The HTS’ Salvation Government’s Decision to Ban Any Event Not Approved by its General Directorate of Political Affairs Only Perpetuates Its Restrictive Policies Against Humanitarian Groups
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The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights:
On August 26, the Violet Organization[1] opened a Paralympic Games event,[2] with the participation of 333 athletes with disabilities at Idlib city’s municipal stadium. The event was supposed to be held in tandem with the Paris Paralympic Games, which began the same day and is set to conclude on September 12. Plans for the event’s three-stage program had already been completed and approved, with contracts signed between the Violet Organization and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham’s (HTS) Salvation Government in Idlib city. As such, preparations for the event had been underway for the past few months, with the games intended to give a prominent platform and far greater attention to members of one of society’s most vulnerable and marginalized group, namely people with special needs and disabilities, which are especially essential with many in Syria having suffered injuries leading to various disabilities as a result of aerial bombardment in recent years, primarily by the Syrian regime and its allies, while others sustained life-changing injuries that left them physically disabled in the earthquakes of February 6, 2023.
The first ceremony of the games was held on August 26, with the lighting of the Olympic Torch, again based on previously agreed arrangements with the Salvation Government, with the route for the torch’s passage to the Municipal Stadium having been explained and approved, along with filming locations, participating figures, and other relevant details, including the opening ceremony, the torch’s entrance to the stadium, and the lighting of the Paralympic cauldron in the stadium. At one point in the opening ceremony, the torch-bearer bowed down to the audience to greet them, with the cauldron behind him, with this gesture in particular causing uproar the next day, mainly from pro-HTS Islamic scholars, as well as other figures who denounced the opening ceremony as supposedly contravening Islamic Sharia and of being an imitation of the West and infidels, especially condemning the torch-lighting ceremony, which, they claimed, symbolizes “pagan beliefs”. Some went as far as calling for the reintroduction of HTS’ restrictive al-Hesba Apparatus in Idlib. (It should be noted that other Islamic scholars have deemed the Paralympics and the associated ceremonies to be a wholly acceptable event and customs that do not conflict in any way with Islamic Sharia).
On August 28, 2024, the Salvation Government’s Bureau for Coordinating Humanitarian Work summoned the Violet Organization’s public relations officer to demand that the humanitarian group issue a statement apologizing for the torch-bearer’s gesture of greeting to the crowd at the opening ceremony. The group rejected this, pointing out that all the Games’ ceremonies and events took place in accordance with the agreement signed between it and the Salvation Government. The Violet Organization was shocked at the subsequent statement issued by the Salvation Government cancelling the Games, and proclaiming that the event would be prevented from proceeding since it goes against local culture, norms, and traditions. Tareq al-Ali, the Public Relations Head at the Salvation Government’s Ministry of Development and Humanitarian Affairs, said in the statement that the Violet Organization had submitted a proposal for an event featuring sporting activities for the disabled, which was granted approval on the basis that it was solely a sporting event. However, he added, when the event got underway the organization held a ceremonial festival that falls outside the confines of its competence and requires special procedures, and a referral to the competent parties in the Directorate of Political Affairs, which he said was the cause of the ‘violations’ in the aforementioned ceremony, which “goes against our culture, customs, and traditions.”
[1] Violet Organization is a humanitarian and development civil society organization that operates in northwestern Syria.
[2] Paralympic Games, or simply the Paralympics, is a series of sporting competitions with a system similar to the Olympics that features competitors with various and different disabilities.