<i>“I tell them to have Sumud, have Sabr, for your children, for yourself”</i>
                    : Culturally informed resilience and humanitarian gaps among Syrian refugee women in Greece

doi:10.1177/17455057261473454

DOI: 10.1177/17455057261473454 ISSN: 1745-5057

“I tell them to have Sumud, have Sabr, for your children, for yourself” : Culturally informed resilience and humanitarian gaps among Syrian refugee women in Greece

Karen Youssef, Gulnaz Anjum, Halina Grzymała-Moszczyńska

Background

The journey in exile for Syrian refugee women is filled with constant uncertainties as they balance motherhood, grief, trauma, discrimination, and prolonged asylum procedures. While humanitarian organizations repeatedly rely on “resilience” frameworks, our work focuses on Syrian communities’ native language, history, lived realities, and cultural idioms such as Sumud (steadfastness) and Sabr (patience).

Objective

This study explores how Syrian refugee mothers living in Lesvos define, practice, and transmit resilience to their children throughout their journey, and examines the extent to which NGO interventions align with their culturally informed understandings of resilience.

Methods

Eight Syrian refugee women residing in Kara Tepe camp participated in semi-structured interviews conducted in Arabic. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis within an interpretivist and decolonial framework, emphasizing women’s own voice, language, and narrative.

Results

Four overarching themes appeared. (1) Becoming Through Sabr showed that women described their resilience primarily through Sabr; a cultural and spiritual form of patient endurance. Resilience was both a necessity and a way of reclaiming autonomy. (2) Roots without Soil captured how motherhood constantly transforms in exile as many become solo mothers. Intergenerational resilience was marked by storytelling, future promises, and spiritual reassurance. (3) The Paradox of Sanctuary reflected the dire conditions they faced along their journey and the contradiction between the promised haven and the reality of “sanctuary”. (4) NGO Support and Gaps demonstrated that women appreciate kind treatment, yet significant gaps still persisted in addressing ecological needs, cultural and gender-specific adaptations, and structural alignment.

Conclusion

Resilience for Syrian mothers was embodied through Sabr, maternal responsibility, family bonds, and communal solidarity. Their narratives call for humanitarian interventions co-created with the community and that address the gap between humanitarian policy and on-the-ground implementation.