Lecture | Research Seminar
Narratives of Vulnerability
- Date
- Monday 21 October 2024
- Time
- Address
-
Pieter de la Court
Wassenaarseweg 52
2333 AK Leiden - Room
- 0A28
Narratives of Vulnerability - The Mismatch between Approaches of International Development Organizations and Refugee Experiences to “Early Marriages” in Jordan
A marriage involving a spouse (mainly a bride) under the age of eighteen has been the focus for intervention of human rights and development organizations in Jordan for several decades. Termed ‘early’ or ‘child’ marriages, they are problematized as a violation of human rights and a form of gender-based violence. Whereas these marriages are not a new phenomenon in Jordan, the topic received additional attention since the arrival of Syrian refugees. International organizations started directing their intervention campaigns and their funds towards the prevention of early marriages among refugees, and published several English-language studies and documents on the prevalence of the practice. In this presentation I argue that these published documents produce a problematic gendered narrative on victimhood and vulnerability that reduces girls and women to vulnerable and agentless subjects while men are either portrayed as violators and perpetrators, or are completely absent. In addition, this narrative misses key factors and obscures the effect of structural elements that play a crucial role in marriage and other life decisions, as it foregrounds localized factors and interventions that often miss the point
About the speaker
Dina Zbeidy is an anthropologist, and currently lecturer and researcher at Leiden University of Applied Sciences. Among other things she has conducted research on colonialism, nationalism, social movements, displacement, development organizations, human rights education and DEI policies. She has work experience at various NGOs in Palestine and the Netherlands.