In anticipation of a peaceful Syria in the future, a preparatory committee of the Syrian Women Council Conference was set up, for and by women, to ensure that they wouldn't be excluded in refounding the country.

The first political conference of the Women's council took place on Saturday evening. Speaking to Hawar News, Hifin Sheiko stated that the goal was to bring women from different ethnic backgrounds and ensure their voices would be heard.



"Organized women [can] build a decentralized, pluralistic and democratic Syria." Hifin Sheiko said.



Of the ethnicities that were present in the effort to bring women together to reconstruct Syria were Kurds, Arabs and even smaller minorities. Among them were even women from the Arnaout people -- who are believed to be of ethnic Albanian origins, but who found themselves in the Levant through Ottoman expeditions. Many still reside in Bakur, Kurdistan (Southeast Turkey).



Speaking again to ANHA news, Malak Shaban declared that she was "proud to participate in such a conference, we as Arnout people were denied our rights and were looted."