Syria appoint first woman to lead central bank

A woman will lead the Central Bank of Syria for the first time in the institution’s 70-year history after the country’s new leadership appointed Maysaa Sabrine, a former deputy governor of the bank, to helm it.

In leading the institution that manages the country’s currency and sets its monetary policy, she will be in a prime position to help heal an economy shattered by 13 years of war and stringent international sanctions. Today, about 70% of Syria’s population lives in poverty, and another 30% in extreme poverty, according to the World Bank.

Sabrine, whose appointment was reported by Reuters, is expected to replace Mohammed Issam Hazime, who was named governor in 2021 by since-ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad.

She now faces the task of leading the bank through a dire financial landscape, with Syria’s economy having deteriorated significantly in the years since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011.

Her rise to the top role comes as Syria’s new de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa and his Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham group, which led rebel forces in the Assad regime’s ouster, seek to project a more moderate image, promising an inclusive society in which the country’s myriad religious and ethnic groups, as well as women, will be represented.

In a recent interview with the BBC, Sharaa sought to contrast his vision for a future Syria against the leadership of the Taliban in Afghanistan, where women have faced extreme restrictions that barr them from public spaces, as well as from seeking higher education.

Pointing to HTS’s record in Idlib in Syria’s northwest, where the rebel group has governed for years, he noted that he believed in educational access for women.

“We’ve had universities in Idlib for more than eight years,” Sharaa said, adding: “I think the percentage of women in universities is more than 60%.”

Sabrine had already held a number of prominent roles within Syria’s central bank, including first deputy governor and supervising director, according to Saudi state-owned broadcaster Al Arabiya.

In addition, Sabrine, who holds a master’s degree in accounting, has also served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Damascus Securities Exchange since 2018, representing the Central Bank, according to the broadcaster.

In the days since Assad’s ouster, the central bank has sought to liberalize Syria’s economy, which was previously heavily controlled by the Assad regime.

Sharaa has called on Western countries, including the U.S. and United Kingdom, to lift crippling sanctions that targeted the Assad regime.

The U.S. earlier this month removed a $10 million bounty that was placed on Sharaa himself after meetings between U.S. diplomat and HTS leadership. But HTS itself remains on Washington’s terrorist list.

While the weeks since Assad’s ouster on Dec. 8 have remained relatively stable in Syria, Sharaa said over the weekend in an interview with Al Arabiya that it could take up to four years for new elections to be held.

And fears have grown that the delicate and relative peace that has washed over Syria in the days since Assad’s overthrow could be easily disrupted. Protests by members of the Alawite community, the minority sect the Assad family belongs to, erupted last week in Homs after video showing an Alawite shrine in Aleppo being vandalized circulated online.

The demonstrations prompted the country’s revamped security forces to institute new security measures in Homs, the country’s third-largest city, according to The Associated Press.

Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters also took to the streets in Christian neighbourhoods of Damascus last week after a Christmas tree burning deepened fears that new leadership would still oversee a crackdown on religious minorities in the country.

But in Homs, which has a diverse population of Sunni and Shia Muslims, as well as Christians and Alawites, a relatively peaceful Christmas in the Christian suburb of Fayrouzeh appeared to help assuage some fears.

“We had a very beautiful holiday even though there was some anxiety before it,” one Fayrouzeh resident, Sarab Kashi, told The AP. “The guys from HTS volunteered and stood as guards on the door of the churches.”

But whether Syria’s new leadership will be able to maintain that relative calm remains to be seen, with the international community keeping a close eye on the shifting circumstances in Damascus.