The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) declares its full solidarity with woman human rights defender Hiba Ezzideen Al-Hajji and the staff of the Equity & Empowerment Organisation (E & E), who are subjected to a fierce defamation campaign on social media, in addition to serious death threats. These attacks are clearly a response to their peaceful and legitimate work in the field of human rights, and in particular their unconditional defense of women’s rights in Syria.

Hiba Al-Hajji is the Executive Director of the E & E Organisation, and she has worked diligently with international mechanisms, including those of the United Nations system, in order to empower women in Syria, monitor the grave violations to which they are exposed, and work to stop them.

The campaign against her began on 04 July 2023 on anonymous Facebook pages that targeted her personally with obscene language because of her call to end discrimination against women, and these defamation campaigns have continued to this day.

On 11 July 2023, the campaign expanded to include the Telegram application, where anonymous accounts have been used, in addition to accounts on Facebook to publish explicit and fabricated pictures of her in order to defame her.

On 14 July 2023, the E & E Organisation announced on its Facebook page that it was organising a training course for girls to teach them martial arts, after which the comments field was filled with offensive words against Al-Hajji.

On 15 July 2023, the targeting was repeated by the same accounts on Facebook and Telegram, and despite submitting a complaint to Facebook since the start of the campaign, these pages were not closed until several days later, while the Telegram page is still active and publishes false accusations about her.

On 16 July 2023, WhatsApp was used to target her in the same way that Jordanian human rights lawyer Hala Ahed was targeted.

On 18 July 2023, the same account on Telegram, along with other anonymous Facebook accounts, re-posted explicit and unreal photos of her in order to defame her and her peaceful work in the field of human rights.

On 21 July 2023, the imam of a mosque in the countryside of Idlib Governorate directly incited action against her after he mentioned her by name and against her organisation, E & E, in front of the worshipers, who numbered more than two hundred. The sermon was widely published on WhatsApp, which puts her life and the lives of her work team in imminent danger.

Heba Al-Hajji told GCHR, “Despite this defamation campaign and the threats accompanying it, we will steadfastly continue our peaceful and legitimate work in the field of human rights in order to build a society where social justice and equality prevail in Syria, in which women perform the role assigned to them without any discrimination or marginalisation.”

GCHR strongly condemns this defamation campaign and the accompanying threats against human rights defender Hiba Ezzideen Al-Hajji and the workers of the E & E Organisation, and calls on all international mechanisms to provide support and protection for them.

The administrators of the two social networks, Facebook and Telegram, must make serious and immediate efforts to remove the aggressive content targeting Heba Al-Hajji and her organisation, E & E.

GCHR also calls on the de facto authorities in northwestern Syria to provide all forms of protection for Hiba Al-Hajji and her team in order for them to carry out their peaceful work without any harassment or targeting through or outside of social networks.