These discussions took place during the workshops held by the team of the House of Peace (HOPe) project[1] that included refugees, hosts and humanitarian workers from local communities. Those varied stories and their content were of interest to many working in relief and development. This led HOPe to thinking about how to include these outputs and turn them into recommendations that can contribute in some way to promoting social peace in Lebanon and Syria. This was the birth of "Syrian Voices".
The first paper published by HOPe as part of the Syrian Voices series was titled "Customs and Traditions". It is a research paper that doesn’t seek to give final answers about the role of customs and traditions as factors of peace or conflict for Syrian refugees in Lebanon. It is an attempt, as the series title Syrian Voices suggests, to raise problematic issues relating to social peace from a purely local perspective to reflect the views of those concerned and contribute to making their voices and stories as told by them heard. Moreover, the title of the series in this format does not aim to offer the voice of one community, that of the refugee community, but rather to offer a platform for people who rarely, if ever, get one, regardless of their nationality. The focus on the identity of refugees has two reasons: the first is moral as they are the most marginalized group in Lebanon, and the second is technical, that they represent the majority of workshop participants. Nevertheless, all the stories, ideas, discussions and recommendations presented reflect a variety of perspectives shared by the Lebanese, Syrians, Palestinians and all those who we were able to reach in our workshops and round-table discussions.
Two points should be noted here. Firstly, we did not conduct a theoretical study to define customs and traditions or to provide a conceptual framework for them. Instead we collected stories deemed by their narrators during the analysis as having to do with these factors in one way or another. Hence the stories included to discuss society’s customs and traditions address of various problematic issues. Many of them relate to employment, early marriages, child labor or the role of social figures in conflict resolution. However, customs and traditions had their share during the analysis of these stories by participants.
The second point has to do with classification and generalizations. When we talk in broad terms about a refugee community and a host community, we are not talking about two internally homogeneous communities that are different from each other, especially in terms of customs and traditions. In many of the stories we heard, participants agreed that in many regions the points of convergence between Syrians and the Lebanese outnumber the common points among those of a shared nationality. Thus, customs and traditions have different effects in different places. The question we raised does not have just one answer. From a strictly local perspective, customs and traditions have two factors: a factor of peace and a factor of conflict simultaneously.
For example, some participants saw that mixed marriages between Syrians and Lebanese are one of the most important factors that helped and facilitated the reception of many families displaced from Syria to Lebanon in terms of finding accommodation or even in terms of their relative rapid adaptation. On the other hand, this tradition was seen as one of the factors contributing to increased tensions between the two communities, especially as a result of the interpretations that accompany it (the cheap dowry of Syrian women, their cooking skills, their tolerance of polygamy, etc.).
One female participant recounted a story she witnessed in a servis or shared taxi that happened between two Syrian women and a Lebanese woman. The two Syrians were talking about their husbands coming home after work, when the Lebanese woman intervened, accusing their husbands of "stealing" jobs from the Lebanese. So, one of the Syrians replied by saying, "We’re not just going to steal your jobs, we’ll steal your husbands too." The dispute developed into a fist fight between them, forcing the driver to pull over and ask them to get out of the car. The general impression is that this tradition has been growing recently and that it has clearly become a sore point, especially between women.
However, according to one female social researcher who took part in a round-table discussion, there are no accurate figures about the reality of the increase in mixed marriages between Syrians (women in particular) and the Lebanese following the refugee crisis. In addition, we do not know whether all the talk about it is purely social and media fear mongering or whether it reflects a unique and new social phenomenon.
The changing roles inside families also had a big share of the discussions during workshops and round-tables. The majority of participants agreed that Syrian women have found an opportunity in the refugee community to enter the labor market and contribute financially to supporting their families, while it is more difficult for men to find jobs and to move freely on the Lebanese territory. Given that women working flouts the customs of certain communities, it has led to many tensions in families despite being their only choice.
In this context, many Syrian women expressed that they have gained more confidence as a result of the programs they took part in with some humanitarian organizations and associations, and began to feel a measure of that independence and power that they sensed in Lebanese women. In addition, some went as far as to say that many women who wished for divorce but were unable to go through with it have more freedom now to go down that road and rid themselves of their oppression. In a related context, some told stories of men who forced their wives to withdraw from certain workshops and demanded that the organizations active in their regions stop their awareness campaigns, as women had become "more disobedient".
On the other hand, some female participants said that work adds new burdens to women and stripped them of what they formerly considered to be privilege or "indulgence", when men would provide for their living and women were only responsible for bringing up the children – their main task – and caring for the home.
As for early marriages, which has been talked of much lately, most participants agreed that it is one of the most problematic issues due to its negative effects, both psychological and physical, on minors, and because it is a "negative" coping mechanism to deal with a refugee situation by getting rid of financial burdens or finding a local guarantor to provide for the family. At the same time, participants stressed that this phenomenon has been at the heart of the customs and traditions of our societies, even before the refugee crisis, i.e. it is not an emerging phenomenon. Therefore, there was no decisive position on the issue of early marriages. Despite recognizing its harmful effects, there was at times a form of acceptance under the cover of displacement.
Although it is also widespread in Lebanon, this phenomenon has become an object of ridicule and derision regarding refugee communities, accusing them of being backward societies by some members of the host communities.
In a related context, child labor also got its share of stories and discussions. Despite the negative perception of it, child labor is often seen as the only available solution to provide income for households, especially in cases where male breadwinners are absent or are unable to move freely. This phenomenon too is not new, as the work of youngsters has long been seen in many local communities as a means of education and character building. Although this kind of work meets some of the needs of families and relieves some of their burdens, child labor leads to the most tension and problems between those families and employers as a result of the exploitation children are subjected to and their harsh working conditions.
Another prominent subject had to do with the differences in expressing social solidarity and celebrating social events. Although generally such customs bring together all communities, this was not always the case in reality.
One of the traditions Syrians brought along from some of their regions – or that they developed in Lebanon as a result of difficult financial situations – is celebrating their social events and weddings at home. Often these kinds of celebrations involve a large number of people and continue late into the night. We heard many stories about problems arising as a result of these celebrations and families forced to leave their homes and move to other regions. In contrast, many positive experiences recounted by participants centered on the contribution made by public or private events to bringing individuals and families of different nationalities closer, especially with the factor of preparing food in these events and the possibility of sharing recipes between women.
On the other hand, several stories dealt with the great services Lebanese persons made to Syrians by helping them resolve some of their problems. An example of such a story is defending a Syrian family whose landlord had decided to throw them out despite the family agreeing to renovate the house instead of rent. The issue was only resolved with the intervention of a Sheikh and his mediation to end the dispute.
In contrast, some female participants in their analysis of a different story considered that the intervention of a Lebanese man to resolve a dispute in a Syrian family, between a husband and wife, was inappropriate because it was private matter. Although they acknowledged that domestic violence was wrong, they believed that the result of the intervention was worse, as it led to expelling the husband from the building, and hence the entire family.
In conclusion, it should be said that the subject of customs and traditions is complex and cannot be condensed in one research paper. It requires more research to paint a clearer picture of the situation as the different effects of our customs and traditions cannot be disregarded on our relations as individuals or diverse communities, especially in cases of displacement and asylum. Therefore, the aforementioned is a simple contribution and a call for a broader debate of a recurring topic of discussion that is rarely handled critically and analytically. This call is particularly addressed to humanitarian organizations and media outlets that should take this issue seriously and consider the impact of their activities on people’s relationships through their handling of the prevailing values, customs and traditions in our communities.
(1) The House of Peace HOPe is a social peace-building project established with the support of the Jesuit Order in Lebanon. It cooperates with local communities and humanitarian organizations working in relief and development.
[1] The House of Peace HOPe is a social peace-building project established with the support of the Jesuit Order in Lebanon. It cooperates with local communities and humanitarian organizations working in relief and development.