Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0358/03587.txt

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$Unique_ID{COW03587}
$Pretitle{247}
$Title{Syria
Chapter 2E.   Other Minorities}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Robert Scott Mason}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{education
syria
ministry
syrian
percent
social
yazidis
government
hospitals
secondary}
$Date{1987}
$Log{}
Country:     Syria
Book:        Syria, A Country Study
Author:      Robert Scott Mason
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1987

Chapter 2E.   Other Minorities

Jews

     Most Jews now living in the Arab world belong to communities dating back
to Old Testament times or originating as colonies of refugees fleeing the
Spanish Inquisition. In Syria, Jews of both origins, numbering altogether
about 3,000 in 1987, are found. A Syrian Jew is Arabic- speaking and is barely
distinguishable from the Arabs around him. In Syria, as elsewhere, the degree
to which Jews submit to the disciplines of their religion varies.

     The government treats the Jews as a religious community and not as an
ethnic group. Official documents refer to them as musawiyin (followers of
Moses) and not yahudin (Jews). The government's translation into English of
musawiyin is "Judists."

     Although the Jewish community continues to exercise a certain amount of
authority over the personal status of its members, as a whole it is under
considerable restriction, more because of political factors than religious
ones. The economic freedom of Jews is limited, and they are under continual
surveillance by the police. Their situation, although not good before the June
1967 War, has reportedly deteriorated considerably since then.

Yazidis

     In 1964 there were about 10,000 Yazidis in Syria, primarily in the
Jazirah region and in Aleppo; reliable population data were not available in
1987. Once seminomadic, most Yazidis now are settled; they have no great
chiefs and, although Kurdish speaking, gradually are being assimilated into
the surrounding Arab population.

     The Yazidis are believed to be of Kurdish ethnic stock. Yazidis, however,
believe themselves to be a people apart from the human race, not descended
from Adam and Eve. According to their own tradition, the Yazidis originated in
southern Iraq and migrated to their present-day mountainous stronghold--Jabal
Sinjar in northern Iraq--at the end of fourteenth century, where they adopted
the Kurdish language. Although some 70,000 Yazidis are scattered in Iraq,
Turkey, Iran, the Caucasus Mountains of the Soviet Union, and Syria, Iraq
remains the center of their religious life, the home of their amir, and the
site (north of Al Mawsil) of their most revered saint, Shaykh Adi.

     The etymology of the name Yazidi is obscure. According to some sources,
it derives from the name of the Umayyad Caliph Yazid bib Muawiyah (died 683),
who is regarded as a historical patron of the religion. Other sources ascribe
the name to the modern Farsi word izes, meaning angel or diety. Yazidis are
referred to in Syria, and call themselves, Dawasin, after the old geographic
name of a region in northern Iraq.

     The Yazidi faith is secret and contains elements of Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam, as well as paganism and occultism; Yazidis consider
the Bible and the Quran sacred. Yazidis are often called, somewhat
inaccurately, "devil worshipers" by other Syrians. Yazidi rites involve
placating an angel, called Malik Taus and symbolized as a sacred peacock, who
fell from grace and after repentance in hell was restored to God's favor. This
central Yazidi belief probably derived in part from the Christian concept of
Satan. However, it was also influenced by notions of redemption, resurrection,
and immortality, of which the peacock, like the phoenix, is an ancient Middle
Eastern pagan symbol.

Education

     Since 1967 all Syrian schools, colleges, and universities have been under
close government supervision. The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of
Higher Education are primarily responsible for all aspects of administration,
including curriculum development.

     Schooling is divided into six years of compulsory primary education,
three years of lower secondary education, and three years of upper secondary
education. General secondary education offers academic courses and prepares
students for university entrance; the last two years of this stage are divided
into literary and scientific streams. Vocational secondary training offers
courses in industry, agriculture, commerce, and primary-school-teacher
training. The usual entrance age for secondary schooling is fifteen but is
fourteen for teacher training institutions. This system was established in
1967, when the country signed the Arab Cultural Unity Agreement with Jordan
and Egypt, introducing a uniform school ladder in the three countries and
determining curriculum examination procedures and teacher training
requirements for each level.

     In the mid-1980s, Syrian education policies reflected the official
intention of the Baath Party to use the schools to indoctrinate the masses
with its ideology and to make school training responsive to the nation's
manpower needs (see Political Dynamics, ch. 4 ). The Fourth Five-Year Plan
(1976-80) established a target of full enrollment of boys of primary school
age by 1980 and of girls by 1990. By the early 1980s, Syria had achieved full
primary school enrollment of males of the relevant age; the comparable figure
for females was about 85 percent. Enrollment in secondary school dropped to 67
percent for boys and 35 percent for girls, reflecting a high drop-out rate.
Enrollments in remote rural areas were frequently far below the national
average. In some villages of Dayr az Zawr Province, for example, only about 8
percent of the girls attended primary school, whereas in Damascus about 49
percent of the girls completed the six-year primary system.

     The demand for education has increased sharply. Between 1970 and 1976,
enrollment in the primary, lower secondary, and upper secondary levels
increased by 43 percent, 52 percent, and 65 percent, respectively. During the
same period, enrollments in the various institutes of higher learning
increased by over 66 percent. In 1985 about 1 million boys and 873,000 girls
attended primary schools, which numbered 8,747. About 1,700 secondary schools
enrolled over 200,000 students (see table 2, Appendix).

     In 1984 the Ministry of Higher Education supervised four universities, in
Damascus, Aleppo, Latakia, and Homs. The University of Damascus, founded in
1923, had faculties of law, medicine, pharmacology, letters, dentistry,
Islamic jurisprudence, agriculture, architecture, engineering, science, fine
arts, commerce, and education. The Higher Institute for Social Work,
established in 1962 to conduct research into social and economic problems,
also was affiliated with the university. Syria's ruling Baath Party operated
an institute of political science at the university that conducted mandatory
classes in political orientation and current Syrian history. The University of
Aleppo, opened in 1958, had faculties of engineering and sciences,
agriculture, and literature. Tishrin University in Latakia had a similar
curriculum. Al Baath University in Homs, opened in 1979, was Syria's only
university with departments of petroleum engineering and veterinary medicine.

     In the 1980s, the Syrian government was attempting to expand enrollment
in its university faculties of science. In 1984 Syrian universities graduated
948 physicians and 1,693 engineers. However, over 3,100 students graduated
from the faculties of arts and literature.

     A second major thrust of Syrian educational planning was eliminating
illiteracy. In 1981 an estimated 2 million Syrians--42 percent of the
population over 12 years of age--were illiterate. In accordance with the
government's drive to eliminate illiteracy by 1991, in 1984 approximately
57,000 Syrians attended literacy classes sponsored by the Ministry of
Education and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor. Public demand for
education has remained strong, reflecting the importance of education as a
channel of upward mobility. The government has continued to expect the system
to provide trained citizens to meet the economic and political needs of the
society. In the mid-1980s, however, the educational system was still
inadequately funded and, even within its funding restrictions, was viewed by
impartial observers as failing to achieve its limited objectives and goals.

     In the Syrian education system of the mid-1980s, the concept of examining
a "truth" in an effort to confirm or refute it was largely unknown and, in any
event, was often viewed as an unacceptable challenge to authority. If the
teacher's instructions and assertions are questioned and refuted, other
centers of authority--the family and the government--might then be asked to
submit their truths to objective examination and testing. Because research
possesses limited intrinsic value, the inadequate research and laboratory
facilities were infrequently used.

     In 1977 one observer stated that although the Syrian government has been
seeking to improve the situation, the task is formidable because of the "many
shortcomings and defects" in the educational system and because the society
and government have been unable to agree on a modernizing, energizing social
role for the system. This assessment was largely valid in the mid-1980s.

Health

     Because of the increasing use of vaccinations and various preventive
measures, health conditions in Syria generally improved in the 1980s. Malaria,
and to a lesser extent tuberculosis, declined, but trachoma and
gastrointestinal and parasitic diseases were endemic, particularly among the
rural population. Diphtheria and tetanus also plagued rural communities, and
there was a high rate of infectious diseases, heart disease, and cancer in
urban areas.

     Syria's Ministry of Health had a budget of approximately LS187 million in
1985. As a socialist government, Syria provided virtually free medical care to
its citizens and imposed a ceiling on charges by private hospitals.

     In 1984 there were 41 state-run hospitals and 139 private hospitals in
Syria. The state hospitals averaged 200 beds each, while the private hospitals
averaged only 20 beds each. As of 1980, Syria had established state hospitals
in every province except Al Qunaytirah; however, these public facilities were
concentrated in Damascus, which had 15 public hospitals with a total of 3,801
beds, and Aleppo, which had 8 state hospitals with a total of 1,870 beds.
Private hospitals were likewise concentrated in Damascus and Aleppo. Syria
also had established 503 public health clinics throughout the country.

     Syria's public health program was augmented by programs administered by
the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor and the Ministry of Education. The
Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor provided vaccinations, medicine, and
maternity care at rural community development centers throughout the nation.
The Ministry of Education administered a preventive medicine and dentistry
program for schoolchildren. In 1981 this program operated with a staff of 62
physicians, 22 dentists, and 110 nurses in 160 schools, and Syria was
implementing plans to double the size of the program.

     Syria had 6,163 physicians in 1985, about one for every 1,666 people.
There were 1,975 dentists, one for every 5,198 people. Syria had 8,326 nurses
and 2,201 midwives (see table 3, Appendix).

     Syria's socialist government provided extensive welfare services to
citizens. Most welfare programs were administered by the Ministry of Social
Affairs and Labor, which in 1985 had a budget of LS265 million. This ministry
controlled labor unions, set minimum wages, was in charge of occupational
safety, paid social security premiums, and operated orphanages, institutions
for the handicapped, and rural community development centers. Many citizens
had access to subsidized public housing.

* * * *

     The scholarly literature on religion in the Middle East is vast,
expanding, and subject to constant revision and analysis. For a comprehensive
and challenging history of the founding of Islam and its subsequent
development and meaning, Marshall G.S. Hodgson's three- volume The Venture of
Islam is highly recommended. Islam and the Arab World, edited by Bernard
Lewis, is a well-regarded collection of monographs by numerous specialists in
the field, as are The Cambridge History of Islam, edited by P.M. Holt, Ann
K.S. Lambton, and Bernard Lewis, and Religion in the Middle East: Three
Religions in Concord and Conflict, edited by A.J. Arberry.

     In contrast, literature on Syrian social systems written by trained
social scientists remained scanty in 1987. Because of the vital importance of
sectarian differences and disputes within the society, such studies as Robert
M. Haddad's Syrian Christians in Muslim Society: An Interpretation, which
contains valuable insights into religious life in both communities, are among
the more useful sources for further reading. The articles by A.R. George,
Donald M. Reid, and Gordon Roberts present material on some of the minority
communities, and Frederick Jones Bliss's The Religions of Modern Syria and
Palestine contains observations on contemporary society. (For further
information and complete citations, see Bibliography.)