Syrian Refugee Women in Lebanon

Abstract

Civil war in Syria forced million of its people to be forcibly displaced. Today, after eleven years of its start, Lebanon is currently hosting over one million Syrian refugees residing in formal and informal camps spread all over its territories. Women constitute over half of the Syrian refugee’s population according to a recent report published by the United Nations. Driven by the need to look at the personal narratives of Syrian refugee women in Lebanon this research attempted to add knowledge about them and to examine the correlation between their actions, as creative agents, and the resulting changes in their livelihoods. To do so, a qualitative research strategy and a case study was adopted to analyze testimonies of 40 Syrian refugee women who participated in a “Sewing and Knitting” training project executed by a local NGO, through the lens of the social worker. Results revealed that women showed high and low agency and three major themes were developed: role of agency, role of urbanity and role of NGOs; future recommendations are suggested.