Kremlin calendar shows Syrian women thanking 'liberators'

A controversial calendar titled "From Syria With Love" has surfaced online last week showing Syrian women thanking their "Russian liberators".
It shows a dozen Syrian women from different cities in the war-torn country wearing kokoshnik – traditional Russian headdresses – made by Russian designer Kirill Mintsev.
The calendar was handed out to Russian troops in Syria over the weekend, according to Russian media.
"Syrian girls prepared a present for New Year for Russian soldiers and officers, where 12 different heroine residents of Syria, each in her own way, speaks to those who daily risk their lives defending their homeland and their own," reads a press release accompanying the calendar's publication.
Russians traditionally exchange presents on New Year's Day as opposed to Christmas.
Just fewer than half of the Syrian women photographed came from the Alawite-dominated regime stronghold of Latakia which is also home to Russia’s Khmeimim air base.
Three of the women featured are from Aleppo, where Russia’s bombing campaign against besieged civilians has drawn fierce international condemnation.
Two others are from Tartus, the site of a Soviet-era naval base – Russia’s last outside the former Soviet Union, and its only on the Mediterranean Sea.
Another woman is from Homs, a former opposition stronghold, and Miss December, the final participant, is from Sweida, a predominately Druze city in southwest Syria.
The calendar is replete with references to Palmyra, the ancient city that Russia was central to liberating from the Islamic State (IS) group in March.
It recently fell back into IS hands as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, turned their attention to Aleppo, the last of the rebels’ strongholds.
The group behind the calendar are grazhdanin (citizens) from the School of Modern Art in Russia, which describes itself as a "non-commercial organisation to support and develop civic and social initiative", according to the Russian online news magazine The Interpreter.
A footnote on the cover, however, seems to suggest that the project was funded by a grant from the Russian presidency through the Russian Union of Youth.
The calendar is marked not by Russian state holidays, but key dates in Russia’s intervention in the Syrian civil war.
"The Western media, speaking of events in Syria, often forgets about Russian humanitarian aid, about the exceptional bravery of Russian soldiers, about the thousands of civilians liberated from virtual slavery," the press release said.
"Each of the young Syrian women has a story, but they are united in the sense of their sincere gratitude to Russian soldiers," the statement continued.
"As a sign of respect for Russia and its culture, all the models put on traditional Russian hats – the kokoshnik," the statement said.
The seven-year-old causing Russia headaches
The calendar's press release also said: “Recently, Western media often refer to the accounts of ‘Syrian girls’ who write in perfect English about how they suffer daily from the Russian action. But these ‘girls’ cannot even answer in Arabic on the offers of assistance.
"It's important for the organisers and participants of this project that those who are fighting terrorists know what real daughters of Syria think of them."
The girl they are presumably referring to is Bana Alabed, a seven-year-old who tweeted live updates in English from Aleppo as the city was being pounded by Russian and Syrian jets.
Bana became a sensation in Western and Arab media, which led to her account being heavily trolled by online supporters of Assad.
But social media quickly accused the Kremlin of carrying out a propaganda stunt itself, with some going as far as saying the calendar was the “glamorisation of mass murder".
'The least I could do'
One participant in the calendar, Maram Himsi, told RT: “Participation in this calendar was for me a way to say ‘thank you’ to those protecting my family and loved ones; those who are now stationed in my hometown Aleppo – and the calendar is really the least I could do to express my gratitude to the Russian soldiers.”
Ruptly, RT's video news agency, interviewed some of the people involved in the creation of the calendar
Scandalous
Russian activists and media were quick to point out a series of flaws in the calendar.
The most glaring of these was that the suggestive quotes next to the women were not their own and were only added later – without their permission, according to some of the women who were photographed.
Speaking to Russian news outlet TJournal, an online media analysis website, Miss October – Yara Hassan – said: “We thought there would only be pictures, but we were shocked when we saw the calendar on the internet with these silly phrases.”
Hassan said they agreed to the photoshoot to show their support for the Russian military, but were not asked their permission to have the quotes used next to their pictures.
Film-maker Anastasia Peksheva, who is working on an upcoming documentary on Syrians living in Russia, told TJournal that the situation was “most unfortunate” for the women involved, and pointed out that Syrian expats and refugees can be “easily deceived” in foreign countries.
“They just took advantage of their trust,” Peksheva told the website, emphasising that the women were not asked their permission for the quotes to be used next to their name.
She advised the Syrian women to sue.
The group behind the project appeared to be involved in a previous project supposedly showing grassroots student support for the Kremlin’s hostile stance towards Ukraine.
Some Syrian women living in Russia took the initiative, and sent their own messages to the Russian army.
Sex and politics: Inside Putin's propaganda
The propagandisation of Putin's masculinity is one of his key pillars of maintaining his grip over Russian politics and society, experts have noted.
As Valerie Sperling notes in her book Sex, Politics, and Putin: Political Legitimacy in Russia: "By 2007, however, Putin's PR team had caught on, releasing bare-chested photos of Putin on a Siberian fishing trip - apparently responding to or echoing the "rugged outdoorsman" image used by Bush... By 2007, Putin was winning the hypothetical 'real-man' competition; in one mid-sized Russian city, 44.8 percent of Russians surveyed named Putin when asked to name a 'real man' in Russian politics."
"And now I want a man like Putin," the duo sing: "One like Putin, full of strength / One like Putin, who won't be a drunk / One like Putin, who wouldn't hurt me / One like Putin, who won't run away!"
The sexualisation of Middle Eastern women for foreign consumption is nothing new to the Arab world.
In his seminal 1978 book Orientalism, Edward Said wrote that the Orient for outside powers represents "not only fecundity but sexual promise (and threat), untiring sensuality, unlimited desire".
New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch
Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters
Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this form. More about MEE can be found here.