“Palestinian refugee women living in Lebanon tend to play the role of caregivers in the family and society, and are often not taken into account when it comes to making decisions or participating in political life,” denounces Amal Ghozlan, women’s and girls’ rights coordinator for the NGO Najdeh. “The big problem is gender-based violence (GBV). Violence is increasing year after year, especially in the last three years, maybe because women are reporting more cases, or maybe because violence is growing”.
This feminist association set up a programme to combat GBV in 1997 and, in their experience, the economic crisis is working against them. “Women have been suffering from violence and discrimination for a long time. The current economic situation makes women stay at home more, and now there is more violence between men and women. Families can’t support themselves as before, she asks for money to buy food, but this money is not enough, and sometimes they can’t buy medicines because they are not in the market, or there is no baby milk. Even if they have money, there is this big problem, that people have to go to many pharmacies to find what they need or even to the black market. A lot of people can’t afford it because they don’t work, sometimes the prices are doubled and a lot of older women are suffering a lot. This is a general situation in Lebanon.
Refugee status itself means added suffering because their rights are not guaranteed. “Palestinian women are affected by personal statutes in Lebanon. They are very outdated, very old laws, especially the laws on family affairs. When there are amendments to change these laws, they may refer to one or two articles, but not the whole law. It is not enough because, as a whole, Palestinian women’s rights are not guaranteed and they don’t have laws to fight domestic violence.
While Palestinian women who suffer violence can obtain a variety of protection orders issued by Lebanese courts, in practice, the Lebanese authorities have limited control inside the camps and this makes it impossible to ensure that these orders are enforced: “Women have the right to have protection, but as they are refugees, they cannot enjoy this right because they would have to call the Lebanese authorities, who cannot operate in the camp: as a rule, if a woman calls because she has a problem of violence, the Lebanese security forces cannot enter the camp; so they do not benefit from their right.”
When the Najdeh Association becomes aware of a case of GBV, it first measures the level of risk. “If the risk is very high, the girl can be referred elsewhere. If there is not a very high risk, it is more of a communication work between the two people, the man and the woman. In the end, it is the woman’s decision. Social workers and psychiatrists work in a network among themselves, as well as with specialised organisations and institutions in the sector. Sometimes women who come to Najdeh ask for personal counselling or legal advice. Each case is assessed and, depending on the needs, personalised responses are offered. In one case, a woman who was being abused by her husband and also by her parents, who wanted her to stay married, asked for protection. She was afraid of being killed and a protocol was activated to remove her from her home because it was a very high level of risk.
According to a Najdeh study conducted during Covid, 40% of GBVs were reported outside the camps and 60% inside the camps. Information and prevention campaigns on sexual harassment are being strengthened and are being opposed by some very religious people, and awareness-raising sessions are being held for women so that they know what their rights are and that there are some emergency programmes they can ask for help.
“We deal with different issues, such as women’s rights, personality, violence and discrimination by neighbourhood, parents or groups in the countryside. One of the challenges is to make women aware of their rights because often when we work on a case, the woman does not have the motivation or the behaviour to change. Sometimes the woman is her own enemy, and this doesn’t solve anything. That’s why we need psychological help, because sometimes the violence increases and there is no support from the families. They have no hope.
On a more economic level, the organisation focuses on vocational training for women in projects such as textile workshops, despite the limitations of Palestinian women’s access to the labour market in Lebanon. During the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a shortage of nursing staff and they did occasionally hire Palestinian women, although they did not have the same rights or the same salaries as their Lebanese colleagues. The strategy is not only to work on productive projects but also on the concept of leadership and work distribution.
Nadine Alkhateeb, head of external relations at Najdeh, stresses that “until 2020, we had a microcredit project to help start up incipient businesses, but this project had to be stopped due to the crisis because the beneficiaries could not repay the loans. The crisis has made us revise our strategies to adapt our courses and strengthen the girls’ leadership, for example through women’s committees in the camps.
Thus, the economic and social empowerment programme aims to improve opportunities for women and girls to become self-sufficient by providing training, vocational guidance and job placement. “The priority is to alleviate the difficult economic and social conditions faced by Palestinian refugee women in Lebanon,” argues Nadine Alkhateeb. “The economic crisis and Covid-19 have caused prices to rise exorbitantly, while wages have not increased. This affects household incomes across Lebanon. There are companies that have not been able to cope and have laid off many people, swelling the unemployment figures. In the Palestinian camps, this has increased poverty and there are families who subsist on one meal a day, which affects fathers, mothers and children psychologically, and they also find it difficult to travel because of the higher cost of transport.
The vocational workshops are designed according to the needs of the labour market and the skills of the beneficiaries and their families, so that at least 40 per cent of them find work each year. “Among the projects we do is one on photography, which has been quite successful in terms of attendance and, subsequently, finding freelance work. We also do hairdressing, administration, accounting and graphic design. In the last few months, 85 people have graduated, 52 of whom have found some kind of employment.
Matching supply and demand is also one of the guidelines of the economic programmes, since entry into the world of work is difficult in general, and very complicated for Palestinian refugee women in particular. “When they finish school, they feel sad and frustrated because they want to continue their education and go to university, but they can’t afford it. And they probably wouldn’t work at what they like to do either”.
In parallel, Najdeh is involved with other associations in a campaign on the right to work to improve inter-agency coordination and mobilise more voices for the labour rights of Palestinian refugee women in Lebanon, in order to end discriminatory restrictions on all Palestinians. The campaign aims to end institutional discrimination and, among other things, organises workshops, awareness-raising activities and information sessions.
Text extracted from the report ‘Sobreviure als camps de refugiades. La població palestinaina al Líban pateix una manca crònica de drets’ published by the Associació Catalana per la Pau, l’Associació Catalunya-Líban and the Fundació ACSAR.
