Prolonging the Temporary: Female-Headed Syrian Refugee Households on Displacement, Return and Waiting post-Assad

Abstract This study explores the migration decisions and lived experiences of female-headed Syrian refugee households in Lebanon amid evolving political conditions following the fall of the Assad regime in 2024. Drawing on 50 in-depth interviews, it investigates how caregiving responsibilities, gender-based vulnerabilities, and the enduring threat of patriarchal violence shape these women’s reluctance to return to Syria and their aspirations for resettlement in Europe. While Lebanon offers relative freedoms, it remains a site of profound precarity, forcing women into protracted states of waiting. Anchored in feminist theory, intersectionality, and the aspirations-capabilities framework, this article reframes displacement as a gendered and strategic negotiation rather than passive victimhood. These women, navigating abandonment, statelessness, and systemic exclusion, emerge as agents of resilience – resisting reductive narratives and asserting autonomy through deliberate choices. The study calls for gender-responsive refugee policies that centre the specific needs, risks, and aspirations of female-headed households in protracted displacement contexts.