paiute bands. While Sarah and her father were in Dayton, Nevada, Wells and his men attacked Old Winnemucca's camp, killing 29 of the 30 persons in the band, who were old men, women and children.  The chief's two wives (including Sarah's mother) and infant son were killed. Although Sarah's sister Mary escaped from camp, she died later that winter due to the severe conditions. Her younger sister Elma was out of the area, as she had been adopted by a French family in Marysville, California. There Elma Winnemucca married John Smith, a white man, and moved with him to a white community in Montana and, later, Idaho.  In 1868 about 490 Paiute survivors moved to a military camp, which became known as Fort McDermitt, on the Nevada-Oregon border. They sought protection from the US Army against the Nevada Volunteers. In 1872 the federal government established the Malheur Reservation in eastern Oregon, designated by President Ulysses S. Grant for the Northern Paiute and Bannock peoples in the area. Three bands of Paiute moved there at the time. In 1875, Sarah, her brother Natchez and his family, and their father Old Winnemucca moved there, too.

Did Sarah become known for anything specific?

Answer with quotes: