- University News Archive - 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock /news-archive/tag/syria/ 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Sun, 08 Sep 2019 13:33:06 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Downtown celebrates Arkansas Peace Week with Perceptions of Justice lecture /news-archive/2019/09/08/perceptions-of-justice/ Sun, 08 Sep 2019 13:33:06 +0000 /news/?p=74963 ... 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Downtown celebrates Arkansas Peace Week with Perceptions of Justice lecture]]> A University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor will discuss perceptions of justice among Syrians in an upcoming lecture to celebrate Arkansas Peace Week.聽 Dr. Eric Wiebelhaus-Brahm, associate professor and Middle Eastern Studies coordinator, will deliver the lecture at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 19, at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Downtown, 333 President Clinton Ave. 鈥淧erceptions of Justice, Connections to Home Among the Syrian Diaspora鈥 will explore the complexity of how individuals鈥 living conditions shape their demands for justice. 鈥淭here is variation in what justice means to different people,鈥 Wiebelhaus-Brahm said. 鈥淲hile this is true for humanity as a whole, Syrians鈥 views depend a lot on the relative precariousness of their situation. In the wake of the Syrian government鈥檚 brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011, and the civil war atrocities that ensued, Syrians have diverse views about what would be a just response to the violence.鈥 For the past five years, Wiebelhaus-Brahm鈥檚 research has examined perspectives among Syrian activists. This new project compares those views with refugees and internally displaced persons.聽 As part of the Middle Eastern Studies Program鈥檚 mission to advance understanding of the Middle East among Arkansans, Wiebelhaus-Brahm aims to draw attention to Syrians and other victims of human rights violations who deserve to have their justice demands heard. Wiebelhaus-Brahm studies transitional justice, meaning how societies wrestle with histories of violence and repression and the politics surrounding justice for past atrocities. Other recent research supported by the program include studies of Middle Eastern immigrants in Brazil and attitudes about safety among immigrants from the Middle East in Arkansas. Wiebelhaus-Brahm鈥檚 lecture coincides with , in which community organizations across the state draw attention to peace and social justice issues. For more information, contact Wiebelhaus-Brahm at ejwiebelhaus@ualr.edu.听听]]> 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock professor investigates Syrians鈥 pursuit of peace and justice in the midst of war /news-archive/2018/06/12/syrian-civil-war/ Tue, 12 Jun 2018 14:53:53 +0000 /news/?p=70742 ... 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock professor investigates Syrians鈥 pursuit of peace and justice in the midst of war]]> A University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor visited Syrian refugees and activists in Turkey and Lebanon in May in the last of four trips to war-affected countries by an 18-member international research team investigating how peace can be achieved in societies emerging from conflict.聽 Eric Wiebelhaus-Brahm, assistant professor in the 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock, traveled to the region as part of the. Due to the unresolved state of war in some areas of Syria, the group was unable to meet in Syria as they originally hoped. Before the Syrian Civil War began in 2011, the country had an estimated prewar population of 22 million. The United Nations Human Rights Council estimates that 5.6 million Syrians are now living as refugees in foreign countries. The countries that house the most refugees are Turkey with more than 3.5 million refugees and Lebanon with nearly 1 million refugees. 鈥淭he goal of this trip was to meet with Syrian refugees and activists as well as other people working with the United Nations and non-government organizations,鈥 Wiebelhaus-Brahm said. 鈥淲e sought to examine how the world can hold people accountable for mass atrocities while simultaneously building peace and providing justice for victims who have suffered as a result of the war. Circumstances on the ground make this especially challenging. There are some parts of the country where there is peace because Assad鈥檚 government has imposed order. Elsewhere, there are many communities in rebel-held territory where local councils have been set up to provide order because the state doesn鈥檛 exist.鈥 The international team investigated some of the major barriers to recovery and development in Syria, including rebuilding homes and infrastructure and educating displaced children and youth. 鈥淭o rebuild the damage that has been done to Syria will take billions of dollars for 聽infrastructure that is no longer there. When it comes to education and health, many facilities have been destroyed. In some areas, Assad鈥檚 forces purposely targeted schools and hospitals,鈥 Wiebelhaus-Brahm said. 鈥淲ith education, for example, you have thousands of children who have missed out on years of schooling. That is going to have long-term development consequences for the country. When it comes to land, there are also issues where property ownership may not be clear, where people may not have clear titles to their property.鈥 The conflict will also have major consequences for women, especially those who have become the sole providers for their families due to the loss of their husbands and other male relatives through war, imprisonment, or displacement. 鈥淚t鈥檚 more likely that it will be men who will go out to fight. It鈥檚 also the case that, when the government is trying to clamp down on opponents, it will typically be males,鈥 Wiebelhaus-Brahm said. 鈥淭here are thousands of people who are political prisoners in Syrian jails. Their absence has consequences for the families. The male is typically the breadwinner in the family, so how does that family survive?鈥 In an article titled Martin Clutterbuck of the Norwegian Refugee Council described the challenges women in Syria face in asserting their property rights. 鈥淚n Syria, as in many other countries, laws, norms and practices around ownership, inheritance and decision favour men,鈥 Clutterbuck said. 鈥淔or example, a woman鈥檚 registered legal identity in the Syrian civil registration system both prior to the conflict and today is linked to that of her husband or father, and women often relinquish their inheritance rights to a male family member.鈥
Photo of the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon, provided by Eric Wiebelhaus-Brahm.

Photo of the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon, provided by Eric Wiebelhaus-Brahm.

The high point of the trip for Wiebelhaus-Brahm was a trip to the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon. The refugee camp was originally set up by the International Committee of the Red Cross for Palestinian refugees in 1949. It remains home to thousands of Palestinian refugees. Since the start of the Syrian Civil War, the camp has swollen in size and become the home to thousands of Syrian refugees as well. The refugee camp is unique in that it has permanent structures because it has been around so long. However, the camp does not have water or sewer infrastructure. Electricity comes from generators. The camp, which is one square kilometer in size, houses one community center and two schools. 鈥淲e went to the Shatila refugee camp, which was an amazing experience,鈥 he said. 鈥淭here continues to be roughly 20,000 Palestinians living in the area, and there are also 20,000-25,000 Syrian refugees that have come over the past seven years. The Lebanese government hopes the refugees will return home eventually, which is why they have not created the infrastructure for the camp. That is not unique. Countries don鈥檛 want to make refugees feel too welcome because they don鈥檛 want them to stay. It鈥檚 a difficult situation.鈥 The research team met with Basmeh and Zeitooneh, a Syrian non-governmental organization working with the refugees. They provide skills training, life skills, and training in literacy, English, and how to use computers and social media, among other services. 鈥淭he Syrian refugees seemed very happy and grateful for that support, but they want to get back home,鈥 he said. Wiebelhaus-Brahm said many of the refugees were reluctant to talk to researchers because they feared that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad鈥檚 regime would eventually find out that they had spoken out against the Syrian government. 鈥淭here is this belief among Syrians that the intelligence arm of the al-Assad regime is long. If these people want to go back home, they may need to reconcile themselves to the fact the government may win the war. If they want to go back to Syria to live and work, being on record as a critic or even being suspected is dangerous.鈥 The goal of the is to understand how peace can be achieved in countries affected by conflict through the study of justice initiatives and economic development in four countries: Colombia, Sri Lanka, Syria, and Uganda. The trip to Syria was the last of four planned visits. The network visited Colombia in April 2017, Uganda in July 2017, and Sri Lanka in January 2018. The project is headed by Kirsten Ainley, director of the at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Additional members of the network include professors from around the world, government officials, and members of nonprofit and activist organizations. The project is funded by the, which awarded the network a grant in 2016 worth approximately 150,000 British pounds, largely to develop relationships that bridge academics and practitioners from developed and developing countries and to fund travel for members of the network to research the four countries. The network recently submitted a larger grant to continue its research in additional countries.]]> 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock sends Letters of Hope to Syria /news-archive/2017/11/21/letters-hope-syria/ Tue, 21 Nov 2017 14:18:06 +0000 /news/?p=68613 ... 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock sends Letters of Hope to Syria]]> For sisters Taibah and Maisarah Alnadawi, having the opportunity to write letters of hope to the people of Syria was a small way to give back to the country that used to be their home.聽 鈥淚t means a lot that we can help in some way even though we are not there,鈥 said Taibah Alnadawi, a freshman double majoring in political science and international business. 鈥淚 spent most of my childhood in Syria. I still have family living there.鈥 University of Arkansas at Little Rock students, staff, and faculty wrote 鈥淟etters of Hope for Syria鈥 on Monday, Nov. 13, as part of International Celebration Week. The letters will be delivered to Syria by the, a Conway-based nonprofit organization that provides humanitarian aid to the people of Syria and sponsor a school and women鈥檚 center. Monnar Quattom, junior psychology major and president of the Student Muslim Association, was inspired to organize the letter-writing event after hearing Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, speak about his humanitarian efforts to help people in Syria during a Sept. 19 visit to 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock. 鈥淚 wanted 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock to get involved,鈥 Quattom said. 鈥淚 want the people of Syria to know that the U.S. is not abandoning them. We have people everyday who are praying for this war to end.鈥 In her letter, Ashley Pearson, recruitment coordinator with the Office of Admissions, told the Syrian people that they are in her thoughts and prayers and to be hopeful for the future. 鈥淚 enjoy working with international students, and I think this is a great project to show unity and to give hope to the Syrian people,鈥 Pearson said. The Alnadawi sisters left Syria in 2009, but visited Syria in summer 2016. 鈥淓verything is pretty much destroyed, but there are still people living there trying to rebuild everything destroyed by the war,鈥 Taibah Alnadawi said. 鈥淎ll you see are ruined buildings. It basically looks like a desert now.鈥 In her letter to the Syrian people, Taibah Alnadawi encourages them to have patience. 鈥淚鈥檓 telling them that they will be fine as long as we show our support,鈥 she said. 鈥淲e are here for them, and we are sending as much love as we can.鈥 Meanwhile, her sister, Maisarah Alnadawi, junior engineering major, writes wishes of safety and peace for the people of Syria. 鈥淚 told them to stay safe out there and that I hope they have peace soon and that we are always there for them,鈥 she said. In the upper right photo,聽University of Arkansas at Little Rock students write Letters of Hope to Syria as part of International Celebration Week. Photo by Brittany Wright.]]>