Destabilising gender dynamics

Abu-Assab, Nour

doi:10.4324/9781315529653-2

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…During the 2011 revolution, a substantial number of working-class women played an important role in organising peaceful resistance at the grassroots level (Alsaba and Kapilashrami, 2016). In retaliation, they have been targeted by rape and gender-based violence by the Syrian regime and other parties to the conflict (Abu-Assab, 2017). This brief summary of women's history in modern Syria is not meant to be exhaustive, but it demonstrates that our interlocutors' exposure to ideals of 'female self-reliance' is nothing new.…”

Section: Methodology and Study Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Their success is limited by an overly narrow focus on the economic dimension of self-reliance and on individuals, overlooking refugees' social obligations and survival strategies within extended kinship networks (Easton-Calabria et al, 2017). In this article, we sound a cautious note on refugees' labour market participation, which does not necessarily increase women's rights and gender equality (Abu-Assab, 2017). We also add nuance to the distinction between the public and the private: national and international refugee-reception policies compel our interviewees to work from their living rooms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Like other Syrian women of her generation, Um Nadia's paid and unpaid intimate labour challenges, but also retrenches socially constructed ideas of femininity (cf. Abu-Assab, 2017;Culcasi, 2019). During the interview, Um Nadia stressed the novelty of having to provide for her husband, grownup children and grandchildren.…”

Section: Matchmakers and Matriarchsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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‘In Exile, the Woman Became Everything’

Sidhva

Zuntz

Akash

et al. 2021

Journal of Humanitarian Affairs

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This article explores the intersections of generational and gender dynamics with humanitarian governance in Jordan that cause shifts in the division of labour within displaced families. Drawing on life history interviews and focus group discussions with seventeen Syrian women in Jordan in spring 2019, we explore the monetary and non-monetary contributions of middle-aged females to the livelihoods of refugee households. Older women’s paid and unpaid labour holds together dispersed families whose fathers have been killed or incapacitated, or remain in Syria or in the Gulf. In doing so, many women draw on their pre-war experience of living with – or rather apart from – migrant husbands. Increased economic and social responsibilities coincide with a phase in our interviewees’ lifecycle in which they traditionally acquire greater authority as elders, especially as mothers-in-law. While power inequalities between older and younger Syrian women are not new, they have been exacerbated by the loss of resources in displacement. Our insights offer a counterpoint to humanitarian attempts at increasing refugees’ ‘self-reliance’ through small-scale entrepreneurship. For now, culturally appropriate and practically feasible jobs for middle-aged women are found in their living rooms. Supportive humanitarian action should allow them to upscale their businesses and address power dynamics within families.

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Section: Methodology and Study Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

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‘In Exile, the Woman Became Everything’

Sidhva

Zuntz

Akash

et al. 2021

Journal of Humanitarian Affairs

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“…The 45 women I formally interviewed all faced immense trauma and loss as a direct result of the brutal war that led to their displacement. As is commonplace in war, some women have also been subjected to increased genderbased violence, whether at the hands of soldiers, other refugees, or men within their households (cooke 2000;Mertus 2000;Al-Ali & Pratt 2009;Abu-Assab 2017;Asaf 2017;Ayoub 2017;Freedman et al 2017;Ezer 2019). While my participants had all been victimized, they were not merely victims.…”

Section: The Agency Of Syrian Muslim Women Refugeesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gendered Orientalism and Syrian Women Refugees

Culcasi

2024

Fennia

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Orientalist discourses have long recirculated the idea that Muslim women are oppressed victims of Islam; an idea that has denigrated Muslims and positioned white, Christians as superior. For Muslim women refugees specifically, the gendered orientalist discourse of victimization has reappeared on both sides of the debate on Syrian refugee resettlement in the US and Europe. Within anti-resettlement circles, the narrative of Muslim women as oppressed victims has been leveraged as a reason to stop their resettlement, because their lifestyles and values are framed as incompatible with liberal, Western societies. Pro-resettlement circles, on the other hand, often position Muslim women’s victimization as a reason to save them by resettling them. In other words, the same cultural essentialism that positions Muslim women as victims has been used to reject and to support Muslim refugee resettlement. Yet the representations of Syrian Muslim women as oppressed victims of Islam exist in stark contrast to the strong, capable, and resilient Syrian women refugees scattered across SWANA, Europe, the US, and elsewhere. Building from postcolonial, feminist literature, in this paper I first focus on the intersections of the gendered orientalism and refugee resettlement discourses, underscoring the commonality of the victim discourse on both sides of the Syrian refugee resettlement debate. I then shift to highlight the disconnect between the victim representation and the life and experiences of Syrian women refugees. This later point draws from my research on Syrian Muslim women refugees in Jordan who have managed seemingly insurmountable obstacles with strength and determination; and they have done so in part through their faith. I situate my discussion of their strength within literature on Islamic feminism and Muslim women’s agency.

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To Stay or to Go? Decision-Making of LGBTQI Syrians in Mixed Migration Flows

Odlum

2018

LGBTI Asylum Seekers and Refugees From a Legal and Political Perspective

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Destabilising gender dynamics

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

‘In Exile, the Woman Became Everything’

‘In Exile, the Woman Became Everything’

Gendered Orientalism and Syrian Women Refugees

To Stay or to Go? Decision-Making of LGBTQI Syrians in Mixed Migration Flows

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