Hidden crisis: violence against Syrian female refugees
2015; Elsevier BV; Volume: 385; Issue: 9985 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/s0140-6736(15)61091-1
ISSN1474-547X
Autores Tópico(s)Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts
ResumoGender-based violence among female refugees is one of the least talked about dimensions of the Syrian conflict, but experts say it is occurring at high rates. Stephanie Parker reports. A deep darkness falls over the historic district of Fatih located in the built-up area of Istanbul, a place mostly known for its tourist sites and religious devotees. Yet, a new vision has started appearing—the sight of the Syrian female refugee. The ousted populations of women have now become a nightly scene across Turkish cities like Istanbul, Gaziantep, and Ankara as well as in Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon, all of which have taken in refugees during the 4-year conflict, waged between the Syrian opposition forces and President Bashar Assad's regime. The women removed from their homeland carry their starving children with them and hold up weathered cardboard signs requesting immediate help in small Turkish writing. As onlookers take in this distressing SOS for monetary assistance, the women's faces look downward in shame. To avoid this heart-wrenching scene, people quickly avert their eyes and heed their tour guide's request to ignore these “dangerous” women and focus on the beauty of Turkey. Many Turkish people see these women as the polar opposite to the exquisiteness of Turkey because they signify a weak point of the Middle East—the Syrian conflict. The tension between the Syrian refugee population and residents of countries like Turkey showcases the wrought tug of war between the two groups and the population who have become the most vulnerable: women and girls. In this group's susceptible position, a larger shadowy story of gender-based violence has had room to spread across national borders and settlements. An assessment—Gender-based violence and child protection among Syrian refugees in Jordan, with a focus on early child marriage—produced by the Queen Zein Al-Sharaf Institute for Development in collaboration with several UN agencies and non-governmental organisations, articulates that gender-based violence is “one of the world's most widespread human rights violations and public health issues”. The researchers reviewed feedback from Syrian participants from focus groups, questionnaires, and in-depth interviews done between December, 2013, and March, 2013. They found that gender-based violence predated the crisis within the Syrian community and is now one of the most salient features of the current conflict. Furthermore, the assessment, which was funded by the Government of Finland, said a key concern for humanitarians is the influx of Syrian refugees into Jordan and the harsh conditions that come with it—all of which contribute to violence against women and girls. These dark points about the Syrian refugee population in Jordan are a mirror of the status of Syrian female refugees in Turkey. In the southern region of Turkey, there are around 24 refugee camp settlements, Tayba Sharif, a UN Refugee Agency employee based in Gaziantep, told The Lancet. So far, Sharif has worked with only one sexual violence-related case that has been reported to Turkish police. “During my 6 months here, there has only been one [reported] case. A girl who was pregnant in the camp and the family knew about the pregnancy”, she said. “They [knew] she had been impregnated by a Turkish man and the family knew this relationship happened.” The girl had a miscarriage, and her family moved out of the camp. “[They] moved into an urban area, a place where nobody knew them”, Sharif said. The Turkish man who had a relationship with the girl was prosecuted under Turkish law, the official added. Unfortunately, she said, this was only one case and there have been rumours and situations in which others should have come forward but did not. Recently, “when we've asked women to report mistreatment, they've responded with ‘no.’” “These women have explained that, ‘we're not going to complain because [these] are our brothers and husbands…their intention is not to harm us, it's to protect us from whatever we were doing.’” So, “[these women] will stay and get beaten”, said Sharif. In line with this view, Melanie Megevand, the technical adviser for Women's Protection and Empowerment for the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Jordan, said that women and girls are disclosing intimate partner violence at high rates to humanitarian groups and in women's groups but not to the police, so official statistics underestimate the problem. Megevand explained that the increase in violence is connected with the timeline of the conflict, meaning the longer the war goes on, the higher the cases of gender-based violence can, and will, climb. At this time, “almost 70% [of women] have [disclosed] violence by an intimate partner. Within this, the majority of cases are emotional and physical abuse”, she told The Lancet. Sexual violence and rape represent 6–7% of the cases that are reported to the ICR, Megevand added. The struggle begins for women and girls when they embark on their journey out of blood-bathed Syria. Megevand highlighted that, “travel alone is fraught with lots of risks, including separation from family members and from community ties”. These ties ensure that every individual in that family is safeguarded, so when all of these ties are disrupted, it puts women and girls at more of a risk, Megevand explained. In addition to this vulnerability, “there is a level of exploitation that comes with it. To be able to get to the next village, to be able to put a roof over your head, to be able to access that next blanket or that food ration, are [necessities] that put women and girls more…at risk”, Megevand said. Women are often forced to exchange sexual acts in return for items like food, clothing, and shelter. Women are treated like commodities during desperate times like conflict situations, Megevand explained. Furthermore, women and girls aren't ever really safe because the new locations put them at more risk, Megevand said. Consequently, women and girls need to be protected at every level, a sentiment expressed in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In relation to women and girls, MDG 3 is the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women, with an emphasis on the acknowledgment of and reduction of violence against women. As the official UN MDG website states, “violence against women continues to undermine global efforts to reach all goals”. Although this view has been reiterated over the past decade and a half by experts and campaigners, there has been limited to no change. Megevand said women and girls should be able to participate in the emergency and humanitarian response plan, so they can create what they want and need. She explained that the first step in this process is looking at the needs of Syrian women and girls that have been displaced because these women and girls aren't at the political discussion table. Megevand notes about the MDGs that, “we've got these great goals, but if half of the participants can't access or participate in them, then how are we meeting those goals?” Megevand suggests that, “if the violence is to be resolved then we need to look at the root causes of violence and violence against women and girls”. Her concern is one of many expressed by other humanitarians in the field, including the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Zainab Hawa Bangura. Bangura, who prior to her UN position was the Minister of Health and Sanitation in Sierra Leone, said more needs to be done to highlight victims of sexual violence because there has been a huge wall of silence and a culture of denial around gender-based violence. Bangura was selected for the UN position in June, 2012, by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to address the under-reported sexual abuses that face women and men in conflict zones like war-torn Syria. In her professional capacity, Bangura went on a mission trip to the Middle East at the end of April, visiting Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, and Syria to investigate the reported sexual violations. Her mission findings concluded that there is a catastrophic trend of using sexual violence as a tactic of war and that moving ahead without 50% of the population being safeguarded is not possible if we want a successful global future. Consequently, the world needs to economically, politically, and socially elevate the population of Syrian female refugees, so they can live the best life possible. For the interagency assessment on gender-based violence see http://www.unwomen.org/~/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/library/publications/2013/7/report-web%20pdf.pdf For the interagency assessment on gender-based violence see http://www.unwomen.org/~/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/library/publications/2013/7/report-web%20pdf.pdf
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