International Workshop: “War and families’ transformation in the Middle-East” (25-26/11/2018)

Abstract

Warfare represents a significant, and sometimes permanent, feature for the societies of the Near East countries. How does it influence the family practices and ties? To what extent does the violence, the uncertainty and the economic precariousness redefine the role of the members of the same household? What is the impact of forced migration on the family’s dispersion, fragmentation and reconfiguration? What forms of solidarity and which new ties emerge in these contexts? What is the role of the humanitarian and international organizations in supporting families in conflict situations? These are the main questions treated during this workshop that brings together international researchers in order to reflect collectively about the impact of wars on family’s mutations in the Middle-East.

Organizer

Valentina Napolitano

Date

25-26 November 2018

Location

25 & 26 November : Ifpo, Jabal Amman, Amman

25 November round table at Institut français de Jordanie (Amman,  Jabal Al-Weibdeh)

Contact

admifpo.amman@gmail.com

Programme

Venue: Ifpo, Library

10.00 am -10.15 am

Welcoming

10.15 am -10.30 am

Introduction: Valentina Napolitano (Ifpo-Amman)

10.30 am – 11.30 am

Key note speech: « Family as Politics and Intimacy: Change and Continuity in War and Displacement », Frances Hasso (Duke University)

11.30 am

Coffee break

11.45 am – 12.45 pm  

Panel 1. Everyday Life Under Occupation

Moderator: Flora Yousef (CRESPPA/GTM, Ifpo-TP)

11.45 am – 12.15 pm

« The Raging War: Palestinian Families in Confrontation with Uprooting Policies », Nida Abu Awwad (Birzeit University)

12.15 pm – 12.45 pm

« Living in Gaza: an Anthropology of Daily Life », Elena Qleibo (Ifpo, Amman)

12.45 pm – 2.00 pm

Lunch break (Ifpo)

2.00 pm – 4.15 pm

Panel 2. Political Ruptures/Intimate Ruptures

Moderator: Geraldine Chatelard (Ifpo, Erbil)

#Iraq

2.00 pm – 2.30 pm

« The Family’s Enemy: Pathway and Histories », Asmaa Jameel Rasheed Abunadir (University of Baghdad)

2.30 pm – 3.00 pm

« Marriage at Times of War and Sectarian Conflict », Lucine Taminian (The Academic Research Institute in Iraq)

3.00 pm – 3.15 pm

Coffee break

#Syria/Palestine

3.15 pm – 3.45 pm  

“The Impact of the Syrian Conflict on the Familiar Sphere: Ruptures, Tensions and Reconfigurations”, Napolitano Valentina (Ifpo-Amman)

3.45 pm – 4.15 pm

« Fighting the Prisons of Occupation: Mothers on the Front », Flora Yousef (CRESPPA/GTM, Ifpo, TP)

7.00 pm – 8.00 pm

Round-Table

« Psychological, Economic and Legal Support to Families Affected by Wars. An Insight on Local and International NGO’s Activities in Jordan »

Speakers:

  • Souzan Sami, Co-founder of ARDD
  • Astonia Sami, Collateral Repair Project

Moderator : Valentina Napolitano (Ifpo, Amman)

Venue: Institut français de Jordanie (Amman,  Jabal Al-Weibdeh)

Monday 26 November 2018

Venue: Ifpo, Library

10.00 am – 11.00 am

Panel 3. Transmission, Care and Psychological Support

Moderator: Jalal Al Husseini (Ifpo, Amman)

10.00 am – 10.30 am

« Generation After Generation:  Palestinian Families Under Occupation Struggle for Survival and Mobility » Lamis Abou Nahleh (Birzeit University)

10.30 am – 11.00 am

« Bodies Without Souls: an Ethnographic Investigation of the Psychological Health of Syrian Refugee Women in Irbid », Ruba Al Akash (University of Yarmouk)

11.00 am

Coffee break

11.15 am – 12.45 am

Panel 4. Migration, Dispersion and Reconfiguration

Moderator: Kamel Doraï (Ifpo-Beirut)

11.15 am – 11.45 am  

“Family Structure and Diaspora Among Pre-1948 Palestinian Families of Notables: from Jerusalem to Jordan, the Gulf and Beyond”, Jalal al Husseini (Ifpo-Amman)

11.45 am – 12.15 pm

« The Transformation of the Syrian Society and Family », Khuzama Al Rasheed (The Academic Research Institute in Iraq)

12.15 pm – 12.45 pm

« Palestinian Families in Diaspora/exile: Various Models of Dispersion and Reconfiguration »,

Hadeel Fawadleh (Birzeit University, ACSS)

12.45 am – 1.00 pm

Collective Conclusions, Research Avenues and Publication

Moderator: Valentina Napolitano

1.00 pm

Lunch break (Ifpo)

Kinship, migrations and conflicts in the Middle East, WOCMES 2018, Seville

Ifpo’s team and Lajeh program are pleased to invite you to attend a panel at WOCMES 2018 in Seville, Spain.

The program below:

PA-178. Kinship, migrations and conflicts in the Middle East.

Organised by Valentina Napolitano, Institut Français du Proche-Orient(IFPO).

July 18 th, 2018, 2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Room: 207

Chair: Norig Neveu, CNRS, IREMAM.

Valentina Napolitano, Institut Français du Proche-Orient (Ifpo), “The transformation of family during the war. Research avenues basing on the Syrian conflict.”

Ann-Christin Wagner,  University of Edinburgh, “Making transnational families in times of peace and war – continuities between labour migration and displacement for Syrian refugees in Mafraq, Jordan”

Dina Zbeidy, University of Amsterdam, “Remaking Home: Marriage and Family among Syrians in Jordan.”

Jalal Al Husseini, Institut Français du Proche-Orient (Ifpo), “Family structure and diaspora among traditional Palestinian families of notables: from Jerusalem to Jordan, the Gulf and beyond.”

Flora Gonseth, Institut Français du Proche-Orient (Ifpo): “A political motherhood? An ethnography of Palestinian women’s participation against Israeli jails.”

Lajeh Seminar, May 10, 2018, Ifpo Amman (Library) – 9.30-11.30 am

Marriages, Displacement, and Representations: Marriage Practices and Discourses among Aid Providers and Refugees in Jordan

Dina Zbeidy

This presentation investigates the discursive and non-discursive practices of problematization of marriage related issues among Palestinian and Syrian refugees in Jordan. UN agencies and other local and international organizations are important service providers for the Palestinian and Syrian residents in Jordan, especially those living in refugee camps. Women and gender issues are a dominant theme in human rights discourse and intervention processes of these organizations in which marriage often occupies a central place. With a focus on the residents of Wihdat, a Palestinian camp set up in East Amman over seventy years ago, I present the effects of the interaction between intervention projects of aid and development organizations, with the residents of Wihdat. I argue that while organizations focus on ‘raising awareness’ of camp residents and lobby for legal reform, basing their interventions on international women and human rights, Palestinians and Syrians navigate marriages based on legality (and legal status and papers), economy (and the specific socio-economic environment of the camp), feelings of belonging, and affect.

I also argue that organizations produce a specific narrative around victimhood and vulnerability in which a victim girl is oppressed by both her patriarchal society, and by harsh socio-economic conditions, that in the case of Syrians are amplified by displacement. These conditions are seen to contribute to problematic forms of marriages (such as early, forced and unregistered). The ethnographic cases presented however, show that vulnerability is an ambiguous and complex experience, and that being vulnerable and having a degree of agency and autonomy are not mutually exclusive.

Dina Zbeidy is a PhD candidate at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. She completed her Bachelor’s Degree in Jerusalem in Social and Political Sciences. In 2010 she received the Fulbright Scholarship to complete a Master’s degree in Anthropology at the University of Columbia in New York. Her MA thesis discusses the construction of Palestinian and Israeli identities in Israel. She is currently part of the ERC-funded ‘Muslim Marriages’ program. Her PhD research focuses on civil society and refugee discourse around marriage in Jordan. She has over eight years of professional experience in NGO work in Palestine and the Netherlands.