With few men left in Syria, women now run Damascus

Ranim drives a mini-bus between Jaramana and Bab Touma. She is a single woman with no children, who says that all her brothers left the country after 2011. (Gulf News)

The military draft has visibly emptied Damascus from its young male population. Almost overnight, young able-bodied men aged 18-40 fled the country to avoid service in the Syrian Army.

Most went to Lebanon and Turkey by bus or Europe via “death boats.” Back home, the city has been transformed into a “female-only” society—at least for now.

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