GENDERED EXPERIENCES OF CONTROL An interview study with displaced Syrian men and women

Abstract

Although state-sanctioned repression under the former Syrian regime has been academically well-documented, inadequate attention has been given to how authoritarian control was experienced differently across gender lines. This thesis examines how displaced Syrian men and women remember and interpret the former Syrian regime’s tactics of control between 2011 and 2016 through 28 original interviews conducted in Jordan and Egypt. The empirical findings suggest that the Syrian regime’s tactics of control operated through and were made effective by pre-existing patriarchal social structures, activating and amplifying gendered vulnerabilities instead of introducing new mechanisms of control. For male participants, control operated through ritualised emasculation and the constant perception of men as potential threats, generating a silencing fear. Female participants narrated control through a relational logic centred on shame, familial honour and social exclusion, resulting in an experience of nebulous fear. By focusing on how political control is experienced and interpreted through gendered frameworks, the study contributes to the fields of gender and conflict studies.