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Browse our newsletter archive. Violence, exploitation, marginalisation: these are the challenges of a difficult everyday life for many Syrian refugee women in Turkey. Rima, whose name has been changed for security reasons, is a young Syrian woman. Until five years ago, she was living in Syria with her family. One day, a bomb dropped on their house, killing her husband and three brothers. After this unexpected tragedy, Rima, mother of three, left her hometown for Turkey.
In November , she started a new life with her kids in a refugee camp in the Turkish border town of Sanliurfa, one of the oldest Syrian refugee camps in Turkey. This was the beginning of new traumas. There she was raped by a security guard and an interpreter. The attackers blackmailed her with videos and photographs. Rima was terrified, so she kept silent. In the following days the rape went on, and the number of attackers raised to seven.
As a result of gang-rape, Rima was hospitalised for losing significant amounts of blood and taken to the intensive care unit. Luckily, she recovered. Rima was brave enough to go to the Turkish police later. But not every Syrian refugee woman is. According to official statistics, by December more than 3,6 million registered Syrian refugees are living in Turkey.
Refugee girls and women, who are more vulnerable to exploitation, are subjected to all forms of violence in their daily lives. On the other hand, services for Syrian refugees in Turkey are largely gender-blind, leaving many problems unsolved. Volunteers in Turkey observe that child marriages and polygamous marriages are two major problems for Syrian refugee girls and women. Polygamous marriages, outlawed in Turkey β unlike Syria, are not only present among the Syrian community in Turkey.
