THE GUARDIAN: Women on the frontline of demonstrations against Syria's brutal regime are now being targeted by security forces
They came for the men first, as the security forces of Syria's PresidentBashar al-Assad killed, beat and arrested people protesting against his regime.
Next, they came for the women of Syria's revolution. Despite the threats, however, they refuse to be silenced.
As the violence has become worse, women activists have organised a Friday protest of Free Women showing solidarity with those seized or killed. Women-only protests in towns across the country have led the effort to let the outside world know what is happening in Syria. But they are now being targeted as well, with the same lethal brutality.
Two weeks ago three women were shot dead at an all-women march near the besieged city of Banias. A week later human rights activist Catherine al-Talli, 32, was detained in the Barzeh district of Damascus after being forced off a minibus when it was stopped at a checkpoint by the secret police.
Others, such as Razan Zeitouneh, whose husband has been arrested, have been forced into hiding as evidence emerges that the regime is targeting relatives of those it is seeking to arrest.
Yesterday it was Zeitouneh who reported that the final death toll for the latest crackdown on Friday protests by the regime had been 30. Twelve were reported dead in Ma'aret al-Nu'man, south of the city of Aleppo, after tanks entered the town earlier in the day to disperse protesters; 11 in the central city of Homs and seven in Deraa, Latakia, the Damascus suburbs and Hama. » | Peter Beaumont | Saturday, May 21, 2011
