Civil Resistance in the Syrian Uprising

Hinnebusch, Raymond; Imady, Omar; Zintl, Tina

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198749028.003.0009

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…16 Political economy research also documented inflation, unemployment, crumbling infrastructure, and welfare cuts, noting how they deteriorated living conditions for much of the population, 17 and especially the regime's traditional peasant and worker clientele. 18 This indispensible scholarship made vital contributions to "demystifying" Syria 19 by painting a rich portrait of the social, economic, and institutional forces that buttressed authoritarian rule. Yet it did not typically address the experience of citizens living under it, apart from that which could be inferred from macro-relationships of power.…”

Section: Syrian Politics and Syrian Voicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Narratives of Fear in Syria

Pearlman¹

2016

Perspect. polit.

103

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Scholarship on Syria has traditionally been limited by researchers' difficulty in accessing the reflections of ordinary citizens due to their reluctance to speak about politics. The 2011 revolt opened exciting opportunities by producing an outpouring of new forms of selfexpression, as well as encouraging millions to tell their stories for the first time. I explore what we can learn from greater attention to such data, based on thick descriptive analysis of original interviews with 200 Syrian refugees. I find that individuals' narratives coalesce into a collective narrative emphasizing shifts in political fear. Before the uprising, fear was a pillar of the state's coercive authority. Popular demonstrations generated a new experience of fear as a personal barrier to be surmounted. As rebellion militarized into war, fear became a semi-normalized way of life. Finally, protracted violence has produced nebulous fears of an uncertain future. Study of these testimonials aids understanding of Syria and other cases of destabilized authoritarianism by elucidating lived experiences obscured during a repressive past, providing a fresh window into the construction and evolution of national identity, and demonstrating how the act of narration is an exercise in meaning making within a revolution and itself a revolutionary practice.A March 2015 United Nations report on the war in Syria found that six percent of the population of 22 million had been killed or injured, some 80 percent lived in poverty, and the majority of children no longer attended school. 1 Satellite images show a country literally "plunged into darkness" with 83 percent of lights gone out, 2 and some 200 cultural heritage sites damaged or destroyed. 3 While the Islamic State (ISIS)'s crimes gain notoriety, the regime of Bashar al-Assad remains responsible for the lion's share of civilian deaths. Escaping atrocities from imposed starvation to indiscriminate barrel bombs, more than 7.6 million have become internally displaced and 4.1 million externally displaced, as of this writing. 4 While Europe struggles to resettle a fraction of refugees, the resource-strapped counties on Syria's borders buckle under a deluge whose political implications remain undetermined.Observing these horrors, dignitaries denounce "senseless" tragedy. 5 Seeking to make sense of it, political scientists often turn to general concepts such as authoritarian survival and subtypes of civil war. Theories derived from these and other categories elucidate complex conflict Most of all, the author is indebted to the hundreds of Syrians who selflessly welcomed her into their lives, shared their stories, and tirelessly introduced her to others who did the same. Though she does not name them out of concern for their safety and that of their families, she will be forever humbled by their generosity, without which this work would not have been possible.

show abstract

Section: Syrian Politics and Syrian Voicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Narratives of Fear in Syria

Pearlman¹

2016

Perspect. polit.

103

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…What began as the Syrian Uprising in March 2011 soon evolved into one of the world's most ‘damaging and protracted conflicts’ (Hinnebusch & Imady, 2018: 1), turning ‘exuberant hopes of a new and democratic era’ into ‘feelings of despair regarding the subsequent descent into violence, war, and forced displacement’ (Løland 2019: 8). The popular mobilization during the Arab Spring against the Syrian authorities led to a civil war that ‘has killed more than 300,000 people and made millions into refugees’ (Schmidt 2018: 30), causing ‘a radical political rupture’ by transforming the ‘social domain’ of ‘everyday life, gender norms and types of alliances’ (Loris‐Rodionoff 2019: 2).…”

Section: From Aleppo To New Yorkmentioning

confidence: 99%

The familiar‐strange manifestation of the dead

Amoozegar

2022

Royal Anthropological Inst

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article draws on Islamic perspectives that conceive of visions (ru'yā) and nightmares (kābūs) as instances whereby Jamilā, a 13‐year‐old Syrian refugee girl in Brooklyn, New York, imagines and makes sense of the dead. She uses the Arabic words ma‘rwf (familiar) and gharīb (strange) to describe her dead elderly neighbour, Safiyya, in her visions and nightmares. Jamilā’s familiar‐strange experiences imagine the dead both as good (the divine nature of death fundamental to Islamic values) and as evil (the pain and suffering of the departed). These familiar‐strange feelings constitute an irresolvable uncertainty about death, shaping an imaginative space for Jamilā to be with Safiyya, who was like a mother to her. The manifestation of the dead consists of dynamic interpretations for the living. This results in a familiar‐strange experience granted through the in‐between space of what the philosopher Ibn ‘Arabī calls barzakh (‘obstacle’ or ‘separation’), which allows for an understanding of the departed as both blissful and suffering. The vernacular Arabic used by Jamilā in describing her familiar‐strange experiences and the Islamic values upheld by her family underscore the importance of knowledge accumulated in the Islamic tradition for understanding the perception of loss and death for an adolescent Syrian refugee.

show abstract

“…Gerçekten de Arap Baharı sonrası süreçte Sünni-Şii çatışması -Ortadoğu'nun genelinde olduğu gibi -Suriye siyasetinin en önemli meselelerinden biri haline gelmiştir (Valbjørn, 2020, s.93). Protestoların başında demokratik geçiş, insan hakları ve özgürlükler üzerine yapılan temel akademik tartışmaların yerine, birkaç yıl içinde mezhepçilik ve radikalleşme üzerine tartışmalar yoğunluk kazanmıştır (Schmidt, 2018;Hinnebusch ve Imady, 2018). Bu bağlamda Arap Baharı sonrasında çok sayıda akademisyen, çatışmalarda mezhepsel kimliğe odaklanmıştır (Örn: Haddad, 2017Haddad, , 2020Goldsmith, 2018b, Hashemi ve Postel, 2017.…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

Suriye Krizinde Mezhepçiliğin Araçsallaştırılması

AKKAN

Aksu

2023

Marmara Üniversitesi Siyasal Bilimler Dergisi

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

2011 Suriye kriziyle birlikte Sünni-Şii ayrımı Ortadoğu bölgesindeki siyaset açısından en önemli faktörlerden biri haline gelmiştir. Özellikle Suriye'deki çatışmalarda mezhep gruplarının birbirlerini varoluşsal birer tehdit olarak algılamasıyla krizde zaman zaman mezhepsel bir boyut öne çıkmıştır. Fakat bu dönüşüm, temel olarak mezhepçiliğin tarihsel köklerine dayanmanın ötesinde, liderin ve siyasi elitlerin iktidarın güvenliğini sağlamak için mezhepsel kimlikleri birer araç olarak kullanmasının bir sonucu olarak ortaya çıkmıştır. Bu makale Suriye krizinde mezhepsel araçsallaştırmanın kimler tarafından, nasıl yapıldığını ve bu politikanın çatışmaları ne yönde etkilediğini tartışmaktadır. Makalede Suriye krizinin karmaşık mezhepsel boyutunun Primordializm yaklaşımıyla açıklanamayacağı görüşünden hareket edilmektedir. Bu bağlamda Primordializm yerine Enstrümantalizm yaklaşımı kullanılarak Beşar Esad yönetiminin mezhepsel kimlikleri iktidarının sürekliliğini sağlamak amacıyla araçsallaştırdığı savı tartışılmaktadır. Bunun için de Suriye’de siyasal iktidarın söylem, eylem ve politikaları incelenerek Suriye krizinde mezhepçiliğin nasıl araçsallaştırıldığı açıklanmaktadır.

show abstract

Civil Resistance in the Syrian Uprising

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

Narratives of Fear in Syria

Narratives of Fear in Syria

The familiar‐strange manifestation of the dead

Suriye Krizinde Mezhepçiliğin Araçsallaştırılması

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About