Unravelling Humanitarian Narratives

International humanitarian actors, such as non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
 and United Nations agencies, often focus on gender norm change when conducting
 gender analysis among refugees and internally displaced persons. Dominant
 humanitarian narratives about gender in research reports, assessments and
 technical guidance reveal an underlying belief that displacement is causative
 – an external, intervening force. In such analysis, colonial and
 neoliberal ideologies may influence how refugees’ lives are represented,
 resulting in depictions of lack of modernity, tradition and culture as
 overarching (yet ill-defined) forces, and women and girls as vulnerable by
 default. Such analysis is frequently ahistorical, presented without analysis of
 the pre-displacement situation. This paper explores and challenges humanitarian
 narratives about gender norm change during displacement. It is based on feminist
 ethnographic research in Jordan with Syrian women and men as well as interviews
 with humanitarian workers. The paper demonstrates that assumptions about lack of
 empowerment of Syrian women and men may be misguided, identifying both subtle
 and more overt forms of Syrian women’s and men’s
 resistance’ to expected norms. It urges humanitarian actors to use
 ‘resistance’ as an alternative to analysing
 ‘change’, recognise heterogeneity within populations, resist
 ‘rapid’ data collection, challenge paternalistic and colonial
 stereotypes, and reflect complexity in analysis.