What is it about?
This study presents the voices of four Syrian refugee women to improve the understanding of complexities of human displacement. The interviews were conducted in 2016 in Gaziantep, Turkey, a border city to Aleppo, Syria. The study offers an intersectional framework for approaching identities. While all four women have apparent commonalities, such as their gender, their displacement and the host country/city in which they live, the study examines other important identities that shape their experiences: Afran is Kurdish and transgendered, Nabila is a niqab-wearing Sunni Muslim woman who lost her upper-class status after her displacement and has political visions for the future of Syria, Farah is an atheist who removed her hijab and became financially liberated after leaving Syria, and Zeinab is a human rights-defending leftist. The concepts of ‘displaced selves’ and ‘dislocated emotions’ are introduced in connection to becoming and belonging beyond physically forced emigration from state borders.
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Why is it important?
Human experience of displacement and diverse identities of refugees needs to be located. Unique voices of women in this paper aspires to show this diversity.
Perspectives
Refugees are usually depicted as victims and they are all perceived in unitary ways. This paper demonstrates the multiple identities and diversity among refugees. The paper questions and discusses meanings of belonging and displacement in home and host societies. Meeting women in the field, interacting with them and learning about their experiences was a wonderful experience.
Dr. Umut Ozkaleli
ADA University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Displaced selves, dislocated emotions and transforming identities: Syrian refugee women reinventing selves, Women s Studies International Forum, September 2018, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.wsif.2018.07.010.
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