Welcome to Syria from MTN

It has very quickly become apparent that the theme and even the message of Follow the Women changes with the country. The sponsors are not just giving us money, they are dictating the project, meaning that Follow the Women is a vehicle for their publicity. The lack of control renders the project at best ineffective, at worst immoral, as in this particular case we are whole-heartedly supporting a dictatorship with a bad human rights record.

Detta doesn’t have a problem with this lack of control. “I don’t know what’s going on” she says, “MTN [the mobile phone company sponsor, owned by the cousin of the President] are sorting everything out for us”. This is not said in a frustrated way, but rather contentedly. Later she has to deal with it, when MTN cancels the trip to the refugee camp in Damascus and there is widespread mutiny. They say there is no time but eventually back down; it turns out they are right when there is no time to fit in the rest of the programme. We visit the first lady (see above) and get to the restaurant two hours late – a true disaster (also see above).

There is also no control over the media. "That's the first thing you have to think about in a conflict situation" says Mary, experienced in the Northern Irish peace process. "You have to tightly control the press releases, the press presence, the message getting through. You have to check and correct and control." The ethos of FtW is that all publicity is good publicity, and any and all participants are allowed to be interviewed. This means that quotes in national newspapers included "I am taking part...to show the world that the Middle East is a place of peace". Erm, I thought we were raising awareness of conflict. "Women for Peace" turned into "Peace for Women" in Syria Times; JO magazine in Jordan said: "The Bike-Ride for Peace promotes the beauty, accessibility and general safety of the area as a destination for foreign visitors". What are we supporting - the ministry of tourism? A couple of Danish girls think so: "This is just a tour group...it's a cheap and easy way of seeing the region".

I was interviewed in Arabic and have no idea about potential double meanings or how my sentences could be cut. I was just excited and flattered that journalists thought my Arabic was good enough, but really rather stupid to do it: I began to say no, on Mary's advice.

[That first day in Syria has been the first indication of my eventual disgust at the whole project of Follow the Women. There were two comments from Detta that really got to me on the bus that evening – the first chance I’d had to talk to her about my concerns. One was about the government in this country. “I can’t believe” she said “that Esma [the first lady] would marry anyone bad. She’s so lovely, she would never marry someone who would do these things.” I mention the political prisoners and widespread torture. She looks thoughtful. “Well, you know more about the area than I do.” She’s not prepared to learn from me though, nor anyone else who disagrees with her line. The second point helped demolish my belief in the project of FtW: “In the beginning, the women was a gimmick, actually” Detta tells me. A gimmick. “To spread awareness of women’s lives in the region” was a gimmick – for what? “The media were going to give us more attention if we were all women.” I tell her that’s why I’m here, to support the women in the region. She hastens to reassure me, “of course, it’s become important to me. It’s just that I’m not a feminist, actually”. It’s hard for me to talk to someone so naïve, when I’m so impressed by what she’s achieved yet so dismayed by her attitudes and speeches and actions. As a journalist on the team, I’m struggling to know what exactly to write about. It can’t be as positive as I was hoping for.]