Governing through Neglect
Abandonment as Gender-Based Violence among Refugee Women in North Lebanon
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24229234 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Dima Masoud (0000-0001-5209-9418, City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy , New York, 10027), Spring Cooper (0000-0002-9925-9033, City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy , New York, 10027), Kathleen Cravero (City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy , New York, 10027), Jennifer Skulte‐ouai (0000-0001-6360-2234, Lebanese American University), J L Diab (0000-0003-4158-7728, Lebanese American University) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-07-20 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Politics International Studies in Gender State & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1072-4745 • E-ISSN: 1468-2893 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/sp/jxag036 |
| OpenAlex | W7169766508 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 35 |
This study examines how gender-based violence among Syrian refugee women in North Lebanon is shaped not only by interpersonal dynamics but also by political abandonment and fragmented governance. Drawing on trauma-informed qualitative interviews with seventeen Syrian refugee women in Tripoli and Akkar, the study uses a social-ecological and feminist political economy framework. Narrative analysis shows how chronic state absence normalizes violence and constrains women’s agency across everyday life. Participants described violence as embedded in daily survival, including navigating checkpoints, precarious informal labor, insecure housing, inaccessible healthcare, and limited pathways to justice. While displacement created some opportunities for autonomy, it also exposed women to new and intensified risks of violence. The findings position gender-based violence as a structural outcome of refugee governance and regional neglect, highlighting how violence becomes institutionally enabled and unevenly distributed across displaced communities.
absence of the state · Access to Justice · Akkar · displacement · gender-based violence · health care access · housing insecurity · informal employment · institutionalized violence · North Lebanon · refugee governance · Syrian refugee women · Tripoli · women's agency · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Intimate Partner and Family Violence · Migration and Exile Studies
Narrative in Social Work
Essentials of narrative analysis.
Mental and Physical Health and Intimate Partner Violence against Women
Healthcare Utilization and Costs for Women with a History of Intimate Partner Violence
The Prevalence of Sexual Violence among Female Refugees in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies
Ethical Issues in the Use of In-Depth Interviews
The political economy of health in conflict
Integrating refugees into national health systems amid political and economic constraints in the EMR
Prevalence of intimate partner violence against women in the Arab world
Most importantly, I hope God keeps illness away from us’
I Go up to the Edge of the Valley, and I Talk to God”
The Psychosocial Impacts of Intimate Partner Violence against Women in LMIC Contexts
Experiences of gender-based violence among Somali refugee women
Gender identity as a barrier to accessing adequate and inclusive healthcare for Syrian refugees in Lebanon's Northern regions
Access to justice for Ethiopian migrant domestic workers
Finding the Strength to Heal
Measuring Physical Violence and Rape Against Somali Women Using the Neighborhood Method
Precarity in Exile
Adaptive religious coping with experiences of sexual and gender-based violence and displacement
I Will Stay with Him through Thick and Thin
Negotiating health and life
Systemic violence against Syrian refugee women and the myth of effective intrapersonal interventions
Unmasking the systemic inequalities undermining refugee sexual and reproductive health and rights, intimacy, and access in Lebanon
Intersectional impetus
| Highly cited | No |
|---|