Thesis title: DRIVERS OF CHILD MARRIAGE AMONG SYRIAN REFUGEES IN LEBANON
Title: Drivers of child marriage among Syrian refugees in Lebanon
This thesis aims to investigate the factors that contribute to child marriage among Syrian refugee families in Lebanon in the Forced migration context. The study begins by broadly reviewing literature on child marriage within forced migration, emphasizing the sociological studies and sociocultural norms. This study employs a qualitative research method, utilizing a small sample and carefully selected participants, based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews that focus on open-ended questions. The aim is to provide answers from interviewees and explore the connection between the challenges these refugees encounter and the socio-cultural dynamics of forced migration that promote child marriage practices. The first part of the interviews focuses on participants' life stories in Syria, discussing the challenges that Syrian refugees face in Lebanon and how these challenges influence family decisions regarding child marriage during forced migration. The second part explores socio-cultural norms and their relationship to child marriage. This research contributes to knowledge through theoretical, methodological, and empirical operations. Theoretically, the study explores Bourdieu’s concepts of symbolic violence and forms of capital to understand the social phenomenon of child marriage and identify their interrelationships. At the methodological level, it employs a qualitative research method based on interviews with Syrian refugee women in Lebanon who married at an early age. Finally, at the empirical level, analyze how effectively these theoretical concepts and their relationships reflect the reality observed. The study finds that child marriage among Syrian families in Lebanon occurs as a consequence of the challenges parents face in a hostile social environment and discriminatory policies that exacerbate their precarious social and economic situations, which in turn influence prevailing dominant social norms and religious beliefs. Consequently, customs and traditions justify child marriage, a practice that subjects girls to symbolic violence. Parents often use this practice to alleviate their economic and social burdens.