Stitching a rights narrative

How Syrian women in Shatila use embroidery to express ideas about social justice

Bibliographic Data

ID2290941
AuthorsSofie Verclyte (0009-0002-0443-3332, School of Arts, HOGENT University of Applied Sciences Gent Belgium), Tine Destrooper (0000-0002-0781-2971, Human Rights Centre, Ghent University Gent Belgium)
Year2023
Volume46
Issue2
Pages191-210
Publication date2023-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePoLAR Political and Legal Anthropology Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1081-6976 • E-ISSN: 1555-2934
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/plar.12544
OpenAlexW4387671136
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited18

Human rights can be seen as a means to improve people's lived realities. Yet the language and practice of human rights are not always moored in these realities. What happens to the meaning of human rights when these are expressed in (partly non-verbal) ways that are deeply rooted in lived-embodied, material, and cultural-realities, and how does that practice transform ideas about rights? In this article, we describe how women from Syrian refugee communities living in the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut use the skilled practice of embroidery to express and negotiate what they consider to be their rights and what they are entitled to. In doing so, they foreground a deeply indivisible, multi-layered, and multi-perspectival understanding of justice and more specifically of how they understand their rights. These perspectives, we argue, are intrinsically rooted in the embodied, material, and cultural practice through which they emerge, and offer avenues for enriching human rights debates

Gender, Security, and Conflict · Law in Society and Culture · Peacebuilding and International Security

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