Testimonies continue to emerge documenting various violations committed against different groups in Syria. This article presents the account of a female judge who lives and works in the city of Homs, detailing the events and developments that have taken place within the Justice Palace since the collapse of the Assad regime until the present moment. For security reasons, we are withholding the judge’s name. The testimony was documented and written by Nawara Mahfoud, a researcher with the Civil Peace group in Homs.

I walk into the Justice Palace in the morning to start a new day at work. On the wall to the right of the entrance, I see a poster with the words “He who liberates, has the right to determine.” Anxiety eats at my heart, and I fear the unknown future. I pose only for a moment, then walk towards my office. 

I am a female judge from the city of Homs in Syria, and I will not declare my name, fearing consequences that might threaten my safety. I have lived and worked in Homs for most of my life. The Syrian opposition forces entered Homs on December 6 last year. They marched in, the Syrian regime collapsed, and the opposition entered Damascus on December 8. Work halted in all state institutions in the aftermath of the regime collapse for a while, and when work resumed in the Justice Palace in Homs, all female and male judges were invited to attend a meeting with the appointed representative of the new authorities.  Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham gradually consolidated its control over the capital and announced the formation of an interim government. Mr Shadi Al-Weisi was appointed as the Minister of Justice. I have read before that Mr Al-Weisi is a graduate of the Faculty of Sharia and had held several positions in the Salvation Government that previously ruled Idlib, including the positions of Public Prosecutor and Minister of Justice. He was known for applying the provisions of Islamic Sharia, not positive law.

We arrived at the Justice Palace on the day of the meeting, and at the entrance, we were met by armed young men. One of the organisers asked all female judges to cover our hair. Most of us ignored him and walked in. However, when we arrived at the meeting hall door, they told us that those of us who wished to attend the meeting were required to cover our hair and that there was no coercion, but anyone who did not want to wear a headcover should leave now. We felt helpless, we looked at each other with surrender, and each of us took out the shawl we had put in our bags in anticipation of this scenario. Then, they insisted that women and men sit on different sides of the hall. Men carrying weapons filled the hall, standing behind us, around us, and at the front of the hall. We all felt intimidated.

Sheikh Abu Abdullah began speaking. Abu Abdullah is from Idlib and has been appointed the new head of the Justice Palace. He was wearing a jalabiya and had a long, unkempt beard. He was accompanied by an Egyptian sheikh named Abu Muhammad, who was given no official title when he was introduced. Sheikh Abdullah announced that they would work to change some laws to conform to Islamic law and that Sharia is the source of legislation in the future. He explained that they would rely on the Majalla al-Ahkam al-Adliyya, which was issued during the Ottoman Empire. (The Majalla al-Ahkam al-Adliyya was drafted by a committee of scholars in the Ottoman Empire. It is a civil code derived from jurisprudence according to the Hanafi madhhab, one of the four different schools of thought or madhhabs in Sunni Islam. It includes a set of rulings on transactions, lawsuits, and evidence. It was drawn up by a scholarly committee in 1877). The Egyptian sheikh spoke as well, and then they opened the floor to ask questions.

One of my colleagues, a judge of Christian descent, asked about his role in the future if Islamic Sharia will be the source of legislation. Doesn’t that mean that all judges must be Muslims? How can someone like him have a place in the future of this country that is equal to all its people, and how can he contribute? Sheikh Abu Abdullah replied: “You are a Syrian Arab citizen, don’t ask me this question! But we will rule according to Islamic Sharia in the end.” This evasive answer left us all confused. What about female judges? My heart sank. Sheikh Abdullah left the answer to the future, “This decision is left to time. There are two different schools of thought, one of which says that women should not hold judgeships at all.The second school of thought says that women may hold judgeships without the right to issue punitive rulings. We have to wait and see how the Supreme Judicial Council will vote in the future.” (The Maliki, Shafi’i and Hanbali schools of thought completely prohibit women or non-Muslims from holding judgeships, while the Hanafi school of thought allows women to hold judgeships in matters of property but not in criminal cases). 

During his speech, Sheikh Abdullah repeatedly referred to the former regime as the collapsed Nusayri regime, and one of the judges interrupted him: “You say that you are here to reassure us, but you are using the term Nusayri!” Nusayri is the term used by some extreme Islamists to refer to members of the Alawite sect, with the aim of attributing it to the founder of the sect, Ibn Nusayr, indicating that it is a heretical and mystical religion whose followers are apostates. “About fifty judges here are Alawites, and I object to you describing the regime as essentially Alawite!” added our colleague. “Do you deny that the regime exploited the sect?” Sheikh Abdullah shouted. Our colleague replied: “The regime exploited cronies from all sects!” The Egyptian sheikh interrupted our colleague here, saying: “It is just a slip of the tongue since we are accustomed to using this expression when we ruled in Idlib,” and the meeting ended at this point.

We left the meeting with fear eating away our hearts. Many of us began discussing the matter and informing friends and acquaintances. A wave of protest erupted on social media, and the matter was widely discussed in society. HTS backed down from the appointments and announced the appointment of a new director for the Justice Palace, Mr. Abu Hudhayfah Hassan Al-Aqraa. I searched for his Facebook page, and I saw a sermon he gave as a sheikh  from the pulpit of the al-Jilani Mosque in Baba Amr neighbourhood in Homs on January 14. He was clearly up north with the opposition and had just come back: he was dressed in military fatigues and wearing a tactical vest: “God is Great, my nation, be grateful, and rejoice in our achieved glory and power. God is Great, my nation, rejoice, O nation of benevolence. God is great, my nation. The enemies have been crushed and lost all power. God is great, my nation, and jihad is our path. This is the path of God in the Qur’an. We have triumphed over the greatest tyrant of this age, over the Al-Assad family and their thugs, over Russia, over Iran, and over the party of Satan. They were crushed and fell; praise be to God,” he shouts, and the crowd chants, “God is Great.” Elsewhere, he wrote, commenting on a mass wedding held in Aleppo before the fall of the regime for forty young men and women who had memorised the Quran: “Who permitted this mixing? Who permitted women to mingle with men or vice versa? Who permitted women to enter a hall or a stadium for a wedding? Before, they normalized women attending honorings in a mosque as a reward for memorising the Quran.  Now, they want to normalise mass weddings in halls and stadiums as a reward. I complain only to God as he is the best arbiter. This is one of the sins that we should all speak against.” His page also contained pictures of him speaking to fighters in “training camps” in areas of northern Syria when they were under the control of the Syrian opposition.

Mr Al-Aqraa is a graduate of the Faculty of Sharia, like the Minister of Justice in the interim government, Mr Shadi Al-Weisi. I received information that appointments in the justice palaces across the country are similar; sheikhs and graduates of Sharia have been appointed in Daraa, Tartous, Rif Dimashq and several other governorates.

I remained anxious until the second meeting came. Men and women were separated in the hall, but we were not asked to cover our heads. Mr Al-Aqraa entered wearing a suit, and asked to address him as “Mr” and not “sheikh”, and when one of the judges present pointed out that we were all civilians here, so why the weapons, he apologized and asked the armed man accompanying him to leave the hall. He began by saying: “You are our brothers and our family, you are our mothers and sisters, and no one has the right to interfere in your life choices or impose anything on you. We do not impose clothing patterns or a way of life on anyone. We are here to rebuild the country with you.” An atmosphere of comfort prevailed in the meeting after that, and the door was opened to receive questions. The same problematic issues that were discussed in the first meeting were raised, but the answers were less decisive. Mr. Al-Aqraa confirmed that things will remain as they are and that the previous laws will remain in effect until a new constitution is drafted. When we asked about our roles as women, he replied that this question would be left to the future. We will certainly remain in the Palace of Justice, but determining our job description will depend on the upcoming constitution, which will decide whether we will stay as judges or become administrative employees working in the Justice Palace. Or perhaps, as judges who do not have the right to issue rulings, we can remain in the prosecution or enforcement departments. Everything is left as an open question for the future.

So my future and my career are a question left to the future, but what is clear now, according to Mr Al-Aqraa, is that, despite what he said about the continuation of the previous laws, our work is almost suspended as “the judge’s jurisdiction is now suspended because the judge derives his jurisdiction from the ruler.” Mr Al-Aqraa explained the matter by saying that we, as male or female judges, do not have the right now to issue rulings, but we can continue the proceedings of previous cases without issuing decisions. We must all wait for the judge’s jurisdiction to return after the election of a new president, and only then can we return to issuing rulings. Sometime after the meeting, I watched Mr. Ahmed Al-Sharaa’s interview on Al-Arabiya channel, in which he said that the process of writing a new constitution could take three years, and the process of organizing new elections would need four years.

These decisions have changed the way the work is done. For example, usually in flagrant offenses, a complaint is prepared and sent by the police station. Currently, this is not possible, and if someone wants to file a lawsuit against anyone, they now go directly to the police station. A colleague told us about an incident he personally witnessed at a police station. There were two people in dispute over the ownership of a house. The head of the police station stood holding a paper in his hand and announced that the ownership belonged to one of them without explaining what the paper in his hand was, whether it was a title deed, a rental contract, or a power of attorney. 

The final word now is for the officials of the current ruling authority and the people appointed by it, not the law. In another incident, a woman whose husband had beaten her went to complain. They told her that the work of transferring petitions is now suspended, and all she can do is document the incident with a forensic doctor’s report so that when work resumes in the courts again, she might proceed with the case. As for disputes over real estate—especially those that belonged to people opposed to the Assad regime and were seized by the regime, or some real estate that today belongs to loyalists of the former regime and attempts are being made to seize it, it is up to the Military Operations Administration to make the decision regarding these. The same applies to determining the fate of detainees who were arrested during the recent search campaigns carried out by the Military Operations Administration in search of individual weapons and fighters with the former regime. The Operations Administration released three hundred of them recently after it was proven that they were “not involved in crimes of bloodshed,” while the fate of hundreds of detainees remains pending.

The number of judges in Homs Governorate exceeds two hundred and sixty, more than forty of whom are women. Women occupy all judicial positions, including criminal judges, investigative judges, public prosecution, referral, primary courts, reconciliation and appeal. All the judges, male and female, are afraid. We do not know what the future will look like nor what procedures will be followed. We all fear that the reassuring statements are an attempt to stall and cover the state’s tendency to Islamize the judiciary. Some of us are also concerned about our personal security. Mr Al-Aqraa issued temporary but renewable protection cards for a month for all judges, but five judges who live in the Alawite neighbourhoods that were searched were subjected to some harassment or assault. One judge was arrested during a search of his home because his wife’s uncle was an officer in the regime’s army. The judge, his wife’s father and her brother were arrested during the search of the house. He was taken to the police station with a gun pointed at his back. His wife called a colleague, who in turn contacted Mr Al-Aqraa. As soon as he arrived at the police station, Mr Al-Aqraa contacted them, and they released him. Another judge was subjected to a night raid. The visitors told him that they were from HTS, but he refused to open the door and said that he would contact Mr. Al-Aqraa, so they left. Many of us fear a similar fate to the three judges who were assassinated by unknown gunmen at the Rabe’a junction in the Western Hama countryside on December 24.

Homs today is two different cities. The neighbourhoods that participated in the revolution are now filled with a festive atmosphere and safety, cafes and shops are open until late, and the movement is completely normal. But in the neighbourhoods that were considered loyal to the former regime, an atmosphere of terror prevails: scores of kidnappings of young men, men and one woman have occurred recently. Some were found murdered, and the bodies were thrown in several areas of the city, with the fate of others still unknown. An atmosphere of fear and insecurity prevails due to compromised security. People return to their homes before sunset, movement stops completely in the evening, and all my acquaintances have installed locks on the doors of the buildings. We always make sure to keep the doors of the buildings closed, and at night, we lock them. I joined a WhatsApp group that brings together the residents of my entire building and some neighbours so that we can warn each other in case of danger. I fear the night and the uncertain future, and I have started thinking about leaving the country. We hear sporadic bursts of gunfire throughout the night, almost every single night. There was a significant increase in the number of people knocking on doors claiming to be from HTS, and they would often leave when the homeowners said they would call one of the HTS designated numbers. All homes that were searched had to turn in any personal arms. In the most recent incident, armed men came to a colleague’s building and demanded that one of the building’s residents come out “because they only have a problem with him and the others will be safe.” When the building’s residents started calling the HTS number, they left, but by the morning, the person in question fled with his family, fearing for his life if they were to return. 

I believe in the law and that the law should be the reference in governance and managing the country. I dream of a safe and free Syria for all its people and that we all live equal before the law. However, the general atmosphere in the city has changed. Four of my colleagues have so far worn the hijab, given that our superiors at work today are sheikhs, and they justified this by saying that they want to avoid any annoying situation. I believe that the number will increase.

Mr Ahmad Al-Sharaa was named a transitional president on January 31. Then, a while later, all judges were brought to an interview in front of a committee that came from Idlib. We had to fill out a two page questionnaire about our personal information. One of the questions was what is your sect,  and when some answered Muslim, they were asked to specify during the interview later whether they were Sunnis or Alawites or another sect. They rebuked one of the female judges who descends from the Sunni faith and does indeed wear the hijab because her outfit didn’t comply with the “correct” Islamic dress codes. Meanwhile they told another Christian female judge that she is dressed like a teenager, and that “they could not believe that a judge in this country can dress like that!” They asked people how much of the Quran they know by heart. They also asked a Sunni male judge why he did not defect earlier, and asked everyone if anyone in their family fought with the regime, or if any of their relatives died fighting with the regime. 

The security situation began to improve slightly last week. Shops began opening at night, and security forces began deploying in these neighborhoods in the evening to reassure residents, although some kidnappings still occur.

I live in constant anxiety. I feel, like many others, that we are headed toward Islamic rule, even if things are currently being covered up with equivocal statements. Each day that passes strengthens this conviction. The recently announced Constitutional Declaration states that “Islamic jurisprudence is the primary source of legislation.” Mr. Hassan al-Daghim, spokesman for the Dialogue Committee, explained that “Islamic jurisprudence is broader than Islamic sharia. Jurisprudence is the work of Sunni, Ismaili, Druze, and Shiite jurists… Islamic jurisprudence represents the majority of the Syrian people’s ideas, and adherents of other religions will be governed by a law similar to the 1948 law, which is an abbreviation of Ottoman law, which guarantees the rights of other religious communities and grants them their own personal status courts.” 

The formation of a new government was announced Saturday March 29, appointing Mazhar Al-Wais as Minister of Justice. Like his predecessor, Al-Wais is a graduate of Islamic Sharia  faculty and previously chaired the Supreme Judicial Council in the Salvation Government when it  previously ruled Idlib. He is considered one of the most prominent sharia scholars within Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham.