Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Rampant in Zaatari Camp

Editor’ Note: The editorial team changed the names of some of the interviewees for their own safety.

By Raafat al-Ghanem

(Zaatari, Jordan) –  Um Ahmad took refuge in the Zaatari refugee camp in northern Jordan after fleeing across the border from her home in Syria with her two daughters. When a reporter from The Damascus Bureau met with her in March, just eight days after arriving in the camp, Um Ahmad was trying to find some means of heating, as her tent only came with two blankets. She spoke of how she had suffered during her six-month detention in Syria. Her leg was swollen as a result of the torture she endured, and she had still not received medical attention.

“I reached Zaatari camp only to find myself in another prison,” she said, crying.

Women in Zaatari camp are particularly vulnerable; many come looking for aid but find only more violence. This violence can take several forms, from domestic abuse spurred by male frustration, to alleged cases of rape and sexual harassment, and even murder.

Abu Musaab, 35, who lives in the camp with his family, is the only male breadwinner in their area of the camp. He had planned to return to Syria to join the armed opposition, but he changed his mind when he saw how devastated his female neighbours in the camp were to see him leave and how vulnerable they would be without him.

“Women cannot secure the basic necessities here,” said Abu Musaab. “They cannot stand in lines for aid on a daily basis…I was surprised by the number of young men with low morals in the camp, which is why I need to stay by my wife and children.”

Um Hind, who is over 50 years old, said she is afraid to leave her daughters alone while she waits in line for aid because of the lack of security.

The Jordanian government’s general coordinator for Syrian refugee affairs in Jordan, Anmar al-Hammoud, confirmed Um Hind’s fears in an interview with The Damascus Bureau.

“There is no security at all in Zaatari,” he said. “Jordanian security forces cannot access it at night.”

Hammoud estimated the number of Syrian refugees in Zaatari at about 120,000 as of March 2013, with women and children making up some 75 percent of the total population of the camp.

Khuloud, a refugee herself, works with a group of young Syrian volunteers. Khuloud blames the violence women face in the camp, including rape and sexual violence, on the high rate of frustration among men compounded by the presence of unaccompanied women who are vulnerable to exploitation, either by strangers or men playing the role of breadwinner and who hail from the same region in Syria. Khuloud emphasized, however, that women who come with a male companion are not much better off.

“I know of a woman whose husband had never even raised his voice to her, but once they came to the camp everything changed and he started beating her daily,” said Khuloud.

Khuloud went on to suggest that if relief organisations hired Syrian refugee women to work it would alleviate some of the sources of stress in the home, fill their spare time and provide other benefits.

“Self-reliance would make women less vulnerable to exploitation, but these initiatives are non-existent in the camp,” she concluded.

Um Ziad, an activist who provides psychological support inside the camp on behalf of several volunteer organizations, including the Qatari Red Crescent, said the majority of the refugees came from rural areas where women are already marginalized. It is normal, she added, that the oppression of women would be exacerbated in the camp because of the harsh conditions.

“Women in Zaatari are victims of displacement and victims of [sexism],” she said. Regarding alleged cases of rape that occur at the camp, Um Ziad said these cases were “rare and difficult to validate.”

Multiple women in the camp who spoke to The Damascus Bureau spoke of sexual harassment, especially during the journey from the border to the camp or while receiving aid. Unfortunately, the accusations are difficult to verify.

The women of the camp have even nicknamed the communal bathrooms the “bathrooms of terror” because they are so dangerous. Young men and vendors gather around the bathrooms by day, and by night there is a lack of adequate lighting equipment – the equipment that had been installed was either stolen or vandalised

“At night I do my business inside the tent,” said one female refugee, who did not want to be named.

Iman, another refugee, said she does not enter the bathrooms until she checks all of them and sees that they are empty.

“Once I found a girl asleep inside the bathrooms. At first I panicked and but then I figured she was hiding to avoid being beaten by her parents,” said Iman.

Iman said she tried to identify the girl to discover what had pushed her to seek shelter in such a dangerous place, but the girl ran away and then her mother came to her tent and told her to stay away from her daughter.

“I think the girl was raped and that her parents blamed her for it,” said Iman.

Ali al-Bibi, the director of Cooperation and International Relations at UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, would not comment on rumours of rape and sexual harassment in the camp, saying only that “the ultimate goal of the UNHCR is to protect refugees from any abuse to which they are exposed, whether it’s a man or a woman, or child.”

The camp has no shortage of problems: On April 19, the camp witnessed clashes between refugees and Jordanian security forces, which injured about a dozen of the latter. It is rumoured that the clashes were sparked by an attempt by Syrian refugees to flee the camp.

In addition to allegations of sexual abuse, rape and harassment in the camp, the lack of hygiene in the Zaatari camp is also of concern. Sometimes water is cut for long periods in the camp bathrooms, a problem which is made worse by refugees moving water tanks from the bathrooms to the vicinity of tents. Sometimes the drivers of the lorries that are supposed to transport water to the camp sell it on the market instead.