The recent tragedy in
Paris has sparked a national conversation about the status of refugees, notably
those fleeing Syria. There seem to be two sides to the issue: letting refugees
into the country and concern over a threat to national security.
Dr. Rima Abunasser, a
professor at TCU, spoke at UNT Wednesday night about the Syrian Refugee Crisis
and how gender issues affect refugees fleeing Syria.
Abunasser holds a Ph.D.
in English literature and theory and teaches courses on contemporary Arabic
literature, British literature and transnational women’s writing.
“Gender erasure is a
hallmark of the aid community and is symptomatic of a larger global problem,”
Abunasser said. “We often take a hierarchical approach to refugees.”
The talk was hosted by
the UNT Women’s and Gender Studies Program and the UNT Contemporary Arab+Muslim
Cultural Studies Institute and was held in the Environmental Science Building.
Abunasser’s talk focused
on the issues that women and their children face when fleeing Syria and the
conditions of refugee camps in countries like Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon.
Abunasser discussed
internally displaced refugees who often seek placement back into Syria but must
settle for life in refugee camps. She stressed that permanent solutions are
needed for refugees rather than programs of short-term placement.
UNT Women’s and Gender
Studies Program Director Sandra Spencer introduced Abunasser to the audience. Spencer
has a personal relationship with Abunasser and shares her interest in the
refugee crisis.
“I’ve always been
interested in the Middle East, and Rima lived in Jordan as a child, so we’ve
had many good talks about it,” Spencer said. “I felt like it was good for my
students and anybody else to hear somebody that’s really devoted her life to
understanding this region and the ramifications of what’s going on.”
Abunasser discussed the
tendency of the media to portray Arab women, specifically Syrian women
refugees, as victims of their circumstances rather than women attempting to
make a better life for their children.
“There seems to be
a narrow focus on Syrian women as victims,” Abunasser said. “By reducing women
to this image, what we’ve said is that Syrian refugee women are a group of
powerless, victimized women who sell their daughters as commodities for rich
Arab men. This idea of orientalism is a really old stereotype and it needs to
stop.”
Abunasser also
touched on the conditions that women face in refugee camps. The rights of
refugees are reduced down to the basic rights of life – food and shelter.
Refugees are given no legal status and are outside of the scope of the law.
Women refugees are
often subjected to sexual violence and sometimes exchange sexual favors for
goods or safe passage. Women are afraid to report assault and many times cannot
access the resources they need.
“A lot of the
time, women refugees don’t have access to non-food sources like maternity care,
family planning and hygiene kits,” Abunasser said. “The only place women can
get these resources is in distribution centers in refugee camps, and these are
the second most dangerous locations within the camps [due to assault and sexual
violence].”
Abunasser conducted
a question and answer session after her talk. Many people asked questions about
the status of women refugees in light of the recent discourse in the United
States as well as the state of ISIS amid rampant Islamophobia.
“When you learn
about this issue it becomes more of a real problem,” Yacine Ndi said. “You hear
about it in the news and it seems far away, but hearing about the actual
problem makes me think ‘What can I do to help?’”
Abunasser closed
her talk with a call to action for the global aid community as well as a note
of encouragement.
“We need to see a
shift from emergency response to programs of resilience,” Abunasser said. “Instead
of thinking about what women and girls need, it’s important to consider empowerment
and possibilities.”
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