Syrian Women Refugees: Personal Accounts of Transition

190 Pages·2019·1.72 MB·English

by  Ozlem Ezer

Syrian Women Refugees
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Syrian Women Refugees
Personal Accounts
of Transition
O e
zlem zeR
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina
ISBN (print) 978-1-4766-7585-5
ISBN (ebook) 978-1-4766-3490-6
libRaRyOfCOngReSSandbRitiShlibRaRyCatalOguingdataaReavailable
© 2019 Ozlem ezer. all rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
front cover illustration by yara Said
Printed in the united States of america
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
toalldisplaced,unique,andbravesouls
whose bodies are restrained through
borders, paper shuffling, and fingerprinting.
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table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Preface 1
Introduction: Reciprocal Lifelines: Representing Refugee Women 5
1. Rose’s Story: On names and disguises 17
2. lutfia’s Story: amidst the Personal and the Political Conflicts 36
3. muzna’s Story: the Cloud that harbors heavy Showers 51
4. Sama’s Story: What i Survived Were my eye- Openers 68
5. emilia’s Story: i Change every moment and am fine with it 79
6. zizinia’s Story: hopes and doubts in unlikely Spaces 95
7. leila’s Story: my basic Right to education became fatal 111
8. Sara’s Story: de-bordering of my life So far 129
9. bidaa’s Story: “Read, read and read… ” 147
Challenging Closures: An Open- Ended Evaluation 162
Glossary 167
Chapter Notes 171
Bibliography 173
Index 175
vii
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acknowledgments
moving to the u.S. five months after i began my interviews did not seem
like the ideal step, but it turned out to be more fruitful than i had imagined.
to begin with, i arrived only one week before the coup attempt in July 2016.
leaving turkey would have been impossible if i had stayed for teaching dur-
ing the summer. When my application to the uC Center for middle eastern
Studies proved to be successful, i was able to gather the motivation to con-
tinue with the incomplete interviews and added the new ones to the portfolio
despite what was going on in turkey. it wasn’t easy. thanks to the wise and
wide ranges of technology use, the Syrian participants shared many hours
and pages of biographical information with me regarding their stories. more-
over, my two research assistants, Özge balkaya and Sevil Şahutoğlu, were
available and skillful in their contributions from turkey.
i will continue to collect and write life stories with the hopes of disman-
tling stereotypes among people and connecting their narratives to the readers
and to each other in ways that nobody is able to foresee, myself included.
this is the beauty of writing a book. i feel honored by the trust and the gen-
erosity that the co- participants displayed, especially when they looked me in
the eye and lowered down their voices, “i’ll tell you something, but i don’t
want it to be in the book.” my dear friend, michelle morkert, the professor
of women’s and gender studies at Concordia university Chicago, commented
that she’d like to record my life story one day, taking me to the other side of
the scale. her comment kept visiting me whenever a Syrian participant shared
intimate moments, tears, and love stories among many other long- buried
memories. i have admired their transparency and i was not sure about my
ability or courage to do that. Some were hesitant in their responses because
they were perfectionists and wanted to perform the best, even when i said
there is no “best answer” in a life story interview. two of them boldly told
me to go ahead and use their full names and pictures, which i argued other-
wise, but muzna dureid insisted.
two of the potential participants played with the idea of having their
ix