Gender Paper

Syria Arab Republic

Emmanuel Massalee
10/27/17
201
 Introduction

The Syrian Arabic Republic country located in the Middle East, bordering the

Mediterranean Sea to the west. The official language of Syria is Arabic, and the official religion

Islam with small percentage of Christian and Druze practitioners. The Population of Syria is

18,028,549 which is mainly made of the Arab ethnic group and a small percentage of Kurds and

Armenians (CIA 2017). Syria gained its independence in 1946 from France. The GDI of Syria is

0.851 which indicates that Syria has a low human development.

In spirit of the Arab Spring, Syrians were feeling unsatisfied and pressured under

President Assads Regime and were tired of it. So, Syria had an uprising that occurred in 2011.

One of the many reasons that Syrians were forced to leave their homes was because of the

uprising. As the revolution continued to grow and spread many Syrians became displaced and

were killed. (Olwan & Shiyab 4) This crisis has cause 6.3 million Syrians to become displaced

internally, and has created 4.8 million Syrian refugees, this has made the situation in Syrian one

of the the largest humanitarian crisis worldwide (CIA 2017)

Many Syrians are still leaving Syria today. Some of the reasons why they are leaving

would be to have a sense of security, Freedom, economic & political stability, education, and

health. Most Syrian refugees immigrated to neighboring countries like Turkey, Jordan, and

Lebanon because they either have family there and the proximity to Syria. These countries which

are economically and politically stable gives the Syrians a sense of feeling safe. The Freedom

that Syrians have in these countries are more than what they would have in Syria especially

under the government, militia regimes, or Islamic State of Syria (ISIS).

 Education:

School enrollment & Cultural Barriers

Prior to the uprising in Syria the primary education enrollment according to Lorraine

Charles, was 92% for females and 97% for males. These numbers have dropped significantly

after the uprising to 12% for females and 17% for males. (Charles & Denman 97) These numbers

have shockingly decreased. It is especially worse for Syrian refugees in neighboring countries

due to how low it is. According to Lorraine Charles again, of the Syrian child refugees in

Jordan, approximately 50% of them have been able to continue their education. However, for the

refugees in Lebanon, the situation is dire, with only 12% among 6 to 14 year old refugee children

and 5% for secondary aged children attending schools. (Charles & Denman 97). These

numbers show that the lives of Syrians especially in these neighboring countries isnt much

better education wise because most of the refugees have no money or papers to enroll or pay for

school. The numbers are also much lower for female adolescents in these countries.

Female children in Syria tended to be less educated than their male counterparts because

they were expected to follow their mothers footsteps while male children were follow their

fathers footsteps. Women in Syria before the uprising were expected to follow cultural and

family norms of Arab society. Which is typically the men being the breadwinners of the family

while females take care of the house and raise the family. Even though men would make the final

decision in most house hold matters. (Callahan etal. 31-32)

Households in Syria were traditionally like this due to religious practices but under the

law women had more freedom. But due to strong cultural norms women are still subjected to

limitations. After the uprising women had to take up the roles of men while still taking care of
the home. Their husbands either had to go fight in the conflict or were either killed. But

according to the Task Force Report, gender roles in the home continue to blur because of the

ongoing conflict, a stigma remains against individualsparticularly womenwho do the work

of the opposite gender. This shows that although women are getting more opportunities to work

and to educate themselves during the civil war they are still looked down upon because they are

starting to break societal/ cultural norms.

Migration & Education

Women had freedom depending on their husbands. Though most of the refugee camps

had mainly women and children. Most of the women are not educated so they are living in

poverty in these countries. A lot of Syrian women experience domestic violence after fleeing

Syria from their husbands who uses it to cope to the traumatic experiences and stress. (Usta 3)

Before the uprising many people migrated from rural communities to cities like

Damascus and Aleppo which were growth poles at the time. More educated people were

encouraged to migrate to these cities. According to the text IZA Journal of Migration, The more

educated people are expected to migrate internally and work in Syrian cities, or in non-

agricultural activities inside Syria, counted among those commuting daily from their village to

their work location. (Abdelali-Martini etal. 10) This shows that during the before the uprising

the educated were highly valued but most of these educated people that migrated domestically

were men and their families would in turn follow them. Most of the people that migrated out of

the country to work in agriculture were less educated women and their children. The need for

agricultural workers rose in these countries. It is reported that Syrian women that are head of the

household send more remittances to Syria, but they tend to be poor. (Abdelali-Martini etal. 9)
 Proposal

The issues discussed in this paper about gender development in Syria are the treatment of

Syrian women in other countries and the conditions they live in due to lack of education. While

the other issue is the removal of certain culture norms which look down upon women that are

educated and providing for their families. To improve gender development in Syria more laws

would have to be put in place to give women more rights. This bill or law though would have

been easier to pass but this would have been easier before the uprising. Now the best way to

solve the problem of giving women more rights in Syria now would be to end the civil war but

that probably wont end for a long time. A way to end the way Syrian refugees are treated in

their neighboring countries especially the women would be to utilize their education they

received. As Hans de Wit states in his text, where education enters the equation, refugees

from Syria, Iraq, and the Kurdish areas are perceived to be better educated and therefore,

potentially easier to integrate into society and the labor market in the receiving countries (de

Wit & Altbach 1). This quote explains that with a little push from the governments of these

countries Syrian refugees specifically can find work and educate themselves which would make

it easier for them to assimilate to the countries way of life.

Perspective:

My perspective on gender in the developing world has not really changed as much as I

would have liked it too. The reason why my perspective has not changed much is because I was

already aware that in most developing countries womens rights are very limited. But what did

change was the way I viewed the Syrian refugee crisis especially when it came to women. I

learned that a lot of women had to become the heads of the household because their husbands

were either killed or had to fight in the conflict.

 Bibliography

Abdelali-Martini, Malika, et al. Migrants from marginal dry areas in Syria: destinations,

employment, and returns. IZA Journal of Migration, vol. 5, no. 1, Dec. 2016.

SpringerLink, doi:10.1186/s40176-016-0071-1.

Callahan, Jack, et al. Syrian Women and Children: Identifying Gaps and Goals for

Reconstruction. University of Washington Libraries ResearchWorks Service, 2017,

digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/handle/1773/38697.

Charles, Lorraine, and Kate Denman. Syrian and Palestinian Syrian Refugees in Lebanon: the

Plight of Women and Children. Journal of International Women's Studies, vol. 14, no. 5,

Dec. 2013, pp. 96111. GenderWatch,

search.proquest.com/docview/1500397773?accountid=14696.

Human Development Reports. | Human Development Reports,

hdr.undp.org/en/composite/GDI.

OLWAN, Mohamed Y., and Ahmad SHIYAB. Forced Migration of Syrians to Jordan: An

exploratory study. Cadmus, June 2012, hdl.handle.net/1814/23502.

The World Factbook: SYRIA. Central Intelligence Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 19

Oct. 2017, www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sy.html.

Wit, Hans de, and Philip Altbach. The Syrian Refugee Crisis and Higher Education.

International Higher Education, 2016,

ejournals.bc.edu/ojs/index.php/ihe/article/view/9109/8209.
Introduction

Education

Religion and Cultural Norms

Migration

Recconemdation

Personal Reflection