Displacement, humanitarian interventions and gender rights in the Middle East: Syrian refugees in Jordan as a case study

Abstract

The article focuses on a particular type of Islamic marriage, so-called imam marriages, which are not recognised by the Jordanian state but widely practised among and with Syrian refugees since their influx to Jordan in 2011. State institutions and feminist humanitarian organisations advocate a registration of these marriages on the basis of fulfilling UN conventions on gender and human rights protection. I, however, argue in this article that the enforcement of marriage registration and the implementation of a hegemonic moral order in Jordan give rise to the contradictory deployment of gender and human security protection these state and non-state actors claim to ensure. Imposed policies undermine the safety and social standing of Syrian refugee women in Jordan, in particular, by exposing them to increased public hypervisibility. This article analyses imam marriages within their multi-layered local and transnational socio-political contexts, highlighting thereby the wider complexity of power relations in which intersecting and, very often conflicting, structures place women in more vulnerable positions. The article provides new insights into the impact of humanitarian interventions on gender rights and the safety of displaced people in the Middle East by taking Syrian refugees in Jordan as a case study.

Perceived Discrimination and Poverty among Syrian Refugee Women in Jordan

“…Goodkind et al (2014) confirmed that experiences of discrimination can compound REFUGE: CANADA'S JOURNAL ON REFUGEES Perceived Discrmination and Poverty refugees' struggles to access resources and to maintain physical health and social support. Gender and policy inequities place women at even greater risk for social, economic, and other harms (OCHA, 2018;Shanneik, 2021). As described in the social exclusion literature, additional explanations could include difficulty accessing labour and housing markets (Berman & Phillips, 2000;Hanafi et al, 2012).…”

Early marriage and displacement�a conversation: how Syrian daughters, mothers and mothers-in-law in Jordan understand marital decision-making

“…For these medical practitioners, Syrian refugees are out of sync with Jordan's path towards modernity, and towards modern families. Ethnographic studies also find that political and media attention on refugee women's marital choices in Jordan has not increased their protection, but instead fuelled stereotypes in the host society about Syrians as 'cheap brides', and further put them at risk of sexual harassment (Shanneik 2021). Feminist scholars bemoan that branding early marriage as 'traditional' or 'premodern' forecloses discussions about how different socioeconomic, political and cultural factors are combined in families' decisions to marry off their daughters early (Hickel 2014, Miedema et al 2020.…”