Dear Ms Wade,

Your description describes you as working for UNICEF, you may then have heard of another UN body called the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). They released a report about this time last year titled "Addressing Barriers to Women's Economic Participation in the ESCWA Region."

This is an area covering Middle Eastern and North African countries and the report's findings show that the level of women's economic participation is lower than any other region in the world. This report is one of a number over recent years that followed on from a much larger report published in 2001 that found women's living standards in this region had actually declined over the previous 20 years leading up to that report.

The ESCWA reports describes social norms and expectations on the role of women as important barriers.

If you are interested in addressing underlying factors for the Syrian conflict you have to include addressing cultural and religious traditions and attitudes, particularly as they relate to the role and status of women. This is a message that no one involved in the Syrian conflict currently wants to hear.

The reasons for people losing interest in the Syrian Crisis Hannah are not just attributable to attention span, it is also due to the fact that most people older than you see history repeating itself it this part of the world. The issues have been well studied by qualified people for a long time but changing attitudes is very difficult when people prefer to see themselves as blameless.

Your article on Syrian refugees seeks to reinforce the perception that there is no cause and effect relationship between the cultural and religious traditions and practices of the refugees and the civil conflict. My argument is that there is indeed such a cause and effect relationship.