Human Rights Watch stated on Monday that Syrian authorities have implemented admission criteria that effectively prevent women from enrolling in the majority of programs at two newly established government universities specializing in defense and security. The deadline for applications is October 19, 2026. The organization described these discriminatory rules as a clear violation of Syria’s commitments under international law, noting they are part of a troubling pattern by transitional authorities to restrict women’s roles in state institutions and reinforce gender stereotypes.
The conditions announced by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research on September 30 confine fields such as law, economics, administration, and social sciences to men at the National University of Defense Sciences. At the Syrian University of Security Sciences, women are permitted to apply only for cybersecurity programs. Conversely, other state university programs are restricted to women, including kindergarten education, midwifery courses, and nursing schools in Damascus and Aleppo.
Heba Ziadin, Senior Syria Advisor at Human Rights Watch, emphasized that the authorities are rebuilding the military and security forces without women. “Women cannot train as officers, nor even study to become lawyers or administrators in the army. Simply put, this is discrimination,” she said. A former official in the Ministry of Higher Education told Agence France-Presse in early October that some rules restricting admission to men predate the transitional phase, and that Damascus University, the country’s largest, still accepts women into all programs. However, the defense and security universities are admitting students through the general university admission process for the first time this year, explicitly excluding women from most pathways.
At the National University of Defense Sciences, which mandates military service, only men are allowed to join the Army, Navy, and Air Force academies, which teach engineering, as well as the Faculty of Humanities and Administration. The only part of the university accessible to women is the Higher Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology, which does not require military service. Similarly, at the Syrian University of Security Sciences, the Faculty of Security Sciences and the Technical Institute of Security Sciences accept men only. Graduates must serve in internal security forces or specialized agencies for 20 years after college or 10 years after the institute program.
While women can study law, economics, and social sciences at other public and private universities, and join police through the separate Women’s Police Institute, which graduated its first cohort in September 2026, these new policies effectively deny women a pathway to the military and security forces. This exclusion is already visible in northeast Syria, where authorities in August prevented the all-female Women’s Protection Units of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces from joining the army alongside male fighters.
These restrictions contradict the Constitutional Declaration signed by President Ahmed al-Sharaa on March 13, 2025, which guarantees equality without gender-based discrimination and women’s rights to education and work. Syria is also a party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Human Rights Watch urged the Ministry of Higher Education to open these programs to women on an equal basis before the application deadline and called for the abolition of all gender-based admission restrictions.
This report was produced by the HuMedia newsroom.
