Day 435 - How women are the canary in the Mideast coal mine

The Times of Israel Daily Briefing

The Times of Israel

News

4.4 • 864 Ratings

🗓️ 14 December 2024

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Today we're bringing you a bonus episode of What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Middle East expert Ksenia Svetlova.

As the rebel factions in Syria continue to fight to wrest control -- from the fallen Assad regime as well as from each other -- one of the ways to measure how the country will emerge is to look at the factions' treatment of women: On Tuesday, for example, the Biden administration said it will recognize and support a new Syrian government that renounces terrorism, destroys chemical weapons stocks and protects the rights of minorities and women.

In 2020, Svetlova published a Hebrew-language book, "On Heels in the Middle East," depicting her travels throughout the Middle East as a female (and sometimes overtly Jewish) journalist.

Born in Moscow, Svetlova immigrated to Israel at the age of 14. She is a journalist and analyst and was a member of the 20th Knesset for the Zionist Union party. Today she is the executive director of ROPES, which works to connect "forward-thinking Israeli and Palestinian emerging leaders with like-minded peers from across the Middle East and North Africa."

In our conversation, she draws on her experiences reporting from inside the region's Islamic countries to evaluate and rank their women's rights and freedoms. We discuss which country most supports women's rights -- Tunisia -- and the many countries that vie for the least free.

Later, we hear Svetlova's thoughts on future Russian influence in Syria and the region.

So this week, as all eyes are on Syria and the rebels that hope to rule it, we ask Ksenia Svetlova, what matters now.

For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.

IMAGE: A woman holding a rifle borrowed from a Syrian opposition fighter poses for a picture, next to a government forces tank that was left on a street, at the Umayyad Square in Damascus, Syria, December 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to the Times of Israel's What Matters now, a weekly podcast drilling into one issue facing Israel or the Jewish world right now.
0:12.1	I'm Deputy Editor Amanda Borscheldan here this week with journalist, expert in Middle Eastern affairs, and former member of Knesset, Ksenia Svetlova.
0:21.7	Hi, Ksenia.
0:22.4	Thanks for joining me today.
0:23.9	Thank you for having me.
0:25.1	Always a pleasure speaking with you, Ksenia.
0:27.2	And where am I finding you today?
0:28.8	Actually, L.A.
0:30.5	A little bit far away from the Middle East, but, you know, my heart is there.
0:34.7	Of course, always.
0:36.5	And Ksenia, as the world watches the Syrian rebels grab for power,
0:41.7	and we wonder who will in the end lead the country, or at least most of it, who knows? Many in the
0:47.8	world are talking about how this will affect the status of Syrian women. And I suddenly thought
0:54.0	about your 2020 book on heels in the Middle
0:57.1	East and how you as a woman traveled around the region. And I wanted to discuss this topic
1:03.5	with you, specifically how the status of women in our neighboring countries reflects their
1:09.3	relative freedom. So I'd like to start with Syria,
1:13.9	which basically until now, as I understand it, has had relative freedom for women.
1:20.2	Well, let me put it this way. Syria, as one administrative unit as a country, ceased to exist in 2011. So if you are asking about the
1:30.8	last 13 years, then first of all, you know, the situation of all Syrian women was horrific
1:36.7	due to war, chaos, and the horrific war crimes that were committed against them, against children,
1:43.9	also against some men.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Times of Israel, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Times of Israel and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.