Changing gender roles in displaced from Syria communities: a research report by ABAAD & Oxfam

The Daily Star published a report about a research paper issued last Tuesday by Oxfam GB in collaboration with ABAAD association, focusing on the negative coping strategies that many displaced women from Syria are employing to live in Lebanon.
The research was conducted during March and April earlier this year and involved both Syrian and Palestinian women displaced from Syria, to examine changing gender roles in displaced communities. The research paper entitled “Shifting Sands” was based on qualitative data collected through 11 focus group discussions involving more than 150 people as well as individual interviews with key informants.
The report indicated that 90 percent of the interviewed women regularly skipped meals and cut down on their own food intake to prioritize children and men’s access to food, while the level of domestic violence confronting women confront was on the increase.
Women also faced various form of fear outside the home – of being kidnapped, sexually attacked, theft, etc… According to the report, a large number of parents told researchers that financial and security reasons forced them into giving their daughters to marriage. However, and while some interviewees reported instances of girls as young as 15 being married to much older men, many also noted that it was not unusual in Syria to be married at the age of 18 years.
Source: The Daily Star 4 September 2013