When Syrian ‘Girls’ Meet Turkish ‘Boys’: Mapping Gendered Stories of Mixed Marriages

Abstract

This article explores the gendered experiences and negotiations of Syrian refugee women throughout forced migration processes and the different strategies during family formation that both Turkish men and Syrian women develop in mixed marriages. Its aim is to unravel fluid gendered experiences that are different from ‘reported’ stereotypical stories in the media and ‘constructed’ in the society. By doing so, we argue that the partners’ narratives in these mixed marriages enable us to map the intricate ways in which agency is used and echoed gendered experiences of couples in forced migration and family formation. We conducted in-depth interviews with eight couples voicing different narratives on how they have negotiated with forms of hierarchies, discourses and how they have refined and transformed their refuge. The incorporation of agency into our analysis unpacked (1) heterogeneity of the spouses and their experiences; (2) potential gendered spaces/discourses to be transformed/refined; and (3) nuances of multifaceted impacts of forced migration. Hence, other than macro studies and tantalizing framings in media, this research offers a dynamic reading of gendered experiences to contribute to the growing literature on Syrian refugees.

Key Words:

• Femininities
• Masculinities
• Mixed marriages
• Syria
• Turkey

Notes

1 Author Interview with Shayma, Gaziantep, May 29, 2014.

2 Katty Alhayek (2014) Double Marginalization: The Invisibility of Syrian Refugee Women’s Perspectives in Mainstream Online Activism and Global Media, Feminist Media Studies, 14(4), p. 696.

3 Uzay Bulut (2016) Turkey: The Business of Refugee Smuggling, Sex Trafficking. Available online at: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7756/turkey-refugees-sex-trafficking, accessed June 25, 2016.

4 Diken (2014) Suriyelilerle evlilik ticarete döküldü: ‘Hemen bir kadın bulabilirim. Birkaç ay evli kalabilirsin’ [Marriage with Syrians commodified: ‘I can find a woman right away’]. Available at: http://www.diken.com.tr/suriyelilerle-evlilik-ticarete-dokuldu-hemen-bir-kadin-bulabilirim-birkac-ay-evli-kalabilirsin/, accessed June 25, 2016.

5 The Guardian (2014) Syria’s Refugees: Fears of Abuse Grow as Turkish Men Snap Up Wives. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/08/syrian-refugee-brides-turkish-husbands-marriage, accessed June 25, 2016.

6 Haberi Yakala (2015) Suriyeli gelinin evlilik oyunu: Düğün sabahı altınları da alıp kaçtı [Marriage scam of Syrian bride: She ran away with the gold on wedding morning]. Available at: httphttp://www.haberiyakala.com/2015-10-02-suriyeli-gelinin-evlilik-oyunu-dugun-sabahi-altinlari-da-alip-kacti-h36363.haber, accessed June 25, 2016.

7 Milliyet (2016) Damat adayına ikinci Suriyeli gelin darbesi [Second strike groom to be from Syrian bride]. Available at: http://www.milliyet.com.tr/damat-adayina-ikinci-suriyeli-gundem-2199024/, accessed June 25, 2016.

8 Ümran Avcı & Lokman Happani (2014) Neden Suriyeli Gelin? [Why Syrian brides?]. Available at: http://www.haberturk.com/gundem/haber/1003940-neden-suriyeli-gelin, accessed June 25, 2016.

9 Ibid.

10 Liisa H. Malkki (1995) Purity and Exile: Violence, Memory and National Cosmology among Hutu Refugees in Tanzania (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press), p. 510.

11 Mixed marriage is a term indicating that partners in a marriage may be from different religious and/or ethnic and/or national backgrounds. Aside from transnational marriages that are spatially dispersed and fragmented families, mixed marriages and families, in this article, is used specifically for those in which the wife is a Syrian refugee and the husband is a Turkish citizen. For detailed information, see http://www.gemic.eu/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/WP9-synthesis-report-final.xml, accessed June 30, 2016.

12 Murat Erdoğan (2017) Türkiye’deki Suriyeliler: Toplumsal Kabul ve Uyum [Syrians in Turkey: Social Acceptance and Cohesion], Hacettepe Üniversitesi Göç ve Siyaset Araştırmaları Merkezi. Available at: http://www.hugo.hacettepe.edu.tr/HUGO-RAPOR-TurkiyedekiSuriyeliler.pdf, accessed December 24, 2015.

13 Fulya Memişoğlu & Aslı Ilgıt (2016) Syrian Refugees in Turkey: Multifaceted Challenges, Diverse Players and Ambiguous Policies, Mediterranean Politics, pp. 1–21.

14 Nazlı Şenses (2015) Rethinking Migration in the Context of Precarity: The case of Turkey, Critical Sociology, pp. 1–13; Oytun Orhan & Sabiha Şenyücel Gündoğar (2015) Effects of the Syrian Refugees on Turkey, Ortadoğu Stratejik Araştırmalar Merkezi. Available at: http://tesev.org.tr/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Effects_Of_The_Syrian_Refugees_On_Turkey.pdf, accessed June 28, 2016.

15 Nando Sigona (2014) The Politics of Refugee Voices: Representations, Narratives, and Memories, in Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Gil Loescher, Katy Long & Nando Sigona (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migrations Studies (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 370–378.

16 Erin K. Baines (2004) Vulnerable Bodies: Gender, the UN and the Global Refugee Crisis (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing); Bhupinder S. Chimni (2009) The Birth of a ‘Discipline’: From Refugee to Forced Migration Studies, Refugee Studies, 22(1), pp. 11–29; Jane Freedman (2010) Protecting Women Asylum Seekers and Refugees: From International Norms to National Protection, International Migration, 48(1), pp. 175–198; Jennifer Hydman (2010) Introduction: The Feminist Politics of Refugee Migration, Gender, Place and Culture, A Journal of Feminist Geography, 17(4), pp. 453–459.

17 Lucy Williams (2006) Social Networks of Refugees in the United Kingdom: Tradition, Tactics and New Community Spaces, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 32(5), pp. 865–879; Kathy Burrell (2008) Male and Female Polishness in Post-war Leicester: Gender and its Intersections in a Refugee Community, in: Louise Ryan & Wendy Webster (eds) Gendering Migration: Masculinity, Femininity, and Ethnicity in Post-war Britain, pp. 71–87 (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing); and L. Williams (2010) Global Marriage: Cross-Border Marriage Migration in Global Context (London: Palgrave Macmillan).

18 Rosemary Breger & Rosanna Hill (eds) (1998) Cross-cultural Marriages: Identity and Choice (Oxford: Berg); Deborah Bryceson & Ulla Vuorela (eds) (2002) The Transnational Family: New European Frontiers and Global Networks (Oxford: Berg); L. Williams, Global Marriage.

19 Oivind Fuglerud (1999) Life on the Outside: The Tami Diaspora and Long Distance Nationalism (London: Pluto Press); L. Williams, Social Networks of Refugees in the United Kingdom; Hung C. Thai (2008) For Better or For Worse: Vietnamese International Marriages in the New Global Economy (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press).

20 L. Ryan & W. Webster (eds) (2008) Gendering Migration, p. x.

21 E. Fiddian-Qasmiyeh (2014) Gender and Forced Migration, p. 399.

22 Caroline O. N. Moser & Fiona C. Clark (2001) Victims, Perpetrators or Actors? Gender, Armed Conflict and Political Violence (London and New York: Zed Books).

23 Ken Plummer (1995) Telling Sexual Stories: Power, Change and Social Worlds (London: Routledge); Laura M. Ahearn (2001) Language and Agency, Annual Review of Anthropology, 30, pp. 109–137; Paul Hoggett (2001) Agency, Rationality and Social Policy, Journal of Social Policy, 30(1), pp. 37–56; and L. Williams, Social Networks of Refugees in the United Kingdom: Tradition, Tactics and New Community Spaces.

24 L. Williams (2006) Global Marriage: Cross-Border Marriage Migration in Global Context, p. 37.

25 Deniz Kandiyoti (1988) Bargaining with Patriarchy, Gender and Society, 2(3), pp. 274–290; and idem (1998) The Impact of Migration on Turkish Rural Women: Four Emergent Patterns, Gender and Society, 12, pp. 146–167.

26 D. Kandiyoti (1999) Rethinking the Patriarchal Bargain, in Cecile Jackson & Ruth Pearson (eds) Feminist Visions of Development (London: Routledge) p. 139; and Faedah M. Totah (2013) The Memory Keeper: Gender, Nation, and Remembering in Syria, Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, 9(1), pp. 1–29.

27 Ibid.

28 Sarah J. Mahler & Patricia R. Pessar (2001) Gendered Geographies of Power: Analyzing Gender Across Transnational Spaces, Identities, 7(4), pp. 441–459.

29 Ibid, p. 445.

30 http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/regional.php, accessed October 20, 2018.

31 See United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) (2018) Syrian Regional Refugee Response, Inter-agency Information Sharing Portal. Available at: https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/syria, accessed October 20, 2018.

32 O. Orhan & Ş. Gündoğar (2015) Suriyeli Sığınmacıların Türkiye’ye Etkileri [Syrian refugees’ impact on Turkey].

33 Ibid.

34 http://www.goc.gov.tr/icerik6/gecici-koruma_363_378_4713_icerik, accessed October 12, 2018.

35 Thomas Seibert (2014) Syrian Refugees face backlash in Turkey. Available at: http://www.thenational.ae/world/turkey/syrian-refugees-face-backlash-in-turkey, accessed June 25, 2016.

36 Maria Jaschok & Shui Jingjun (2000) Outsider Within: Speaking to Excursions across Cultures, Feminist Theory, 1(1), pp. 42–43.

37 Ibid.

38 Ibid, p. 43.

39 N. Sigona (2014) The Politics of Refugee Voices: Representations, Narratives, and Memories, p. 376.

40 This data is collected from Turkish Statistical Institute, Gaziantep upon authors’ request.

41 The Constitutional Court recently repealed the penalties for having a religious marriage before having a legal marriage. This decision stirred debates on polygyny in Turkey. For details see Hürriyet (2015) Top Court Ruling on Religious Marriages Sparks Debate in Turkey. Available at: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/top-court-ruling-on-religious-marriages-sparks-debate-in-turkey.aspx/pageID=238&nID=83167&NewsCatID=341, accessed June 30, 2016.

42 Author Interview with Shayma, Gaziantep, May 29, 2014.

43 Ross Thompson (2000) The Legacy of Early Attachments, Child Development, 71(1), pp. 145–152; Suad Joseph (2000) Gendering Citizenship in the Middle East, Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East, S. Joseph (ed.) (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press) pp. 3–30; and F. M. Totah (2013) The Memory Keeper: Gender, Nation, and Remembering in Syria, Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, 9(1), pp. 1–29.

44 F. M. Totah (2013) The Memory Keeper, p. 3.

45 S. Joseph (2000) Gendering Citizenship, p. 3.

46 Doreen Indra (1999) Room of One’s Own: Engendering Forced Migration Knowledge and Practice, in: D. Indra (ed.) Engendering forced Migration Theory and Practice (Oxford: Berghahn Books), p. 8.

47 Ibid, p. 18.

48 L. Williams (2006) Global Marriage, p. 37.

49 Authors’ Interview with Nour, Gaziantep, July 21, 2014.

50 Ibid.

51 Jana Rosker (1996) The Methodology of Intercultural Research, Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts (in Slovene) p. 53, and cited in Natalija Vrecer (2000) Human Costs of Temporary Refugee Protection: The Case of Slovenia, in: Adrianne Rubeli & Nina Vucenik (eds) A Captured Moment in Time: IWM Junior Visiting Fellows Conferences, Vol. X, p. 6 (Vienna: IWM).

52 Priya Kissoon (2006) Home/lessness as an Indicator of Integration: Interviewing Refugees about the Meaning of Home and Accommodation, in: Bogusia Temple & Rhetta Moran (eds) Doing Research with Refugees: Issues and Guidelines, pp. 75–96 (Bristol: The Policy Press).

53 Author Interview with Rima, Gaziantep, June 12, 2014.

54 L. Williams (2006) Global Marriage, p. 142.

55 Nadje Al-Ali (2002) Loss of Status or New Opportunities? Gender Relations and Transnational Ties among Bosnian Refugees, in D. Bryceson & U. Vuorela (eds) The Transnational Family: New European Frontiers and Global Networks (Oxford: Berg Publishing), p. 98.

56 Author Interview with Lely, Gaziantep, July 21, 2014.

57 Ibid.

58 Ibid.

59 L. Williams (2006) Global Marriage, p. 142.

60 Author Interview with Lely.

61 Author Interview with Nour, Gaziantep, July 21, 2014.

62 Ibid.

63 S. Pessar & P. R. Mahler (2003) Transnational Migration: Bringing Gender In, The International Migration Review, 37(3), p. 817.

64 Henna night is a traditional ceremony for the bride-to-be.

65 Author Interview with Mais, Gaziantep, July 17, 2014.

66 Author Interview with Kamar, Gaziantep, May 29, 2014.

67 L. Williams (2006) Global Marriage, p. 154.

68 Umut Erel (2002) Reconceptualizing Motherhood: Experiences of Migrant Women from Turkey Living in Germany, in: D. Bryceson & U. Vuorela (eds) The Transnational Family, p. 129.

69 Gina Buijs (1993) Migrant Women: Crossing Boundaries and Changing Identities (Oxford: Berg), p. 17.

70 Ali Akbar Mahdi (1999) Trading Places: Changes in Gender Roles within the Iranian Immigrant Family, Middle East Critique, 8(15), pp. 51–75.

71 Author Interview with Lely.

72 U. Erel (2002) Reconceptualizing Motherhood, p. 129.

73 D. Kandiyoti (1988) Bargaining with Patriarchy, p. 274.

74 Nükhet Sirman (1995) Friend of Foe? Forging Alliances with Other Women in a Village of Western Turkey, in: Şirin Tekeli (ed.) Women in Modern Turkish Society: A Reader (London: Zed Books), pp. 199–218.

75 D. Kandiyoti (1988) Bargaining with Patriarchy, p. 279.

76 Author Interview with Shayma.

77 Gillian Hart (1995) Gender and Household Dynamics: Recent Theories and Other Implications, in: Muhammad G. Quibra, Critical Issues in Asian Development (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press) p. 61, and cited in D. Kandiyoti, Rethinking the Patriarchal Bargain, p. 140.

78 K. Burrell (2008) Male and Female Polishness in Post-war Leicester, p. 71.

79 U. Erel (2002) Reconceptualizing Motherhood, p. 129.

80 Author Interview with Ersin, Gaziantep, June 12, 2014.

81 Author Interview with Mustafa, Gaziantep, May 29, 2014.

82 Ibid.

83 Author Interview with Ibrahim, Gaziantep, May 29, 2014.

84 Ibid.

85 Author Interview with Yavuz, Gaziantep, July 17, 2014.

86 Author Interview with Mahmut, Gaziantep, June 14, 2014.

87 Ibid.

88 Ibid.

89 R. Breger & R. Hill (eds) (1998) Cross-cultural Marriages, p. 21.

90 Author Interviews with Mustafa, Ersin and Faruk.

91 Georgata Nazarska & Marko Hasdinjak (2010) Invisible Engines of Change and Self-sacrificing Tradition-breakers: Mixed and Transnational families in Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. Sofia: International Center for Minority Studies and Intercultural Relations. Available at: http://www.gemic.eu/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/WP9-synthesis-report-final.pdf, accessed December 24, 2015, p. 20.

92 Ibid.

93 Ibid. p. 40.

94 Mahdi (1999) Trading Places, p. 52.

95 Jeroen Cuvelier (2014) Work and Masculinity in Katanga’s Artisanal Mines, Africa Spectrum, 49(2), p. 15.

96 Raewyn Connell (1995) Masculinities (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press).