A Syrian journalist turned civil society leader is bringing together young people from fractured communities to build bridges and learn about politics.
“If we don’t bring people together, we risk civil war in Syria,” says the founder of Women for Common Spaces.
With support from EED, Women for Common Spaces is doing just that. They are piloting a political literacy programme for young people aged 18 to 30 in Homs, a city defined by the war's divisions, that they hope to then implement across the country.
The programme is designed to bridge the fault lines the conflict created, bringing together young people who were displaced, became refugees or fighters alongside those who stayed, attended university, and lived through fifteen years under siege and bombardment. The aim is not just about education; it is also about reconnection.
“I want to connect those who were displaced to those who stayed,” the founder explains. “To find the common spaces between them.”
A programme to build political literacy
When the Assad regime fell in December 2024, Syria did not suddenly become a democracy. There are no functioning political parties, no clear political law, and there are no elections on the horizon. The transitional government, composed largely of officials who arrived together from Idlib, has filled posts across the country, but local voices remain largely absent from power. There is also little political literacy among young people.
“Young people need to be informed about politics and given today’s polarised situation in Syria that is particularly important,” she says. “They need to have an opportunity to understand politics from scratch and to build up their positions or their opinions based on knowledge, not on stereotyping.”
The founder, a Syrian journalist who spent thirteen years in exile before returning to Syria, previously ran a programme for Syrian refugee women in Germany. In today’s post-Assad era, she believes she has an important role to play. “Syria needs all of us now,” she says.
Prior to launching the pilot programme, she carried out a needs assessment survey to understand what participants already know and what they want to learn. Then there were open public events that introduced the project and its themes.
Now, two six-day residential workshops, each with twenty participants, will be held. The workshops will include local officials, such as the mayor of Homs, academics, and representatives from Syria's new political bodies, who will engage with participants directly.
As a final output of the programme, participants will prepare an advocacy campaign on a topic chosen entirely by the young people themselves.
She also hopes to find internship placements to enable a couple of participants from each cohort to work inside local government.
Political polarisation runs deep
Syria in 2025 is not an easy place to build civil society. Political polarisation runs deep. Sectarian identities, hardened by years of conflict, shape how young people see their country. The current government has shown little appetite for political education of the kind Women for Common Spaces is offering, not because it is hostile according to the organisation’s founder, but because there are too many other priorities in a country wracked by years of war.
She describes the window created by this transition in Syria as very real. "Young people in Homs are curious, not frightened,” she says, explaining this may be because at the moment, there are no political parties and no settled political law, and attending a workshop on political participation carries no particular risk. "They are not afraid of learning," she says. "They are hungry for it."
Connecting people from across Syria
Women for Common Space’s long-term ambition is to hold a national political camp bringing together young people from throughout the country, including Kurdish participants from the north-east, alongside young people from Tartus, Homs, Aleppo, and beyond. These are cities that spent fifteen years disconnected from one another, developing separate identities, separate grievances and separate political cultures.
“We had sub-Syrian societies during the war,” she says. “We need to make the Kurdish person think about what the person in Tartus thinks about politics. We need to get people out of their bubbles.”
For the moment, Common Space will start with forty young Syrians in Homs this spring, who will have a chance to learn what democracy means, as they begin to imagine what it might look like in their country.
This article reflects the views of the grantees featured and does not necessarily represent the official opinion of EED.
