Ghani's statistics on armed groups show that most of them also involve cases of violence against women – and the Syrian government heads that list. Women are deliberately targeted, he says, because they always played an important role in the opposition against Assad. The regime sees torture and sexual abuse of women as a war strategy, Ghani argues. "Break the women and you break the family – and with it opposition in society. That's the goal."

Syrian women in Assad's prisons