A Dance of Virtue and Protection: A Qualitative Exploration of Femininity and Masculinity Negotiations in Syrian-Egyptian Refugee-Host Marriages

A Dance of Virtue and Protection: A Qualitative Exploration of Femininity and Masculinity Negotiations in Syrian-Egyptian Refugee-Host Marriages | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article A Dance of Virtue and Protection: A Qualitative Exploration of Femininity and Masculinity Negotiations in Syrian-Egyptian Refugee-Host Marriages Dina Taha This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7190268/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 16 Dec, 2025 Read the published version in Comparative Migration Studies → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This article examines how gender identities are relationally constructed and strategically negotiated in marriages between Syrian refugee women and Egyptian men in Egypt. Based on in-depth interviews with 33 women and 9 men, the study explores how uprooting, legal precarity, and social asymmetries shape performances of idealized masculinity and femininity. It introduces the concept of negotiated femininities to describe how displaced women navigate structural vulnerability through context-sensitive gender performances, while men enact protective masculinities centered on provision and moral authority. Though Syrian women are idealized for their perceived docility and domesticity, their narratives expose tensions that both challenge and affirm ideals of hegemonic masculinity. Framed as a “dance of virtue and protection,” the paper contributes to debates on Arab masculinities, refugee-host relations, and the gendered politics of displacement, highlighting marriage as a site of complex negotiation, reciprocal gender role formation, and ap pathway for self-resettlement. host refugee marriage gender masculinity femininity Arab Egypt Syria honor Introduction Studying gender in the Arab world, though highly scrutinized, has often been Orientalized and oversimplified, regularly painting Arab men as oppressors and women as victims in need of saving (Abu Lughod 2002; Razack 2004; Farahani & Thapar-Björkert 2020). Marriage as a practice for Syrian refugee women amidst the Syrian refugee crisis in both urban and camp settings which can be traced in different countries in the Middle East, such as Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia (Bayoumi 2013; Fajry 2012) is a case in point. While the extent of this phenomenon is not entirely clear and was never systematically tracked, many human rights organizations, not profits and media reported on and condemned it (See Bayoumi 2013; Fajry 2012; Heinrich Boll 2013; Hassan 2015; Barkan 2012). For instance, and even though I could not locate the original data source, several news portals cited each other regarding information from the National Council for Women's Protection in Egypt. According to these reports, in 2013, approximately 12,000 Syrian women entered into such arrangements (Natour 2016; Egypt Independent 2013; UNHCR Data Portal 2013). Prominent media outlets such as The Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram Al-Arabi, The Algerian daily Al-Fajr, and The London-based Saudi Al-Hayat, have all described Syrian refugee women in similar arrangements as “easy prey and a valuable catch” praising those who “[dare] to speak out against the exploitation of women refugees” (Barkan 2012). Egypt hosts over 5 million refugees and migrants (Karasapan 2016), including 352,000 registered refugees and asylum seekers, with Syrians constituting the largest group (UNHCR Egypt Factsheet 2023). While UNHCR estimates the number of registered Syrian refugees in Egypt at 150,000, the actual figure is likely significantly higher, as it does not account for unregistered refugees, individuals arriving on tourist visas, or those entering for business purposes (Ayoub 2017; Ayoub and Khallaf 2014). Since the Syrian conflict began in 2011, Syrians in Egypt have faced economic hardships and political polarization (ECHO Factsheet 2018; ILO 2018). Although Egypt is a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, the rights of refugees—particularly their right to work—have been restricted, further exacerbating their economic difficulties (Hetaba, McNally, and Habersky 2020). This precarious situation has arguably contributed to marriage emerging as a survival strategy for some Syrian women navigating displacement. The stories of agency and victimhood of Syrian refugee women who married Egyptian men that they barely knew shortly after arrival in the country were initially why I entered the field in Egypt in 2017 (Author 2021; 2024). During my conversations with husbands and wives, and in trying to bypass a simplistic exploitation narrative that “Syrian refugees are cheaper, prettier, better cooks and easier to marry” (Youssef & Ismail 2013), I started tuning into a more nuanced tone—a subtle harmony and complementarity amidst structural challenges like patriarchy, poverty and displacement. By delving into these dynamics, I started to unfold ways where Arab femininities and masculinities are interconnected, rather formative of one another, not solely in adversarial ways but also in complementary, reconciliatory, and sometimes reinforcing and reaffirming manners. This research focuses on this often-overlooked aspect of interconnectedness, co-construction, and co-dependence, shedding light on how their dynamics operate in real-world scenarios. Why opt for a Syrian wife in Egypt? What does this choice reveal about Egyptian masculinity and its perception of ideal femininity? What factors render such unions convenient, at least for one of the parties involved? This paper delves into the narratives of some women and men partaking in these unions, tracing their origins, motivations, negotiations, and challenges, and exploring alternative and Othered perspectives. I contend that examining how women conceptualize ‘desirable’ masculinity and men envision ‘desirable’ femininity offer deeper insights into the meanings, embodiment, and societal pressures shaping these constructs, especially in the Orientalized context such as the Arab world (Said 1978; Ahmed1992; Abu Lughod 2002). This sheds light on how femininity and masculinity mutually shape and influence each other, moving beyond the traditional isolation of men and women in the study of Gender in the Arab world and its related themes (Isidoros & Inhorn 2022). By analyzing the dynamics and negotiations between femininity and masculinity within marriages, I aim to contribute to important yet slowly growing literature on Arab masculinities and its role in forming Arab gendered relations (see for instance Naguib 2019; Ghannam 2013; Joseph 1993, Joseph 1999; Inhorn 2012), showcasing how femininity, directly and indirectly, intentionally and unintentionally, reinforces certain forms of masculinity, and the pressures men face in order to meet societal roles and expectations. The gap is especially evident in the context of refugee-host unions, which involve stark asymmetries in legal status, social capital, and symbolic value. Previous research links the cost of marriage and marriage economics to the inception of such marriages but also in further dictating the power dynamics between spouses (Taha 2024). However, the cliché image of the obedient, modest, and shy Syrian wife who is confined to the private sphere was always contrasted among my respondents with the Egyptian wife who is stereotyped as flawed for being too independent, too bold, and too loud, in short, ‘not feminine enough’. In this paper, I peel back the layers of this perceived Syrian femininity within the Egyptian collective consciousness, aiming to understand how it motivates and shapes these unions and, more importantly, what it tells us about gender dynamics and negotiations in displacement. I ask: What happens to gender norms when displacement intersects with local patriarchies and stereotypes? how are masculinity and femininity co-constructed in this context? And How refugee women strategically navigate gendered expectations in marriage under displacement, drawing on, but also challenging, existing stereotypes of exploitation and ideal femininity? In responding to these questions, I engage with a more overarching debate of the interconnection and coexistence between masculinity and femininity (i.e., how both are shaped and sometimes even sustained and reinforced by one another) showcasing their influence on Arab gender identity formation and displacement trajectories. By tracing this dance of virtue and protection, the paper contributes to a deeper understanding of how Arab masculinities and femininities are relationally co-constructed, particularly in the context of displacement, protective patriarchal expectations, and shifting power dynamics within refugee-host marriages. Methodology Fieldwork and Data Collection . The original study was conducted in Egypt during the summer of 2017, focusing on Sunni Muslim Syrian refugee women who fled Syria post-2011 and married Egyptian men after settling in Egypt. Over a period of four months, data was collected in Greater Cairo and Alexandria, the two cities hosting the largest Syrian refugee populations in Egypt. The study involved ethnographic observations to contextualize the findings alongside in-depth interviews. All interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim in Arabic. During the analysis, untranslated Arabic quotes were prioritized to preserve cultural meanings and avoid misrepresentation. Sample and recruitment . A total of thirty-three in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with Sunni Syrian women who were either married or recently divorced from Egyptian men. Additionally, nine interviews were conducted with Egyptian husbands. The difference in sample size reflects the original focus on displaced women’s perspectives, with men's narratives serving as complementary insights rather than the primary subject of the study. Logistical factors also contributed to this disparity, as my position as a female researcher made it more feasible to access and interview women. However, in this paper, I engage more deeply with men’s narratives, along with women’s, exploring how they construct and negotiate their masculinity, particularly in relation to their perceptions of their wives' roles and broader gendered expectations. The sample aimed to represent varied socio-economic levels, age groups, and marital statuses. While initial recruitment was primarily using convenience sampling, adjustments were made midway through purposive sampling to ensure representation from upper-middle and upper-class women, who were initially unrepresented. Recruitment strategies included personal networks, snowball sampling, social media outreach, and key informants' assistance. Given the overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim demographic of both Egypt and its Syrian refugee population, the sample consisted exclusively of Sunni participants. The age distribution of the respondents reveals that the majority of women interviewed were in their 30s (14 respondents), followed by those in their 20s (11 respondents), 40s (6 respondents), and 50s+ (2 respondents). Among the male respondents, most were in their 30s (5 respondents), while the rest were either in their 40s (3 respondents) or 50s (1 respondent). Regarding marital status upon displacement, 14 women were single and had never been married, 12 were divorced or separated, 5 were widowed, and 2 did not disclose. While not all women were comfortable with disclosing, at least half of the marriages in my estimation were urfi (customary) and/or polygamous. In terms of socio-economic class (determined by highest educational level and the typical affluence of the area of residence), 6 women and 3 men belonged to upper class belonging to Urban locations such as Nasr City, Al-Rehab, and Al-Sheikh Zayed, while the rest from middle- and lower-class participants predominantly resided in Al-Haram, Faisal, Obour, 6th of October city, and 10 th of Ramadan city and Alexandria. Only two respondents were based in rural areas but happened to be in Cairo during the interview. Ethics and positionality . All participants provided either written or verbal informed consent before participating in the study. To ensure confidentiality, all identities have been anonymized, and pseudonyms are used. Participants were informed of their right to withdraw at any stage, and all data was securely stored to protect their privacy. As an Egyptian Muslim woman with cultural and linguistic fluency, I had ease of access and could build rapport quickly with women participants which also facilitated some of the husband’s recruitment. Being married with children also created a shared ground of experience with many respondents. However, my privileged socio-economic background, academic standing, Western education, and non-refugee status created positionality gaps between myself and the participants. Data Analysis . This study adopts a constructivist epistemological approach (Guba & Lincoln 1994), recognizing that knowledge is co-produced through narrative meaning-making, social interaction, and the researcher’s embeddedness in the field. To explore how masculinity and femininity are co-constructed among the respondents, I employed a combined narrative and discourse analysis strategy. Narrative analysis focused on participants’ life course trajectories and turning points such as displacement, marriage, and divorce and how these were gendered in meaning and significance. I paid close attention to how participants positioned themselves in relation to gendered expectations, particularly through expressions of modesty, virtue, and protection. Discourse analysis helped uncover the broader cultural scripts participants drew on when describing ideal partners, marriage obligations, and gender roles. This included proverbs, repeated framings, and moral vocabularies that shaped the performance and negotiation of gender. In addition to thematic coding, I employed relational coding to trace how masculinity and femininity were described in relation to each other . Particularly how women’s performances of virtue enabled or challenged men’s claims to protective masculinity. To enhance rigor, I analyzed transcripts in Arabic, documented coding memos throughout the process, and actively sought out contradictory cases. Translation decisions were carefully considered to preserve cultural nuance and avoid misrepresentation. Why study Arab masculinity through Arab femininity? Studying gender in the Arab world requires attentiveness to how global discourses, colonial histories, and local power structures intersect. Western liberal feminist and media representations often reproduce the trope of “honor culture,” casting Arab men as oppressors and Arab women as passive victims (Abu-Lughod 2002; Razack 2004). This paper resists such reductive binaries by examining how femininities and masculinities are co-constructed within the specific context of refugee-host marriages between Syrian women and Egyptian men where unions are shaped by displacement, inequality, and idealized gendered expectations. Thus, rather than approach masculinity or femininity as fixed attributes, I follow Connell and Messerschmidt’s (2005) relational theory of gender, which posits that masculinities and femininities are always defined in relation to each other, and that gender is constructed across four interlinked domains: structural, disciplinary, hegemonic, and interpersonal. This framework is particularly useful in examining marriage as a site where these domains interact, especially when couples come from different national, cultural, and legal backgrounds. In past sociological and anthropological research on masculinity and femininity in the Middle East, men and women were almost always studied separately or in one another’s distant backgrounds, rarely portrayed as parents and children, brothers and sisters, husband and wife, or lovers (Isidoros & Inhorn 2022; Joseph 1993). In this study, I explore how Syrian refugee women and Egyptian men navigate their respective gender roles in ways that are often complementary but also conflictual. These gender performances are shaped by both the legacy of patriarchal norms and the shifting material realities of displacement, poverty, and legal precarity. Femininities and masculinities in marriage. I understand femininity and masculinity as “a collective of norms and values that inform behavior expected of women [and men] in their self-representation in various sociocultural contexts” (Jaji 2015, 495). In the Arab world, patriarchy has long shaped gendered social expectations, particularly within the institution of marriage. It can be broadly understood as the consolidation of male authority through structures that maintain a division between public and private spheres—where women are often confined to the home and men dominate public and economic life (Botman 1999). R. W. Connell (1987; 1995) defined hegemonic masculinity as a socially dominant form of masculinity that reinforces gender hierarchy and serves as a strategy for legitimizing and upholding patriarchy in local practices of gender. Such definition reveals the need for socio-economic resources to maintain patriarchy, highlighting a hierarchy that distinguishes different types of masculinity and that not all men can embody hegemonic masculinity, though it is idealized in many patriarchal societies. In the three decades following Connell’s work, a handful of important studies have emerged to unpack different forms of Arab masculinities, how they relate to hegemonic masculinity (Inhorn 2012), how they depart from and align with patriarchal norms (Joseph 1999), and how they are shaped by socio-economic factors, including their interaction with Arab femininities (Naguib 2019; Ghannam 2013). Inhorn’s (2012) concept of emergent masculinities, for example, highlights how masculinity in the region is being reshaped through economic insecurity, infertility, and war—underscoring its fluid and responsive nature. Similarly, Studies on transnational and intercultural marriages reveal how migration unsettles patriarchal expectations, leading to masculinity crises, emotional dissonance, and dependency on female partners (Charsley & Liversage 2015; Cerchiaro 2020). These dynamics are often navigated through protective masculinities—a strategic reassertion of masculine authority through roles as guardians and moral anchors—particularly in contexts of racialization, legal precarity, and shifting power dynamics (Young 2003; Wojnicka 2024; Sowad & Lafrance 2024). A conceptual and theoretical framework. In this study, I draw on the concept of protective masculinity—a form of gender performance in which men assert their identity through the capacity to protect, provide for, and symbolically contain women (Young 2003; Wojnicka 2024). Protection is often framed not only as a physical or financial act but as a moral responsibility tied to masculine self-worth. Unlike frameworks that emphasize dominance, protective masculinity is, I argue, relational, co-co-produced through women’s strategic enactment of virtue and men’s response to that enactment, within a broader context of displacement, inequality, and shifting gendered power. To analyze this co-construction of gendered roles, I follow Connell and Messerschmidt’s (2005) relational gender theory, which argues that masculinities and femininities must be understood in relation to one another across structural, interpersonal, and symbolic domains. In refugee-host marriages, this relational lens is essential: Egyptian men often interpret Syrian women’s performances of modesty and deference as affirmations of their masculinity, while women strategically embody these traits, sometimes strategically, to secure stability and respect. Throughout this study, I opted to use the term virtue rather than honor to conceptualize the gendered moral expectations placed on women. While honor is a commonly invoked term in scholarship on Arab gender relations, I intentionally move away from it due to its heavy entanglement with Orientalist and reductive representations of Arab societies (Abu-Lughod 2002; Razack 2004). Instead, virtue refers to a broader constellation of moral comportment: modesty, restraint, and deference, through which women signal desirability and respectability. This framing allows for greater analytic nuance, showing how virtue is not only socially policed but also strategically embodied by women negotiating displacement, legal precarity, and intimate partnership. This approach is evident in previous research. In Ghannam’s (2013) extensive ethnography studying masculinity in a low-income neighborhood in Egypt’s capital Cairo, she traces how women keenly strive to protect their male relatives’ economic and social vulnerabilities. They contribute to the masculine trajectory by “conforming to the social norms that define their responsibilities as dutiful daughters, obedient wives, and respectful sisters… they instruct their sons, brothers, husbands and male neighbors about the proper way of being a man” (Ghannam 2013, 88). Such dynamics are also reflected in cultural media. One respondent urged me to watch Baab al Hara, a Syrian television series that romanticizes antimodern gender ideals. Zaatari (2015) argues that the show reflects nostalgic desires for clear gender roles amidst contemporary political, economic, social and moral upheaval, casting women’s obedience and modesty as sources of stability. It illustrates how notions of desirable femininity and masculinity are not timeless, but historically contingent ideals constantly reshaped by social anxieties. To better understand how gender roles are enacted and recalibrated under conditions of displacement, this study introduces the concept of negotiated femininities. Building on Kandiyoti’s (1988) notion of the patriarchal bargain—which explains how women strategically conform to gendered expectations in exchange for social security—negotiated femininities extend this framework by attending to contexts of instability, flux, and transnational negotiation. In displacement, social contracts are unsettled, gender norms are blurred, and relationships become provisional. Rather than striking a singular bargain, women must constantly recalibrate their gendered performances in response to changing legal, social, and economic pressures. By foregrounding the interplay between virtue and protection, this study offers a framework for understanding how Arab masculinities and femininities are co-produced, relationally negotiated, and shaped by displacement and social instability. Analysis: A Dance of virtue and protection and how Femininity and Masculinity Interweave During my fieldwork, most women respondents stated that shortly after arriving in Egypt, and regardless of their marital status (divorced, widowed, single mother, or never been married), they had multiple marriage proposals from Egyptian men from different social classes. Informants and respondents characterized many of these marriages as (1) Quick , taking place within a few weeks or even a few days of the initial proposal; (2) Polygamous , where the husband already has [at least one] wife and is seeking a second wife; and (3) Customary or urfi , marriages that are limited to the religious ceremony and hence not registered with the state through official paperwork. When I asked the respondents, men, and women, to elaborate on why they thought Egyptian men sought Syrian brides, almost all of them portrayed the same image of the Syrian woman’s unique physical beauty and embodiment of desirable femininity, a strong sense of self-care, and a reputation for being good housewives. Some men added, however, that with limited financial resources, they had a better chance of finding a ‘higher quality’ partner, in terms of social class and intellectual qualities since Syrian refugees would have fewer options to choose from compared to a potential Egyptian partner. Masculinity and “Being A Man” Through Protection Just like their women counterparts, men face social pressures they must navigate and expectations they are compelled to meet—particularly within patriarchal systems that link masculine worth to provision and protection. Building on Ghannam’s (2013) ethnography, “ ruguula ” or masculinity in working-class Cairo is shown not to be limited to sexual prowess, but rather a multidimensional and contingent process. She writes, “ ruguula is a multidimensional, contextual and contingent process… strongly linked to good grooming, nice manners, fashionable clothes, skill in navigating the city, assertiveness and courage, the ability to provide for one’s family and the knowledge about when to use violence” (Ghannam 2013, 24). This framing aligns with Connell’s (1987; 1995) concept of hegemonic masculinity as an idealized standard that few men can consistently embody—especially under conditions of economic insecurity. It also reflects Suad Joseph’s (1993; 1999) insight that patriarchal structures in Arab families are held together not just through dominance, but through networks of love, care, and control, a form of patriarchal connectivity that makes power feel protective rather than oppressive. Masculinity, then, must be performed and reasserted repeatedly across relationships and life events, especially within the conjugal relationship. During my interviews, women consistently judged men’s masculinity through their capacity to fulfill their protective roles, their ability to materially provide, socially shield, and emotionally affirm a woman’s dignity. For many women facing displacement, marriage is not simply, though not mutually exclusive from being, a romantic endeavor but a route to social and economic resettlement. Mohra, who fled to Egypt after her first husband was killed in the war, illustrates this clearly. Reflecting on her second marriage, she expressed profound frustration with her current husband’s failure to fulfill his promise of protection: “When you [referring to her husband] spoke to me before getting married, you told me, ‘You and your children are under my protection…’ What does this promise mean? We are your responsibility, and you should provide for us. Since I started applying for all these charities, I cannot accept him anymore. The way I look at him is different […] If my first husband were still alive, it would be impossible for him to let me go to these charities. He would rather die. If he ended up begging in the streets, it would have been better for him than putting me in this position.” Here, the inability to protect and provide erodes the husband’s masculine legitimacy. Mohra’s experience exemplifies how Syrian women respondents, shaped by both cultural norms and migration-induced vulnerabilities, evaluate their partners using a moral economy of virtue and protection. These ideals are not static but shaped by lived experiences of precarity, echoing Inhorn’s (2012) notion of emergent masculinities: adaptive forms of manhood forged in response to shifting social, economic, and political landscapes. Similarly, Suerbaum (2018) found that the separation between public and private spheres remains central to how Syrian refugee men in Egypt interpret gender roles. Many respondents equated masculinity with the ability to keep women out of the public sphere by providing materially. Mohamed’s, an Egyptian husband, quote below illustrates one explanation for the appeal of dividing public and private spheres using the same rationale of protection and provision. It also aligns with Joseph’s notion of patriarchal connectivity, which highlights control as an extension of care and intertwined welfare: “First and foremost, it’s a sign of protection and respect for the woman. Obeying her husband is a form of protection […] When I ask her not to leave the house without letting me know, it’s coming out of fear and protection. I should be aware of her location and what she plans to do. Is this place safe? Appropriate? That doesn’t mean it should be an absolute ‘no’ […] How will she understand life? Let’s say her husband passed away. How will she manage?” Mohamed’s comment reflects a widely shared belief: that domestic confinement not only grants the man a sense of masculine agency but reassures the woman of her social and moral security. This helps us better understand Mohra’s resentment, she is not only frustrated by her husband’s unemployment, but by the social exposure and humiliation she incurs when she must assume public-facing, provider roles. Crucially, it is not only men who uphold this gendered expectation. Many of the Syrian wives and Egyptian husband interlocutors revealed how women themselves internalize the idea that men offer more than financial support, they offer social and symbolic protection (Botman 1999). Ghalya, a middle-aged Syrian woman, reflected on this after leaving her abusive husband: “When we arrived in Egypt, he was still reliant on me. When he left, I was relieved… but at least there was a man figure in the house. When the man leaves, people start to gaze at you […] I was relieved financially, and from the fact that I had to support him, but at the same time, in front of society, when there is a man, no one will bother you. Shadow of a man is better than a shadow of a wall.” This well-known proverb dell ragil wala dell heta [shadow of a man is better than a shadow of a wall] captures the symbolic capital of masculinity. It adds richer layers to the meaning of masculine providing and protection economically as well as socially. Note that the proverb talks about a “shadow” of a man, not simply a man implying the need to have a symbol of masculinity around as a social precaution even if he is not fulfilling his masculine duties. The women respondents whose situation was further aggravated by their social uprooting and displacement were alert to the perks of seeking and aligning with this kind of masculinity facade to carve for themselves a meaningful resettlement experience. This symbolic protection becomes even more pronounced, forming part of a broader patriarchal bargain (Kandiyoti 1988) through which women seek security by aligning themselves with masculine authority, even when it fails them materially or emotionally. In this sense, masculinity in these refugee-host marriages is both relational and performative, shaped by women’s expectations, societal norms, and men’s capacity to deliver symbolic and material forms of protection. Femininity through holding up virtue and domesticity Many of the men and women interviewed emphasized that the essence of masculinity lies in a man’s ability to protect and provide. In turn, women were expected to reciprocate by maintaining a virtuous public image—signaled through modesty, deference, and the performance of culturally desirable femininity. These traits were often described in terms of minute bodily comportments and interactions, such as avoiding loud laughter or direct communication with unrelated men in public spaces (Botman 1999, 108). Naziha, a woman in her mid-forties, articulated this gendered expectation while recounting her first encounter with her Egyptian husband during a visit to view an apartment for rent: "Our nature [as Syrian women] is that we do not joke with men. Everything we do has to be with respect. So, when I entered the place, I told him I had made istikhara [a religious prayer before making a decision]. Later he told me that in his head he was thinking: ‘What a woman! She entered the apartment and didn’t even glimpse at me. Her husband must be a lucky man.’" For Naziha, this performance of modesty and religious propriety was central to being seen as a virtuous woman—and was ultimately what drew her future husband to her. In her view, ideal femininity was embodied in modest behavior, quietness, and sexual restraint, all of which signaled moral worth and deservingness of male protection. Throughout the interviews, both male and female respondents invoked a stereotypical image of the Egyptian woman as aggressive, loud, overly independent, and disinterested in domestic responsibilities. This portrayal—widespread in Egyptian popular culture and television since the early twentieth century (Kholoussy 2010)—functioned as a foil to the perceived docility and virtue of Syrian women. Many respondents cited these stereotypes as central to their motivation for marriage, often articulating their attraction to, and justification for, a Syrian partner through the perceived lack of “true femininity” among Egyptian women. Tarek, a financially secure Egyptian man married to a Syrian woman in a polygynous arrangement, exemplified these views. In an interview marked by fragmented and contradictory reflections, he expressed frustration with his first Egyptian wife, who vehemently opposed his second marriage and restricted his access to their shared home. He contrasted her resistance with what he described as the more “intelligent” and “confident” strength of Syrian women, whom he saw as practicing a softer, more agreeable form of femininity: A strong woman isn’t really a woman. Meaning when she is strong and in control, “acting like seven men in one” [a proverb that is not gender specific to denote someone who is displaying exaggerated, unencouraged, and uninvited courage and aggression], there is no woman here. Weakness is the woman's femininity. Don’t you think that this is a disadvantage… weakness here doesn’t mean lack of will, rather it’s when she falls in her husband’s arms in surrender, there’s tenderness, a sense of affection, and a feeling of her husband’s strength. All of this makes her feel safe. A husband’s strength doesn’t mean oppression and coercion. His strength is in his ability to protect, to provide for her and to keep dangers at bay. It’s his ability to contain her and provide her with backbone [support]. It’s like the feeling of having a father […] so it’s not wise for a woman to break her husband. Many women break their husbands and humiliate them even in public. Women in genera if they grow too strong, they lose their femininity. If a man breaks [meaning be humiliated and threatened by his wife’s excessive aggressiveness] he loses his masculinity. Although his language was fragmented, Tarek’s comments reflect a deeply rooted anxiety around male authority, heightened by the instability and negotiation required in polygamous unions. His remarks demonstrate how masculinity is experienced as contingent—dependent on women’s performances of deference and vulnerability. Importantly, these ideals were not confined to conservative or lower-income respondents. Tarek’s wife, for instance, did not wear the hijab and presented as a socialite, yet his framing of femininity remained tied to nurturing his masculine self-image. Hamdy, a working-class man whose wife wears a niqab [face cover], similarly viewed traditional gender roles as essential. He described his wife’s refusal to let him help with even basic domestic tasks as a sign of respect and proper gender order. He opposed women’s work outside the home—not only because it burdened women but because it risked undermining men’s protective role. Ahmed, another respondent from a low income neighborhood, offered a more ambivalent view. While he admired Egyptian women’s ability to navigate public life and defend themselves from harassment, he worried that financial independence weakened marital bonds and subverted traditional gender roles: “This independence thing messed things up. When a woman can go out and work, she starts thinking, ‘I don’t need you.’ She’ll say, ‘What are you going to do? I work too. And if we get divorced, the court gives me the apartment.’ One woman told me that after just one month of marriage—no kids! She said, ‘I have a right in this apartment.’ She had no right! But that’s what the culture taught her.” For Ahmed, female independence challenged the very foundation of masculine worth. If a woman does not “need” a man, what space remains for his role as protector? His comments highlight how economic and legal shifts, coupled with cultural expectations, fuel masculine anxieties and intensify patriarchal gatekeeping in marriage. Alongside modesty and deference in public, another critical component of feminine virtue was domesticity. Many respondents described the Syrian wife as “the queen of her kingdom,” a woman who keeps an immaculate home, is always well-groomed, and shows unwavering respect to her husband. Galaa, a 60-year-old Syrian woman engaged to an Egyptian man, explained: “The Syrian woman has everything: politeness, respect for the man, care for the home and children. We don’t rely on housemaids. We do the work ourselves. She is the full package—everything a man wants.” This narrative was echoed by Hamdy above, who proudly shared that his wife never allowed him to lift a finger in the house, claiming her domestic labor as central to her identity as “the woman of the house.” For some women, these performances of ideal femininity reflected internalized norms or a coping strategy in displacement. For others, such enactments were strategic—positioning a brand of Syrian femininity in contrast to Egyptian femininity to maximize desirability, stability, and control amidst uprooting. I discuss in the final section how such opposition was strategic in many cases. Nevertheless, in all cases, these narratives illustrate how femininity was not only policed and idealized but also co-produced with masculinity, reinforcing men’s sense of purpose, authority, and worth. The mutual reinforcement of these gender performances—often under conditions of legal precarity and social instability—sheds light on how patriarchal bargains are continuously negotiated in refugee-host marriages. Egyptian (protective) masculinity meets (negotiated) Syrian femininity Safaa commenced our interview half-joking that she was waiting for the war in Syria to happen so that she could leave her abusive Syrian husband and move to Egypt to find an Egyptian husband. Safaa told me that her impression of Egyptian husbands is that they are “oppressed”, especially compared to Syrian husbands: I: What did you hear about the Egyptian husband? R: That he is oppressed! Forgive me [laughing]. Oppressed by his wife. So put an oppressed man with an oppressed woman, and they would be comfortable together. In general, the Syrian woman will be oppressed by a (Syrian) man who is not warm and compassionate… the Syrian man doesn’t have any gentleness. This harmonized and serendipitous union described by Safaa was challenged by many other Syrian respondents, nevertheless. Naziha, above who was married to an Egyptian man five years younger than her, was often involved in a power struggle with him, citing his responsibility to provide as a man, to the extent that she kicked him out of the house until he complied with her requests and paid the house rent: He wouldn’t pay the rent, for one month, two months, so I did not allow him in the apartment. I told him, “You are not allowed in an apartment that you do not pay its rent” I even called the sheikh and asked him to inform him [the husband] that I want a divorce. If he is not carrying the burden with me, I do not want him […]. For three months, I have been calling for a divorce, and he is sitting by the stairs in front of my apartment. That was ironically the same Naziha who expressed that she had remained obedient, patient, and hopeful back in Syria for over a decade that her first husband would leave his second wife and return to his original home. Previous research discusses how displacement has had mixed effects on alleviating some social structures and adding some others offering some refugee women corridors of strategic agency (Culcasi 2019; Taha 2024; Tobin 2020). It is plausible that Naziha’s age and experience of both displacement and previous marriage enabled her to challenge social structure, worry less about social stigma, and behave in such a way. Other respondents had different approaches that utilized strategic conformity, such as Ghalya, who had a more vested interest in her current marriage with an Egyptian husband, expressing emotional affection and dependence between the two of them. She explained that she often gets what she wants through indirect ways and maybe even through patronizing her husband: He is the man, and we cannot change him. I need to preserve his manhood. I have to find ways to appease him. Not simply to get what I want, but for life to go on. Look, a man is like a child. You do not need to punch him or fight with him to get what you. He is like a baby. Contrasting cases such as Safaa, Naziha and Ghalya, one can trace multiple ways of embodying femininity alluding to a strategic performance of femininity in ways that maximize their gains. In other words, those women strategically adopted different expressions of femininity in different contexts, what I refer to as negotiated femininities which I elaborate on in the discussion. Discussion While many quotes in this study illustrate men’s and women’s preference for a form of idealized hegemonic masculinity associated with economic provision and public presence (Connell, 1995 ), the analysis demonstrates that masculinity is also relationally negotiated and earned, relying on symbolic protection, emotional labor, and gendered performances of vulnerability. Furthermore, the anxieties that can be sensed in Egyptian men regarding women's independence, particularly their economic autonomy and assertiveness, illustrate how masculinity is continuously reconstructed in reaction to evolving femininities. As men navigate pressures of provision and protection, they recalibrate their masculine identity by seeking partnerships that reinforce traditional gender roles, thereby shaping emergent masculinities (Inhorn 2012 ) and forms of protective masculinity (Wojnicka 2024 ; Sowad & Lafrance 2024 ) as strategic responses to socio-economic and cultural insecurities. The expectation that men must protect and provide while women must preserve virtue: a concept I employ in place of “honor” to move beyond reductive and Orientalist tropes, reflects a broader gender contract rooted in modesty, respectability, and relational selfhood. I define virtue as a gendered moral ideal performed through comportment, deference, and self-restraint, but also reinterpreted as adaptability, social intelligence, and strategic negotiation. This reframing captures the ways Syrian women in this study maintained respectability while navigating displacement and securing stability without reducing them to passive bearers of honor or fixed ideals of modesty. Women’s behaviors—such as avoiding direct eye contact, maintaining physical and social distance from men, and reinforcing deference to male authority, are not just individual choices but part of a broader system in which gendered identities are relationally, rather than rigidly, forged. Naziha’s decision to evict her husband over his failure to pay rent is not one of relational interdependence but of assertive femininity and conditional partnership. Importantly, what her case illustrates is that displacement can sometimes offer women a form of liberation from the social surveillance and normative expectations that once constrained them. Uprooted from communities where relatives and neighbors could monitor and judge their behavior, some displaced women—particularly those with prior marital experience—gain the latitude to assert new boundaries and challenge men’s authority. Even as they maintain a public image of modesty or propriety to preserve symbolic and moral capital, they often exercise agency in more assertive and strategic ways within the private sphere. In such moments, virtue becomes less a reinforcement of male dominance and more a mechanism for asserting leverage and legitimacy. With the narratives of Safaa, Naziha, and Ghalya as a backdrop, it is crucial to challenge the reduction of femininity, especially in refugee contexts, to passivity or victimhood. Jaji ( 2015 ), in her study of refugee communities in Kenya, demonstrates that “femininity is a constraint in some instances and a resource in others” (p. 242). She identifies three forms of femininity: normative, agitated, and rebellious, shaped by marital status and economic circumstances. Similarly, my findings reveal the enactment of what I term negotiated femininities: strategic, context-sensitive shifts in feminine performance that maximize social capital, security, and adaptability in fluid or unstable environments. This concept builds on Kandiyoti’s ( 1988 ) argument of the patriarchal bargain, which explains how women strategically conform to gendered expectations in exchange for protection, legitimacy, or resources. However, while the patriarchal bargain presumes a relatively stable social contract, negotiated femininities speak to the uncertainty, fragmentation, and flux that characterize displacement. In refugee-host marriages, social norms are imported, disrupted, and reconstituted. Women are not merely entering known patriarchal contracts; they are constantly recalibrating their gender performances—sometimes reinforcing, sometimes contesting, and often tactically navigating shifting conditions of power and legitimacy. This negotiation does not necessarily aim to subvert patriarchy outright, but rather to manage it, reposition within it, and extract value from its contradictions. Negotiated femininities thus help illuminate the relational construction of emergent and protective masculinities, showing how masculinity is not only shaped by men’s actions but also by women’s performances. These femininities are often enacted to preserve household stability or social legitimacy, but they also provide women with tools to exert influence, set conditions, or assert personhood. The refugee-host marriage dynamic, in particular, amplifies this interplay, as displaced Syrian women and lower-middle-class Egyptian men bring different expectations, vulnerabilities, and aspirations into the relationship. Syrian women seek security and legitimacy; Egyptian men seek enhanced masculine status and admiration through alignment with stereotypical ideals of femininity. In turn, both negotiate gender roles dynamically—reworking the terms of provision, protection, and virtue in contextually specific ways. In this light, the dance of virtue and protection serves as a metaphor for the gender dynamics unfolding within refugee-host marriages: a rhythmic interplay in which roles are not simply reproduced but tactically recalibrated. This metaphor captures a normatively idealized division of labor—men as protectors and women as virtuous caretakers, that is continually adjusted in response to displacement, legal precarity, and economic instability. In this context, virtue becomes a form of soft power and moral capital that women deploy—subtly or overtly—to assert personhood, preserve marital stability, and navigate structural vulnerability. Meanwhile, protection is not solely an expression of patriarchal control but also a relational and often aspirational performance of care, moral leadership, and social legitimacy. When I mentioned to Safaa that she seemed to have a strong and outspoken personality, she was quick to clarify that she does not behave this way in front of her husband; rather, she is calm, patient, and composed around him. Safaa thus provides a compelling example of negotiated femininity, underscoring the agile interplay between femininity and masculinity explored in this paper. Her defiance of norms is evident as she runs her own business to support her children while refusing to perceive her husband as less masculine due to financial reasons. At the same time, she acknowledges her role as a dutiful wife, strategically protecting the male figure’s economic and social vulnerabilities. She prioritizes their mutual interests while maintaining cultural expectations that uphold certain gender roles. While recognizing differences in Egyptian marital dynamics, she carefully adheres to Syrian cultural norms, avoiding direct conflicts with her husband and fulfilling his “young age dream” of marrying a Syrian woman. In doing so, she skillfully negotiates femininity to maintain harmony in her heteronormative relationship, viewing normative performance not as a limitation but as a method for navigating patriarchy, retaining agency, and sustaining the careful choreography of virtue and protection. Conclusion This paper has sought to deepen our understanding of feminine and masculine performance dynamics in the context of Syrian-Egyptian refugee-host marriages. It underscores that gender is not a static binary but a relational and adaptive performance negotiated within the constraints and opportunities of displacement, class, and patriarchy. The analysis reveals that masculinity, while often rooted in ideals of provision and protection, is co-constructed through women’s performances of virtue—anchored in modesty, patience, and strategic restraint. The analysis reveals that masculinity, while often idealized through roles of provision and protection, is co-constructed through women’s gendered performances—particularly through what I term negotiated femininities alluding to a context-sensitive and strategic ways in which women perform modesty, deference, or assertiveness to secure respectability, protection, and leverage within gendered hierarchies. Two key conclusions emerge. First, refugee women’s experiences are shaped not only by structural displacement but also by relational negotiations of power within the intimate sphere of marriage. These negotiations reflect agency that is neither purely subversive nor entirely conformist, but strategic and situated. Second, Syrian-Egyptian marriages represent a form of gendered self-resettlement, where both parties seek to restore dignity, status, and stability through performances of gender that reflect both aspiration and constraint. The metaphor of a dance of virtue and protection captures this dynamic well: a rhythmic, often improvisational interplay where both partners adjust their roles to meet emotional, cultural, and material needs. In doing so, they do not simply replicate patriarchal structures but navigate them tactically, creating space for belonging, legitimacy, and identity reconstruction amid the uncertainty of forced migration. By bringing together insights from Arab gender studies, refugee research, and relational theories of masculinity and femininity, this paper contributes to a more nuanced understanding of gendered subjectivities in displacement. It calls for further research into how gender roles are not only shaped by state policy or cultural tradition, but also negotiated within everyday practices of marriage, care, and survival. Declarations Funding Declaration This research was supported by the Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program (Canada) and the Humanitarian Response Network of Canada. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Human Ethics and consent to participate : This study was approved by the Human Participants Review Sub-Committee, York University’s Ethics Review Board, and conforms to the Canadian Tri-Council Research Ethics guidelines. Approval number: STU 2017-044. All participants provided informed consent prior to participating in the study. Consent forms were available in both Arabic and English. Participation was voluntary, and participants were informed of their right to withdraw at any time. All names used are pseudonyms to ensure confidentiality. Competing interests The author declares that there are no competing interests. Author Contribution This is a single author submission. All conceptualization, data collection, analysis and reporting were conducted by the author. Acknowledgement The author gratefully acknowledges the time, trust, and insights shared by the participants of this study. Special thanks to Chris Kyriakides, Jennifer Hyndman, Katherine Bischoping, and Ismail Nashef for their valuable feedback and guidance throughout the development of this work. Open Access publication of this article was made possible through funding provided by the Qatar National Library (QNL) and the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies (DI). 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In Cairo, desperate Egyptian men search in vain for Syrian brides | McClatchy Washington Bureau (mcclatchydc.com) Zaatari, Zeina. "Desirable masculinity/femininity and nostalgia of the “anti-modern”: Bab el-Hara television series as a site of production." Sexuality & Culture 19 (2015): 16-36. Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files ResearchElementsfinal.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 16 Dec, 2025 Read the published version in Comparative Migration Studies → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7190268","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":496630581,"identity":"64f87308-9a5a-492e-bde6-14246732b6ab","order_by":0,"name":"Dina Taha","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"","institution":"Doha Institute for Graduate Studies","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Dina","middleName":"","lastName":"Taha","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-07-22 20:38:08","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7190268/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7190268/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-025-00518-z","type":"published","date":"2025-12-16T15:58:10+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":98815077,"identity":"12adfbb7-2c70-462d-b58f-e1db9a83b02f","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-12-22 16:13:29","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":604441,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7190268/v1/01ad8837-580a-4106-af05-6e68c1eaaf03.pdf"},{"id":88533178,"identity":"7f754b84-e05d-4f62-9364-17de94272b16","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-08-07 12:05:23","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":2570269,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"ResearchElementsfinal.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7190268/v1/102cdde0623ac1385d38f4a9.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"A Dance of Virtue and Protection: A Qualitative Exploration of Femininity and Masculinity Negotiations in Syrian-Egyptian Refugee-Host Marriages","fulltext":[{"header":"Introduction","content":"\u003cp\u003eStudying gender in the Arab world, though highly scrutinized, has often been Orientalized and oversimplified, regularly painting Arab men as oppressors and women as victims in need of saving (Abu Lughod 2002; Razack 2004; Farahani \u0026amp; Thapar-Bj\u0026ouml;rkert 2020). Marriage as a practice for Syrian refugee women amidst the Syrian refugee crisis in both urban and camp settings which can be traced in different countries in the Middle East, such as Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia (Bayoumi 2013; Fajry 2012) is a case in point. While the extent of this phenomenon is not entirely clear and was never systematically tracked, many human rights organizations, not profits and media reported on and condemned it (See Bayoumi 2013; Fajry 2012; Heinrich Boll 2013; Hassan 2015; Barkan 2012). For instance, and even though I could not locate the original data source, several news portals cited each other regarding information from the National Council for Women\u0026apos;s Protection in Egypt. According to these reports, in 2013, approximately 12,000 Syrian women entered into such arrangements (Natour 2016; Egypt Independent 2013; UNHCR Data Portal 2013). Prominent media outlets such as The Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram Al-Arabi, The Algerian daily Al-Fajr, and The London-based Saudi Al-Hayat, have all described Syrian refugee women in similar arrangements as \u0026ldquo;easy prey and a valuable catch\u0026rdquo; praising those who \u0026ldquo;[dare] to speak out against the exploitation of women refugees\u0026rdquo; (Barkan 2012).\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEgypt hosts over 5 million refugees and migrants (Karasapan 2016), including 352,000 registered refugees and asylum seekers, with Syrians constituting the largest group (UNHCR Egypt Factsheet 2023). While UNHCR estimates the number of registered Syrian refugees in Egypt at 150,000, the actual figure is likely significantly higher, as it does not account for unregistered refugees, individuals arriving on tourist visas, or those entering for business purposes (Ayoub 2017; Ayoub and Khallaf 2014). Since the Syrian conflict began in 2011, Syrians in Egypt have faced economic hardships and political polarization (ECHO Factsheet 2018; ILO 2018). Although Egypt is a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, the rights of refugees\u0026mdash;particularly their right to work\u0026mdash;have been restricted, further exacerbating their economic difficulties (Hetaba, McNally, and Habersky 2020). This precarious situation has arguably contributed to marriage emerging as a survival strategy for some Syrian women navigating displacement.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe stories of agency and victimhood of Syrian refugee women who married Egyptian men that they barely knew shortly after arrival in the country were initially why I entered the field in Egypt in 2017 (Author 2021; 2024). During my conversations with husbands and wives, and in trying to bypass a simplistic exploitation narrative that \u0026ldquo;Syrian refugees are cheaper, prettier, better cooks and easier to marry\u0026rdquo; (Youssef \u0026amp; Ismail 2013), I started tuning into a more nuanced tone\u0026mdash;a subtle harmony and complementarity amidst structural challenges like patriarchy, poverty and displacement. By delving into these dynamics, I started to unfold ways where Arab femininities and masculinities are interconnected, rather formative of one another, not solely in adversarial ways but also in complementary, reconciliatory, and sometimes reinforcing and reaffirming manners. This research focuses on this often-overlooked aspect of interconnectedness, co-construction, and co-dependence, shedding light on how their dynamics operate in real-world scenarios.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhy opt for a Syrian wife in Egypt? What does this choice reveal about Egyptian masculinity and its perception of ideal femininity? What factors render such unions convenient, at least for one of the parties involved? This paper delves into the narratives of some women and men partaking in these unions, tracing their origins, motivations, negotiations, and challenges, and exploring alternative and Othered perspectives. I contend that examining how women conceptualize \u0026lsquo;desirable\u0026rsquo; masculinity and men envision \u0026lsquo;desirable\u0026rsquo; femininity offer deeper insights into the meanings, embodiment, and societal pressures shaping these constructs, especially in the Orientalized context such as the Arab world (Said 1978; Ahmed1992; Abu Lughod 2002). This sheds light on how femininity and masculinity mutually shape and influence each other, moving beyond the traditional isolation of men and women in the study of Gender in the Arab world and its related themes (Isidoros \u0026amp; Inhorn 2022). By analyzing the dynamics and negotiations between femininity and masculinity within marriages, I aim to contribute to important yet slowly growing literature on Arab masculinities and its role in forming Arab gendered relations (see for instance Naguib 2019; Ghannam 2013; Joseph 1993, Joseph 1999; Inhorn 2012), showcasing how femininity, directly and indirectly, intentionally and unintentionally, reinforces certain forms of masculinity, and the pressures men face in order to meet societal roles and expectations. The gap is especially evident in the context of refugee-host unions, which involve stark asymmetries in legal status, social capital, and symbolic value.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePrevious research links the cost of marriage and marriage economics to the inception of such marriages but also in further dictating the power dynamics between spouses (Taha 2024). However, the clich\u0026eacute; image of the obedient, modest, and shy Syrian wife who is confined to the private sphere was always contrasted among my respondents with the Egyptian wife who is stereotyped as flawed for being too independent, too bold, and too loud, in short, \u0026lsquo;not feminine enough\u0026rsquo;. In this paper, I peel back the layers of this \u003cem\u003eperceived\u003c/em\u003e Syrian femininity within the Egyptian collective consciousness, aiming to understand how it motivates and shapes these unions and, more importantly, what it tells us about gender dynamics and negotiations in displacement. I ask: What happens to gender norms when displacement intersects with local patriarchies and stereotypes? how are masculinity and femininity co-constructed in this context? And How refugee women strategically navigate gendered expectations in marriage under displacement, drawing on, but also challenging, existing stereotypes of exploitation and ideal femininity?\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn responding to these questions, I engage with a more overarching debate of the interconnection and coexistence between masculinity and femininity (i.e., how both are shaped and sometimes even sustained and reinforced by one another) showcasing their influence on Arab gender identity formation and displacement trajectories. By tracing this dance of virtue and protection, the paper contributes to a deeper understanding of how Arab masculinities and femininities are relationally co-constructed, particularly in the context of displacement, protective patriarchal expectations, and shifting power dynamics within refugee-host marriages.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Methodology","content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eFieldwork and Data Collection\u003c/em\u003e. The original study was conducted in Egypt during the summer of 2017, focusing on Sunni Muslim Syrian refugee women who fled Syria post-2011 and married Egyptian men after settling in Egypt. Over a period of four months, data was collected in Greater Cairo and Alexandria, the two cities hosting the largest Syrian refugee populations in Egypt. The study involved ethnographic observations to contextualize the findings alongside in-depth interviews. All interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim in Arabic. During the analysis, untranslated Arabic quotes were prioritized to preserve cultural meanings and avoid misrepresentation.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSample and recruitment\u003c/em\u003e. A total of thirty-three in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with Sunni Syrian women who were either married or recently divorced from Egyptian men. Additionally, nine interviews were conducted with Egyptian husbands. The difference in sample size reflects the original focus on displaced women\u0026rsquo;s perspectives, with men\u0026apos;s narratives serving as complementary insights rather than the primary subject of the study. Logistical factors also contributed to this disparity, as my position as a female researcher made it more feasible to access and interview women. However, in this paper, I engage more deeply with men\u0026rsquo;s narratives, along with women\u0026rsquo;s, exploring how they construct and negotiate their masculinity, particularly in relation to their perceptions of their wives\u0026apos; roles and broader gendered expectations.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe sample aimed to represent varied socio-economic levels, age groups, and marital statuses. While initial recruitment was primarily using convenience sampling, adjustments were made midway through purposive sampling to ensure representation from upper-middle and upper-class women, who were initially unrepresented. Recruitment strategies included personal networks, snowball sampling, social media outreach, and key informants\u0026apos; assistance. Given the overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim demographic of both Egypt and its Syrian refugee population, the sample consisted exclusively of Sunni participants. The age distribution of the respondents reveals that the majority of women interviewed were in their 30s (14 respondents), followed by those in their 20s (11 respondents), 40s (6 respondents), and 50s+ (2 respondents). Among the male respondents, most were in their 30s (5 respondents), while the rest were either in their 40s (3 respondents) or 50s (1 respondent). Regarding marital status upon displacement, 14 women were single and had never been married, 12 were divorced or separated, 5 were widowed, and 2 did not disclose. While not all women were comfortable with disclosing, at least half of the marriages in my estimation were \u003cem\u003eurfi\u003c/em\u003e (customary) and/or polygamous. In terms of socio-economic class (determined by highest educational level and the typical affluence of the area of residence), 6 women and 3 men belonged to upper class belonging to Urban locations such as Nasr City, Al-Rehab, and Al-Sheikh Zayed, while the rest from middle- and lower-class participants predominantly resided in Al-Haram, Faisal, Obour, 6th of October city, and 10\u003csup\u003eth\u003c/sup\u003e of Ramadan city and Alexandria. Only two respondents were based in rural areas but happened to be in Cairo during the interview.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eEthics and positionality\u003c/em\u003e. All participants provided either written or verbal informed consent before participating in the study. To ensure confidentiality, all identities have been anonymized, and pseudonyms are used. Participants were informed of their right to withdraw at any stage, and all data was securely stored to protect their privacy. As an Egyptian Muslim woman with cultural and linguistic fluency, I had ease of access and could build rapport quickly with women participants which also facilitated some of the husband\u0026rsquo;s recruitment. Being married with children also created a shared ground of experience with many respondents. However, my privileged socio-economic background, academic standing, Western education, and non-refugee status created positionality gaps between myself and the participants.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eData Analysis\u003c/em\u003e. This study adopts a constructivist epistemological approach (Guba \u0026amp; Lincoln 1994), recognizing that knowledge is co-produced through narrative meaning-making, social interaction, and the researcher\u0026rsquo;s embeddedness in the field. To explore how masculinity and femininity are co-constructed among the respondents, I employed a combined narrative and discourse analysis strategy. Narrative analysis focused on participants\u0026rsquo; life course trajectories and turning points such as displacement, marriage, and divorce and how these were gendered in meaning and significance. I paid close attention to how participants positioned themselves in relation to gendered expectations, particularly through expressions of modesty, virtue, and protection. Discourse analysis helped uncover the broader cultural scripts participants drew on when describing ideal partners, marriage obligations, and gender roles. This included proverbs, repeated framings, and moral vocabularies that shaped the performance and negotiation of gender. In addition to thematic coding, I employed relational coding to trace how masculinity and femininity were described \u003cem\u003ein relation to each other\u003c/em\u003e. Particularly how women\u0026rsquo;s performances of virtue enabled or challenged men\u0026rsquo;s claims to protective masculinity. To enhance rigor, I analyzed transcripts in Arabic, documented coding memos throughout the process, and actively sought out contradictory cases. Translation decisions were carefully considered to preserve cultural nuance and avoid misrepresentation.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eWhy study Arab masculinity through Arab femininity?\u0026nbsp;\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStudying gender in the Arab world requires attentiveness to how global discourses, colonial histories, and local power structures intersect. Western liberal feminist and media representations often reproduce the trope of \u0026ldquo;honor culture,\u0026rdquo; casting Arab men as oppressors and Arab women as passive victims (Abu-Lughod 2002; Razack 2004). This paper resists such reductive binaries by examining how femininities and masculinities are co-constructed within the specific context of refugee-host marriages between Syrian women and Egyptian men where unions are shaped by displacement, inequality, and idealized gendered expectations. Thus, rather than approach masculinity or femininity as fixed attributes, I follow Connell and Messerschmidt\u0026rsquo;s (2005) relational theory of gender, which posits that masculinities and femininities are always defined in relation to each other, and that gender is constructed across four interlinked domains: structural, disciplinary, hegemonic, and interpersonal. This framework is particularly useful in examining marriage as a site where these domains interact, especially when couples come from different national, cultural, and legal backgrounds.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn past sociological and anthropological research on masculinity and femininity in the Middle East, men and women were almost always studied separately or in one another\u0026rsquo;s distant backgrounds, rarely portrayed as parents and children, brothers and sisters, husband and wife, or lovers (Isidoros \u0026amp; Inhorn 2022; Joseph 1993). In this study, I explore how Syrian refugee women and Egyptian men navigate their respective gender roles in ways that are often complementary but also conflictual. These gender performances are shaped by both the legacy of patriarchal norms and the shifting material realities of displacement, poverty, and legal precarity.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eFemininities and masculinities in marriage.\u003c/em\u003e I understand femininity and masculinity as \u0026ldquo;a collective of norms and values that inform behavior expected of women [and men] in their self-representation in various sociocultural contexts\u0026rdquo; (Jaji 2015, 495). In the Arab world, patriarchy has long shaped gendered social expectations, particularly within the institution of marriage. It can be broadly understood as the consolidation of male authority through structures that maintain a division between public and private spheres\u0026mdash;where women are often confined to the home and men dominate public and economic life (Botman 1999).\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eR. W. Connell (1987; 1995) defined hegemonic masculinity as a socially dominant form of masculinity that reinforces gender hierarchy and serves as a strategy for legitimizing and upholding patriarchy in local practices of gender. Such definition reveals the need for socio-economic resources to maintain patriarchy, highlighting a hierarchy that distinguishes different types of masculinity and that not all men can embody hegemonic masculinity, though it is idealized in many patriarchal societies. In the three decades following Connell\u0026rsquo;s work, a handful of important studies have emerged to unpack different forms of Arab masculinities, how they relate to hegemonic masculinity (Inhorn 2012), how they depart from and align with patriarchal norms (Joseph 1999), and how they are shaped by socio-economic factors, including their interaction with Arab femininities (Naguib 2019; Ghannam 2013). Inhorn\u0026rsquo;s (2012) concept of emergent masculinities, for example, highlights how masculinity in the region is being reshaped through economic insecurity, infertility, and war\u0026mdash;underscoring its fluid and responsive nature.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSimilarly, Studies on transnational and intercultural marriages reveal how migration unsettles patriarchal expectations, leading to masculinity crises, emotional dissonance, and dependency on female partners (Charsley \u0026amp; Liversage 2015; Cerchiaro 2020). These dynamics are often navigated through protective masculinities\u0026mdash;a strategic reassertion of masculine authority through roles as guardians and moral anchors\u0026mdash;particularly in contexts of racialization, legal precarity, and shifting power dynamics (Young 2003; Wojnicka 2024; Sowad \u0026amp; Lafrance 2024).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA conceptual and theoretical framework.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003eIn this study, I draw on the concept of protective masculinity\u0026mdash;a form of gender performance in which men assert their identity through the capacity to protect, provide for, and symbolically contain women (Young 2003; Wojnicka 2024). Protection is often framed not only as a physical or financial act but as a moral responsibility tied to masculine self-worth. Unlike frameworks that emphasize dominance, protective masculinity is, I argue, relational, co-co-produced through women\u0026rsquo;s strategic enactment of virtue and men\u0026rsquo;s response to that enactment, within a broader context of displacement, inequality, and shifting gendered power. To analyze this co-construction of gendered roles, I follow Connell and Messerschmidt\u0026rsquo;s (2005) relational gender theory, which argues that masculinities and femininities must be understood in relation to one another across structural, interpersonal, and symbolic domains. In refugee-host marriages, this relational lens is essential: Egyptian men often interpret Syrian women\u0026rsquo;s performances of modesty and deference as affirmations of their masculinity, while women strategically embody these traits, sometimes strategically, to secure stability and respect.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThroughout this study, I opted to use the term virtue rather than honor to conceptualize the gendered moral expectations placed on women. While honor is a commonly invoked term in scholarship on Arab gender relations, I intentionally move away from it due to its heavy entanglement with Orientalist and reductive representations of Arab societies (Abu-Lughod 2002; Razack 2004). Instead, virtue refers to a broader constellation of moral comportment: modesty, restraint, and deference, through which women signal desirability and respectability. This framing allows for greater analytic nuance, showing how virtue is not only socially policed but also strategically embodied by women negotiating displacement, legal precarity, and intimate partnership.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis approach is evident in previous research. In Ghannam\u0026rsquo;s (2013) extensive ethnography studying masculinity in a low-income neighborhood in Egypt\u0026rsquo;s capital Cairo, she traces how women keenly strive to protect their male relatives\u0026rsquo; economic and social vulnerabilities. They contribute to the masculine trajectory by \u0026ldquo;conforming to the social norms that define their responsibilities as dutiful daughters, obedient wives, and respectful sisters\u0026hellip; they instruct their sons, brothers, husbands and male neighbors about the proper way of being a man\u0026rdquo; (Ghannam 2013, 88). \u0026nbsp;Such dynamics are also reflected in cultural media. One respondent urged me to watch Baab al Hara, a Syrian television series that romanticizes antimodern gender ideals. Zaatari (2015) argues that the show reflects nostalgic desires for clear gender roles amidst contemporary political, economic, social and moral upheaval, casting women\u0026rsquo;s obedience and modesty as sources of stability. It illustrates how notions of desirable femininity and masculinity are not timeless, but historically contingent ideals constantly reshaped by social anxieties.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo better understand how gender roles are enacted and recalibrated under conditions of displacement, this study introduces the concept of negotiated femininities. Building on Kandiyoti\u0026rsquo;s (1988) notion of the patriarchal bargain\u0026mdash;which explains how women strategically conform to gendered expectations in exchange for social security\u0026mdash;negotiated femininities extend this framework by attending to contexts of instability, flux, and transnational negotiation. In displacement, social contracts are unsettled, gender norms are blurred, and relationships become provisional. Rather than striking a singular bargain, women must constantly recalibrate their gendered performances in response to changing legal, social, and economic pressures. By foregrounding the interplay between virtue and protection, this study offers a framework for understanding how Arab masculinities and femininities are co-produced, relationally negotiated, and shaped by displacement and social instability.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAnalysis: A Dance of virtue and protection and how Femininity and Masculinity Interweave\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDuring my fieldwork, most women respondents stated that shortly after arriving in Egypt, and regardless of their marital status (divorced, widowed, single mother, or never been married), they had multiple marriage proposals from Egyptian men from different social classes. Informants and respondents characterized many of these marriages as (1) \u003cem\u003eQuick\u003c/em\u003e, taking place within a few weeks or even a few days of the initial proposal; (2) \u003cem\u003ePolygamous\u003c/em\u003e, where the husband already has [at least one] wife and is seeking a second wife; and (3) \u003cem\u003eCustomary\u003c/em\u003e or \u003cem\u003eurfi\u003c/em\u003e, marriages that are limited to the religious ceremony and hence not registered with the state through official paperwork. When I asked the respondents, men, and women, to elaborate on why they thought Egyptian men sought Syrian brides, almost all of them portrayed the same image of the Syrian woman\u0026rsquo;s unique physical beauty and embodiment of desirable femininity, a strong sense of self-care, and a reputation for being good housewives. Some men added, however, that with limited financial resources, they had a better chance of finding a \u0026lsquo;higher quality\u0026rsquo; partner, in terms of social class and intellectual qualities since Syrian refugees would have fewer options to choose from compared to a potential Egyptian partner.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cem\u003eMasculinity and \u0026ldquo;Being A Man\u0026rdquo; Through Protection\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJust like their women counterparts, men face social pressures they must navigate and expectations they are compelled to meet\u0026mdash;particularly within patriarchal systems that link masculine worth to provision and protection. Building on Ghannam\u0026rsquo;s (2013) ethnography, \u0026ldquo;\u003cem\u003eruguula\u003c/em\u003e\u0026rdquo; or masculinity in working-class Cairo is shown not to be limited to sexual prowess, but rather a multidimensional and contingent process. She writes, \u0026ldquo;\u003cem\u003eruguula\u003c/em\u003e is a multidimensional, contextual and contingent process\u0026hellip; strongly linked to good grooming, nice manners, fashionable clothes, skill in navigating the city, assertiveness and courage, the ability to provide for one\u0026rsquo;s family and the knowledge about when to use violence\u0026rdquo; (Ghannam 2013, 24). This framing aligns with Connell\u0026rsquo;s (1987; 1995) concept of hegemonic masculinity as an idealized standard that few men can consistently embody\u0026mdash;especially under conditions of economic insecurity. It also reflects Suad Joseph\u0026rsquo;s (1993; 1999) insight that patriarchal structures in Arab families are held together not just through dominance, but through networks of love, care, and control, a form of patriarchal connectivity that makes power feel protective rather than oppressive.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMasculinity, then, must be performed and reasserted repeatedly across relationships and life events, especially within the conjugal relationship. During my interviews, women consistently judged men\u0026rsquo;s masculinity through their capacity to fulfill their protective roles, their ability to materially provide, socially shield, and emotionally affirm a woman\u0026rsquo;s dignity. For many women facing displacement, marriage is not simply, though not mutually exclusive from being, a romantic endeavor but a route to social and economic resettlement. Mohra, who fled to Egypt after her first husband was killed in the war, illustrates this clearly. Reflecting on her second marriage, she expressed profound frustration with her current husband\u0026rsquo;s failure to fulfill his promise of protection:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026ldquo;When you [referring to her husband] spoke to me before getting married, you told me, \u0026lsquo;You and your children are under my protection\u0026hellip;\u0026rsquo; What does this promise mean? We are your responsibility, and you should provide for us. Since I started applying for all these charities, I cannot accept him anymore. The way I look at him is different [\u0026hellip;] If my first husband were still alive, it would be impossible for him to let me go to these charities. He would rather die. If he ended up begging in the streets, it would have been better for him than putting me in this position.\u0026rdquo;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere, the inability to protect and provide erodes the husband\u0026rsquo;s masculine legitimacy. Mohra\u0026rsquo;s experience exemplifies how Syrian women respondents, shaped by both cultural norms and migration-induced vulnerabilities, evaluate their partners using a moral economy of virtue and protection. These ideals are not static but shaped by lived experiences of precarity, echoing Inhorn\u0026rsquo;s (2012) notion of emergent masculinities: adaptive forms of manhood forged in response to shifting social, economic, and political landscapes.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSimilarly, Suerbaum (2018) found that the separation between public and private spheres remains central to how Syrian refugee men in Egypt interpret gender roles. Many respondents equated masculinity with the ability to keep women out of the public sphere by providing materially. Mohamed\u0026rsquo;s, an Egyptian husband, quote below illustrates \u003cem\u003eone\u003c/em\u003e explanation for the appeal of dividing public and private spheres using the same rationale of protection and provision. It also aligns with Joseph\u0026rsquo;s notion of patriarchal connectivity, which highlights control as an extension of care and intertwined welfare:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026ldquo;First and foremost, it\u0026rsquo;s a sign of protection and respect for the woman. Obeying her husband is a form of protection [\u0026hellip;] When I ask her not to leave the house without letting me know, it\u0026rsquo;s coming out of fear and protection. I should be aware of her location and what she plans to do. Is this place safe? Appropriate? That doesn\u0026rsquo;t mean it should be an absolute \u0026lsquo;no\u0026rsquo; [\u0026hellip;] How will she understand life? Let\u0026rsquo;s say her husband passed away. How will she manage?\u0026rdquo;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMohamed\u0026rsquo;s comment reflects a widely shared belief: that domestic confinement not only grants the man a sense of masculine agency but reassures the woman of her social and moral security. This helps us better understand Mohra\u0026rsquo;s resentment, she is not only frustrated by her husband\u0026rsquo;s unemployment, but by the social exposure and humiliation she incurs when she must assume public-facing, provider roles.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCrucially, it is not only men who uphold this gendered expectation. Many of the Syrian wives and Egyptian husband interlocutors revealed how women themselves internalize the idea that men offer more than financial support, they offer social and symbolic protection (Botman 1999). Ghalya, a middle-aged Syrian woman, reflected on this after leaving her abusive husband:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026ldquo;When we arrived in Egypt, he was still reliant on me. When he left, I was relieved\u0026hellip; but at least there was a man figure in the house. When the man leaves, people start to gaze at you [\u0026hellip;] I was relieved financially, and from the fact that I had to support him, but at the same time, in front of society, when there is a man, no one will bother you. Shadow of a man is better than a shadow of a wall.\u0026rdquo;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis well-known proverb \u003cem\u003edell ragil wala dell heta\u003c/em\u003e [shadow of a man is better than a shadow of a wall] captures the symbolic capital of masculinity. It adds richer layers to the meaning of masculine providing and protection economically as well as socially. Note that the proverb talks about a \u0026ldquo;shadow\u0026rdquo; of a man, not simply a man implying the need to have a symbol of masculinity around as a social precaution even if he is not fulfilling his masculine duties. The women respondents whose situation was further aggravated by their social uprooting and displacement were alert to the perks of seeking and aligning with this kind of masculinity facade to carve for themselves a meaningful resettlement experience. This symbolic protection becomes even more pronounced, forming part of a broader patriarchal bargain (Kandiyoti 1988) through which women seek security by aligning themselves with masculine authority, even when it fails them materially or emotionally. In this sense, masculinity in these refugee-host marriages is both relational and performative, shaped by women\u0026rsquo;s expectations, societal norms, and men\u0026rsquo;s capacity to deliver symbolic and material forms of protection.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cem\u003eFemininity through holding up virtue and domesticity\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMany of the men and women interviewed emphasized that the essence of masculinity lies in a man\u0026rsquo;s ability to protect and provide. In turn, women were expected to reciprocate by maintaining a virtuous public image\u0026mdash;signaled through modesty, deference, and the performance of culturally desirable femininity. These traits were often described in terms of minute bodily comportments and interactions, such as avoiding loud laughter or direct communication with unrelated men in public spaces (Botman 1999, 108). Naziha, a woman in her mid-forties, articulated this gendered expectation while recounting her first encounter with her Egyptian husband during a visit to view an apartment for rent:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026quot;Our nature [as Syrian women] is that we do not joke with men. Everything we do has to be with respect. So, when I entered the place, I told him I had made \u003cem\u003eistikhara\u003c/em\u003e [a religious prayer before making a decision]. Later he told me that in his head he was thinking: \u0026lsquo;What a woman! She entered the apartment and didn\u0026rsquo;t even glimpse at me. Her husband must be a lucky man.\u0026rsquo;\u0026quot;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor Naziha, this performance of modesty and religious propriety was central to being seen as a virtuous woman\u0026mdash;and was ultimately what drew her future husband to her. In her view, ideal femininity was embodied in modest behavior, quietness, and sexual restraint, all of which signaled moral worth and deservingness of male protection.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThroughout the interviews, both male and female respondents invoked a stereotypical image of the Egyptian woman as aggressive, loud, overly independent, and disinterested in domestic responsibilities. This portrayal\u0026mdash;widespread in Egyptian popular culture and television since the early twentieth century (Kholoussy 2010)\u0026mdash;functioned as a foil to the perceived docility and virtue of Syrian women. Many respondents cited these stereotypes as central to their motivation for marriage, often articulating their attraction to, and justification for, a Syrian partner through the perceived lack of \u0026ldquo;true femininity\u0026rdquo; among Egyptian women.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTarek, a financially secure Egyptian man married to a Syrian woman in a polygynous arrangement, exemplified these views. In an interview marked by fragmented and contradictory reflections, he expressed frustration with his first Egyptian wife, who vehemently opposed his second marriage and restricted his access to their shared home. He contrasted her resistance with what he described as the more \u0026ldquo;intelligent\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;confident\u0026rdquo; strength of Syrian women, whom he saw as practicing a softer, more agreeable form of femininity:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA strong woman isn\u0026rsquo;t really a woman. Meaning when she is strong and in control, \u0026ldquo;acting like seven men in one\u0026rdquo; [a proverb that is not gender specific to denote someone who is displaying exaggerated, unencouraged, and uninvited courage and aggression], there is no woman here. Weakness is the woman\u0026apos;s femininity. Don\u0026rsquo;t you think that this is a disadvantage\u0026hellip; weakness here doesn\u0026rsquo;t mean lack of will, rather it\u0026rsquo;s when she falls in her husband\u0026rsquo;s arms in surrender, there\u0026rsquo;s tenderness, a sense of affection, and a feeling of her husband\u0026rsquo;s strength. All of this makes her feel safe. A husband\u0026rsquo;s strength doesn\u0026rsquo;t mean oppression and coercion. His strength is in his ability to protect, to provide for her and to keep dangers at bay. It\u0026rsquo;s his ability to contain her and provide her with backbone [support]. It\u0026rsquo;s like the feeling of having a father [\u0026hellip;] so it\u0026rsquo;s not wise for a woman to break her husband. Many women break their husbands and humiliate them even in public. Women in genera if they grow too strong, they lose their femininity. If a man breaks [meaning be humiliated and threatened by his wife\u0026rsquo;s excessive aggressiveness] he loses his masculinity. \u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlthough his language was fragmented, Tarek\u0026rsquo;s comments reflect a deeply rooted anxiety around male authority, heightened by the instability and negotiation required in polygamous unions. His remarks demonstrate how masculinity is experienced as contingent\u0026mdash;dependent on women\u0026rsquo;s performances of deference and vulnerability.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eImportantly, these ideals were not confined to conservative or lower-income respondents. Tarek\u0026rsquo;s wife, for instance, did not wear the hijab and presented as a socialite, yet his framing of femininity remained tied to nurturing his masculine self-image. Hamdy, a working-class man whose wife wears a niqab [face cover], similarly viewed traditional gender roles as essential. He described his wife\u0026rsquo;s refusal to let him help with even basic domestic tasks as a sign of respect and proper gender order. He opposed women\u0026rsquo;s work outside the home\u0026mdash;not only because it burdened women but because it risked undermining men\u0026rsquo;s protective role. Ahmed, another respondent from a low income neighborhood, offered a more ambivalent view. While he admired Egyptian women\u0026rsquo;s ability to navigate public life and defend themselves from harassment, he worried that financial independence weakened marital bonds and subverted traditional gender roles:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026ldquo;This independence thing messed things up. When a woman can go out and work, she starts thinking, \u0026lsquo;I don\u0026rsquo;t need you.\u0026rsquo; She\u0026rsquo;ll say, \u0026lsquo;What are you going to do? I work too. And if we get divorced, the court gives me the apartment.\u0026rsquo; One woman told me that after just one month of marriage\u0026mdash;no kids! She said, \u0026lsquo;I have a right in this apartment.\u0026rsquo; She had no right! But that\u0026rsquo;s what the culture taught her.\u0026rdquo;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor Ahmed, female independence challenged the very foundation of masculine worth. If a woman does not \u0026ldquo;need\u0026rdquo; a man, what space remains for his role as protector? His comments highlight how economic and legal shifts, coupled with cultural expectations, fuel masculine anxieties and intensify patriarchal gatekeeping in marriage.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlongside modesty and deference in public, another critical component of feminine virtue was domesticity. Many respondents described the Syrian wife as \u0026ldquo;the queen of her kingdom,\u0026rdquo; a woman who keeps an immaculate home, is always well-groomed, and shows unwavering respect to her husband. Galaa, a 60-year-old Syrian woman engaged to an Egyptian man, explained:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026ldquo;The Syrian woman has everything: politeness, respect for the man, care for the home and children. We don\u0026rsquo;t rely on housemaids. We do the work ourselves. She is the full package\u0026mdash;everything a man wants.\u0026rdquo;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis narrative was echoed by Hamdy above, who proudly shared that his wife never allowed him to lift a finger in the house, claiming her domestic labor as central to her identity as \u0026ldquo;the woman of the house.\u0026rdquo; For some women, these performances of ideal femininity reflected internalized norms or a coping strategy in displacement. For others, such enactments were strategic\u0026mdash;positioning a brand of Syrian femininity in contrast to Egyptian femininity to maximize desirability, stability, and control amidst uprooting. I discuss in the final section how such opposition was strategic in many cases. Nevertheless, in all cases, these narratives illustrate how femininity was not only policed and idealized but also co-produced with masculinity, reinforcing men\u0026rsquo;s sense of purpose, authority, and worth. The mutual reinforcement of these gender performances\u0026mdash;often under conditions of legal precarity and social instability\u0026mdash;sheds light on how patriarchal bargains are continuously negotiated in refugee-host marriages.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cem\u003eEgyptian (protective) masculinity meets (negotiated) Syrian femininity\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSafaa commenced our interview half-joking that she was waiting for the war in Syria to happen so that she could leave her abusive Syrian husband and move to Egypt to find an Egyptian husband. Safaa told me that her impression of Egyptian husbands is that they are \u0026ldquo;oppressed\u0026rdquo;, especially compared to Syrian husbands:\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI: What did you hear about the Egyptian husband?\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eR: That he is oppressed! Forgive me [laughing]. Oppressed by his wife. So put an oppressed man with an oppressed woman, and they would be comfortable together. In general, the Syrian woman will be oppressed by a (Syrian) man who is not warm and compassionate\u0026hellip; the Syrian man doesn\u0026rsquo;t have any gentleness.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis harmonized and serendipitous union described by Safaa was challenged by many other Syrian respondents, nevertheless. Naziha, above who was married to an Egyptian man five years younger than her, was often involved in a power struggle with him, citing his responsibility to provide as a man, to the extent that she kicked him out of the house until he complied with her requests and paid the house rent:\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe wouldn\u0026rsquo;t pay the rent, for one month, two months, so I did not allow him in the apartment. I told him, \u0026ldquo;You are not allowed in an apartment that you do not pay its rent\u0026rdquo; I even called the sheikh and asked him to inform him [the husband] that I want a divorce. If he is not carrying the burden with me, I do not want him [\u0026hellip;]. For three months, I have been calling for a divorce, and he is sitting by the stairs in front of my apartment.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat was ironically the same Naziha who expressed that she had remained obedient, patient, and hopeful back in Syria for over a decade that her first husband would leave his second wife and return to his original home. Previous research discusses how displacement has had mixed effects on alleviating some social structures and adding some others offering some refugee women corridors of strategic agency (Culcasi 2019; Taha 2024; Tobin 2020). It is plausible that Naziha\u0026rsquo;s age and experience of both displacement and previous marriage enabled her to challenge social structure, worry less about social stigma, and behave in such a way.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOther respondents had different approaches that utilized strategic conformity, such as Ghalya, who had a more vested interest in her current marriage with an Egyptian husband, expressing emotional affection and dependence between the two of them. She explained that she often gets what she wants through indirect ways and maybe even through patronizing her husband:\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe is the man, and we cannot change him. I need to preserve his manhood. I have to find ways to appease him. Not simply to get what I want, but for life to go on. Look, a man is like a child. You do not need to punch him or fight with him to get what you. He is like a baby.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eContrasting cases such as Safaa, Naziha and Ghalya, one can trace multiple ways of embodying femininity alluding to a strategic performance of femininity in ways that maximize their gains. In other words, those women strategically adopted different expressions of femininity in different contexts, what I refer to as negotiated femininities which I elaborate on in the discussion.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Discussion","content":"\u003cp\u003eWhile many quotes in this study illustrate men\u0026rsquo;s and women\u0026rsquo;s preference for a form of idealized hegemonic masculinity associated with economic provision and public presence (Connell, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR12\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1995\u003c/span\u003e), the analysis demonstrates that masculinity is also relationally negotiated and earned, relying on symbolic protection, emotional labor, and gendered performances of vulnerability. Furthermore, the anxieties that can be sensed in Egyptian men regarding women's independence, particularly their economic autonomy and assertiveness, illustrate how masculinity is continuously reconstructed in reaction to evolving femininities. As men navigate pressures of provision and protection, they recalibrate their masculine identity by seeking partnerships that reinforce traditional gender roles, thereby shaping emergent masculinities (Inhorn \u003cspan citationid=\"CR25\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2012\u003c/span\u003e) and forms of protective masculinity (Wojnicka \u003cspan citationid=\"CR47\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e; Sowad \u0026amp; Lafrance \u003cspan citationid=\"CR39\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e) as strategic responses to socio-economic and cultural insecurities.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe expectation that men must protect and provide while women must preserve virtue: a concept I employ in place of \u0026ldquo;honor\u0026rdquo; to move beyond reductive and Orientalist tropes, reflects a broader gender contract rooted in modesty, respectability, and relational selfhood. I define virtue as a gendered moral ideal performed through comportment, deference, and self-restraint, but also reinterpreted as adaptability, social intelligence, and strategic negotiation. This reframing captures the ways Syrian women in this study maintained respectability while navigating displacement and securing stability without reducing them to passive bearers of honor or fixed ideals of modesty.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWomen\u0026rsquo;s behaviors\u0026mdash;such as avoiding direct eye contact, maintaining physical and social distance from men, and reinforcing deference to male authority, are not just individual choices but part of a broader system in which gendered identities are relationally, rather than rigidly, forged. Naziha\u0026rsquo;s decision to evict her husband over his failure to pay rent is not one of relational interdependence but of assertive femininity and conditional partnership. Importantly, what her case illustrates is that displacement can sometimes offer women a form of liberation from the social surveillance and normative expectations that once constrained them. Uprooted from communities where relatives and neighbors could monitor and judge their behavior, some displaced women\u0026mdash;particularly those with prior marital experience\u0026mdash;gain the latitude to assert new boundaries and challenge men\u0026rsquo;s authority. Even as they maintain a public image of modesty or propriety to preserve symbolic and moral capital, they often exercise agency in more assertive and strategic ways within the private sphere. In such moments, virtue becomes less a reinforcement of male dominance and more a mechanism for asserting leverage and legitimacy.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith the narratives of Safaa, Naziha, and Ghalya as a backdrop, it is crucial to challenge the reduction of femininity, especially in refugee contexts, to passivity or victimhood. Jaji (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR27\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e), in her study of refugee communities in Kenya, demonstrates that \u0026ldquo;femininity is a constraint in some instances and a resource in others\u0026rdquo; (p. 242). She identifies three forms of femininity: normative, agitated, and rebellious, shaped by marital status and economic circumstances. Similarly, my findings reveal the enactment of what I term negotiated femininities: strategic, context-sensitive shifts in feminine performance that maximize social capital, security, and adaptability in fluid or unstable environments.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis concept builds on Kandiyoti\u0026rsquo;s (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR30\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1988\u003c/span\u003e) argument of the patriarchal bargain, which explains how women strategically conform to gendered expectations in exchange for protection, legitimacy, or resources. However, while the patriarchal bargain presumes a relatively stable social contract, negotiated femininities speak to the uncertainty, fragmentation, and flux that characterize displacement. In refugee-host marriages, social norms are imported, disrupted, and reconstituted. Women are not merely entering known patriarchal contracts; they are constantly recalibrating their gender performances\u0026mdash;sometimes reinforcing, sometimes contesting, and often tactically navigating shifting conditions of power and legitimacy. This negotiation does not necessarily aim to subvert patriarchy outright, but rather to manage it, reposition within it, and extract value from its contradictions.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNegotiated femininities thus help illuminate the relational construction of emergent and protective masculinities, showing how masculinity is not only shaped by men\u0026rsquo;s actions but also by women\u0026rsquo;s performances. These femininities are often enacted to preserve household stability or social legitimacy, but they also provide women with tools to exert influence, set conditions, or assert personhood. The refugee-host marriage dynamic, in particular, amplifies this interplay, as displaced Syrian women and lower-middle-class Egyptian men bring different expectations, vulnerabilities, and aspirations into the relationship. Syrian women seek security and legitimacy; Egyptian men seek enhanced masculine status and admiration through alignment with stereotypical ideals of femininity. In turn, both negotiate gender roles dynamically\u0026mdash;reworking the terms of provision, protection, and virtue in contextually specific ways.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this light, the dance of virtue and protection serves as a metaphor for the gender dynamics unfolding within refugee-host marriages: a rhythmic interplay in which roles are not simply reproduced but tactically recalibrated. This metaphor captures a normatively idealized division of labor\u0026mdash;men as protectors and women as virtuous caretakers, that is continually adjusted in response to displacement, legal precarity, and economic instability. In this context, virtue becomes a form of soft power and moral capital that women deploy\u0026mdash;subtly or overtly\u0026mdash;to assert personhood, preserve marital stability, and navigate structural vulnerability. Meanwhile, protection is not solely an expression of patriarchal control but also a relational and often aspirational performance of care, moral leadership, and social legitimacy.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen I mentioned to Safaa that she seemed to have a strong and outspoken personality, she was quick to clarify that she does not behave this way in front of her husband; rather, she is calm, patient, and composed around him. Safaa thus provides a compelling example of negotiated femininity, underscoring the agile interplay between femininity and masculinity explored in this paper. Her defiance of norms is evident as she runs her own business to support her children while refusing to perceive her husband as less masculine due to financial reasons. At the same time, she acknowledges her role as a dutiful wife, strategically protecting the male figure\u0026rsquo;s economic and social vulnerabilities. She prioritizes their mutual interests while maintaining cultural expectations that uphold certain gender roles. While recognizing differences in Egyptian marital dynamics, she carefully adheres to Syrian cultural norms, avoiding direct conflicts with her husband and fulfilling his \u0026ldquo;young age dream\u0026rdquo; of marrying a Syrian woman. In doing so, she skillfully negotiates femininity to maintain harmony in her heteronormative relationship, viewing normative performance not as a limitation but as a method for navigating patriarchy, retaining agency, and sustaining the careful choreography of virtue and protection.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Conclusion","content":"\u003cp\u003eThis paper has sought to deepen our understanding of feminine and masculine performance dynamics in the context of Syrian-Egyptian refugee-host marriages. It underscores that gender is not a static binary but a relational and adaptive performance negotiated within the constraints and opportunities of displacement, class, and patriarchy. The analysis reveals that masculinity, while often rooted in ideals of provision and protection, is co-constructed through women\u0026rsquo;s performances of virtue\u0026mdash;anchored in modesty, patience, and strategic restraint. The analysis reveals that masculinity, while often idealized through roles of provision and protection, is co-constructed through women\u0026rsquo;s gendered performances\u0026mdash;particularly through what I term negotiated femininities alluding to a context-sensitive and strategic ways in which women perform modesty, deference, or assertiveness to secure respectability, protection, and leverage within gendered hierarchies.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo key conclusions emerge. First, refugee women\u0026rsquo;s experiences are shaped not only by structural displacement but also by relational negotiations of power within the intimate sphere of marriage. These negotiations reflect agency that is neither purely subversive nor entirely conformist, but strategic and situated. Second, Syrian-Egyptian marriages represent a form of gendered self-resettlement, where both parties seek to restore dignity, status, and stability through performances of gender that reflect both aspiration and constraint. The metaphor of a dance of virtue and protection captures this dynamic well: a rhythmic, often improvisational interplay where both partners adjust their roles to meet emotional, cultural, and material needs. In doing so, they do not simply replicate patriarchal structures but navigate them tactically, creating space for belonging, legitimacy, and identity reconstruction amid the uncertainty of forced migration.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBy bringing together insights from Arab gender studies, refugee research, and relational theories of masculinity and femininity, this paper contributes to a more nuanced understanding of gendered subjectivities in displacement. It calls for further research into how gender roles are not only shaped by state policy or cultural tradition, but also negotiated within everyday practices of marriage, care, and survival.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003ch2\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFunding Declaration\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis research was supported by the Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program (Canada) and the Humanitarian Response Network of Canada. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHuman Ethics and consent to participate\u003c/strong\u003e:\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis study was approved by the Human Participants Review Sub-Committee, York University\u0026rsquo;s Ethics Review Board, and conforms to the Canadian Tri-Council Research Ethics guidelines. Approval number: STU 2017-044. All participants provided informed consent prior to participating in the study. Consent forms were available in both Arabic and English. Participation was voluntary, and participants were informed of their right to withdraw at any time. All names used are pseudonyms to ensure confidentiality.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eCompeting interests\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe author declares that there are no competing interests.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eAuthor Contribution\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a single author submission. All conceptualization, data collection, analysis and reporting were conducted by the author.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eAcknowledgement\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe author gratefully acknowledges the time, trust, and insights shared by the participants of this study. Special thanks to Chris Kyriakides, Jennifer Hyndman, Katherine Bischoping, and Ismail Nashef for their valuable feedback and guidance throughout the development of this work. Open Access publication of this article was made possible through funding provided by the Qatar National Library (QNL) and the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies (DI).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eAvailability of data and materials\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. The data are not publicly available due to the sensitive nature of interview content and the need to protect participant confidentiality.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eAuthors\u0026apos; information\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003eremoved for anonymity.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAbu Lughod, Lila. 2002. \u0026quot;Do Muslim women really need saving? 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In Cairo, desperate Egyptian men search in vain for Syrian brides | McClatchy Washington Bureau (mcclatchydc.com) \u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eZaatari, Zeina. \u0026quot;Desirable masculinity/femininity and nostalgia of the \u0026ldquo;anti-modern\u0026rdquo;: Bab el-Hara television series as a site of production.\u0026quot; Sexuality \u0026amp; Culture 19 (2015): 16-36. \u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"host, refugee, marriage, gender, masculinity, femininity, Arab, Egypt, Syria, honor","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7190268/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7190268/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThis article examines how gender identities are relationally constructed and strategically negotiated in marriages between Syrian refugee women and Egyptian men in Egypt. Based on in-depth interviews with 33 women and 9 men, the study explores how uprooting, legal precarity, and social asymmetries shape performances of idealized masculinity and femininity. It introduces the concept of negotiated femininities to describe how displaced women navigate structural vulnerability through context-sensitive gender performances, while men enact protective masculinities centered on provision and moral authority. Though Syrian women are idealized for their perceived docility and domesticity, their narratives expose tensions that both challenge and affirm ideals of hegemonic masculinity. Framed as a \u0026ldquo;dance of virtue and protection,\u0026rdquo; the paper contributes to debates on Arab masculinities, refugee-host relations, and the gendered politics of displacement, highlighting marriage as a site of complex negotiation, reciprocal gender role formation, and ap pathway for self-resettlement.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"A Dance of Virtue and Protection: A Qualitative Exploration of Femininity and Masculinity Negotiations in Syrian-Egyptian Refugee-Host Marriages","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-08-07 11:57:18","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7190268/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"511ddca2-7832-4de1-aeb7-ee42e680e0ac","owner":[],"postedDate":"August 7th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-12-22T16:08:52+00:00","versionOfRecord":{"articleIdentity":"rs-7190268","link":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-025-00518-z","journal":{"identity":"comparative-migration-studies","isVorOnly":false,"title":"Comparative Migration Studies"},"publishedOn":"2025-12-16 15:58:10","publishedOnDateReadable":"December 16th, 2025"},"versionCreatedAt":"2025-08-07 11:57:18","video":"","vorDoi":"10.1186/s40878-025-00518-z","vorDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-025-00518-z","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7190268","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7190268","identity":"rs-7190268","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}