Radio Hakaya — Labeeba: The Female Shawisha
- March 18, 2019
Photo: Hannah Kirmes-Daly
Labeeba, a refugee from Syria and one of the few female “shawish”, or camp administrators, in Lebanon, speaks to Radio Hakaya about life in a camp run by women.
- Author
Radio Hakaya is a community radio project started by Brush&Bow in a refugee camp in north Lebanon. Radio Hakaya’s podcasts are with individuals whose communities have been directly effected by the war in Syria and the displacement of Syrians to Lebanon.
Each podcast presents a subjective opinion that, combined with the rest of the series, provides a mosaic of differing experiences and perspectives of the reasons that people fled from Syria, of the living conditions in Lebanon and of the hopes and fears about what the future might hold.
This is the seventh podcast of an eight-part series. It is an interview with Labeeba, a female shawish, or superintendent, of a Syrian refugee camp in Akkar, the northernmost region of Lebanon.
The word shawish — a masculine word in Arabic — was traditionally used in Lebanon to refer to men who managed migrant labor in Lebanon. However, since the start of the Syrian war and influx of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, the word is now used to refer to the person nominated to act as a leader for each camp.
As there are no official refugee camps in Lebanon, each camp is built on land Syrian families must rent from Lebanese landlords. To manage the relation between the Syrian residents of the camp, Lebanese landlords and NGO distributing aid, most camps choose a shawish as a leader figure, responsible for making sure that all communal issues in the camp are dealt with in a fair manner.
Most shawish are men and they often rule the camp to their own advantage, taking a cut of peoples rent, siphoning off aid and controlling where people work.
However, just off the main highway that runs from Tripoli to Tartous is a camp run by a woman. Labeeba is a special — if not unique — case in the region, holding a position of authority that is almost exclusively reserved to men. Further, the camp is also owned by a female landlord.
Interviewed in the tent of her neighbor in their refugee camp, Labeeba speaks to Radio Hakaya about her role and duties, alongside other women from the camp who explain more about life in a camp run by women. Labeeba speaks of the hardships of being a female Syrian refugee, a narrative too often excluded from narratives about the situation of refugees in Lebanon.
Her experience represents only a fragment of the very complex puzzle of memories and positions Syrian women have of their displacement in Syria and their experience in Lebanon. As such, it should be heard in relation to the contents expressed in the previous and forthcoming podcasts.
Please note that all names have been changed to protect the anonymity of participants who, despite living in Lebanon, still fear for their lives. The views and opinions published on these podcasts are the participants alone and do not reflect the opinions of Brush&Bow.
For more information on the podcasts and their content, please contact Brush&Bow at brushandbowinfo@gmail.com.
Source URL — https://roarmag.org/2019/03/18/radio-hakaya-labeeba-female-shawisha/