An Interview with Emine Uçak Erdoğan on Building Solidarity with Syrian Women in Turkey

My thesis focuses on the spatialization and daily life practices of Syrians in Istanbul. First of all, I should mention that the thesis was written between 2015-16. Yet, there is a sad situation that there is no significant change between the expectations and experiences of that period and today. At that time, Syrians were insecure, uncertain and worried about their future, and this situation continues today. On the one hand, although some of them now have some rights, including citizenship, it is difficult to say this is a general trend; we see that we are in a worse place from those days in terms of acceptance from the local society. Today, we see that the opposition against migrants is carried out by institutions such as the media and politics. The lynching attacks against Syrians in Altındağ reveal the gravity of this.

In my fieldwork, I tried to interview Syrians from different socio-cultural groups as much as possible and wanted to make their plurality and daily practices visible. I’ve noticed this for women as well. Among the people, I interviewed there were housewives, university students, businesswomen or unemployed women, widowed women. Of course, there are differences between their daily life practices. However, the common themes are the anxiety felt against the state of insecurity and uncertainty that I mentioned initially. Women who want to stay permanently or return to Syria when the conditions are met also agree on the problems they face in their daily lives.

As I mentioned in the preface of the book, the most severe discrimination for some women can take the form of ” being ridiculed” or “dodged with parsley” while asking for coriander in the market. For others, it may be the inability to solve bureaucratic problems related to their jobs despite all their investments and efforts. For others, it may be labour exploitation, discrimination or even harassment. On the one hand, women are trying to exist in a newly experienced life practice, and they are also trying to create new conditions for their children and families. They face many difficulties, from being “cheap labour “to language problems, and they also develop some tactics against them. I focused more on spatialization, but other research with Syrian women reveals that they face fundamental problems such as housing, language, employment, education, as well as labour exploitation, hate speech, harassment and abuse in the workplace.

The wave of anti-refugee sentiment in Turkey never ends, and it seems like it is growing at the moment. We see this being reflected on social media through political party members. How does this anti-refugee sentiment affect Syrians and especially Syrian women?

With the case of Altındağ, we have experienced a horrible consequence of the anti-refugee wave. Everyone has seen the photos of the fear and desperation that women and children have lived through with these attacks. Even though they are reflected on social media, hate, and discriminatory practices against Syrians in daily life often go unpunished. For these women, even more, insecurity results in feeling under attack. A study conducted on Syrian women in the past years demonstrated that they did not experience acceptance from the local people in any city except Mardin. And with the anti-refugee wave, they described being subjected to a range of attacks, from hateful behaviour to petty aggression and overt violence. We know, we hear, and research shows that since they came here, they have been wearing their headscarves like Turkish women to avoid discrimination and assault on the street and have resorted to tactics such as dressing like them. 

There is also the fact that Syrians have long been perceived as ‘temporary’ here. The vast majority of policies were shaped accordingly to this. Although the policies have changed partially, they are portrayed as a source of the problems in Turkey. This is done by both politicians and the media. Due to this, the problems they encounter in daily life continue despite their efforts to adapt. In other words, a practice of acceptance has not developed over the years yet has turned into an even more reactive stance. They can’t even find an application mechanism regarding the attacks, the problems they experience due to the language problem and the insecurity caused by not being accepted. Those who witnessed what happened in Altındağ last night or saw it on social media will not think they will be “protected” if they have a problem. How can they feel safe from now on? 

Sexist approaches to Syrian and refugee women are again one of the practices we confront on social media and during daily life. Have you observed this dynamic in the interviews you conducted and the processes you examined? How do Syrian women react to these practices?

As I said before, Syrian women resort to the practice of staying in their own ghettos, dressing and appearing like local people when they go out to the public space. When resorting to legal support in the events they have experienced, they do not take action because of language problems and the insecurity of feeling that no result can be obtained in this respect. Isn’t this also true for the vast majority of Turkish women? The situation in terms of violence against women, harassment and femicide, affects Syrian women too. We can understand this if we look at the restriction caused by the lack of fundamental rights.

Syrian women are criticized for wearing a little more make-up; the some are trying to see the problems of the society stemming from patriarchy through them. There is often nothing they can do about it, and their diversity, cultural backgrounds and pluralities are lost with the definition of ‘Syrian woman’. Mechanisms to oppose this have not yet been formed, and it isn’t easy to form this in an anti-refugee community.

What can we do against this discrimination?

In my fieldwork and my experiences in civil society, I observe that the Syrian women I meet make a special effort to maintain their daily lives and hold on here despite all the uncertainties and difficulties. But at the same time, I realize that we cannot establish an actual state of coexistence. We have minimal encounters with Syrian women; I wish we could increase this more…

There are some projects initiated by civil society; Projects where Syrian and Turkish women produce and cooperate with each other. In Mardin, for example, there are women who produce soap together. But in general, the majority of these activities do not turn into daily life practices. There were observations about this in the research on Syrian women I mentioned. One of the Syrian women who participated in the research said, “After we leave this room, we do not see each other again. The relationships we establish here do not carry over to our neighbourhoods, to our daily lives.”

There are definitely examples in terms of sharing daily life, but this needs to increase. There is a need for Syrian women to take part in both media and civil society activities, to hear their portraits and voices. We need to hug them when events like Altındağ occur, and to know that we are with them. When I was on the field for the thesis, this practice was limited, especially in places established by Syrians. But recently, this encounter situation has decreased instead of increasing.

In the most recent TUSES research, there were findings that the opposition towards refugees decreased when contact in daily life increased. Another interesting finding there was that Turkey’s own polarization also increased negative perceptions towards refugees. This is one aspect of these recent events. At least from now on, we can try to create a real opportunity for the encounter, we should start it as women.

* This interview was originally published in Turkish. The Turkish version can be accessed from here.