Early Marriage and Barriers to Contraception among Syrian Refugee Women in Lebanon: A Qualitative Study.

Zeinab Cherri,Jose Rodriguez-Llanes,Julita Gil Cuesta,Debarati Guha-Sapir

doi:10.3390/ijerph14080836

Abstract

The Syrian conflict has displaced five million individuals outside their country with Lebanon hosting the largest numbers per capita. Around 24% of Syrian refugees fleeing to Lebanon are women of reproductive age (15–49). Yet, a better understanding of the sexual and reproductive health needs of Syrian refugee women in Lebanon is required to improve provided services. Eleven focus group discussions were conducted in four regions of Lebanon with 108 Syrian refugee women of reproductive age. Thematic analysis was used to examine the data. Interviewed women were mainly adults. They believed that, in Lebanon, they were subjected to early marriage compared to the norm in Syria due to their financial situation and uncertainty. Cost was reported as the main barrier to use contraception in Lebanon but some Syrian refugee women were not aware of free services covering sexual and reproductive health. In general, marriage, pregnancy, and family planning behavior of Syrian refugee women in Lebanon slightly differed from those in Syria pre-conflict in terms of age of marriage, conception subsequent to marriage, and contraception method. Hence, interventions to increase awareness of subsidized sexual and reproductive health services, including free contraceptives at primary health care centers, and those targeting protection from early marriage of Syrian refugee women in Lebanon are strongly recommended.

Highlights

Worldwide forced displacement increased in 2015 with a record of 65.3 million displaced individuals by conflict and persecution [1]
We present our results according to the life-cycle of Syrian refugee women (SRW), beginning with their demographic characteristic and followed by their marriage, pregnancy and family planning behavior
In Save the Children’s report “Too Young To Wed”, Syrian parents reported financial sponsorship of daughters as a main reason for letting their under-18 daughters get married in Jordan [36]. This is similar to what we found in this study in which SRW reported that Syrian refugee parents are more likely to wed their young girls in Lebanon due to financial reasons and harsh living conditions, especially with the absence of formal camps

Summary

Introduction

Worldwide forced displacement increased in 2015 with a record of 65.3 million displaced individuals by conflict and persecution [1]. The Syrian conflict increased the global number of refugees whereby five million Syrians have fled the country as of March 2017 [2]. Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Lebanon hosts the largest number of Syrian refugees per capita, more than one million individuals, accounting for more than a fifth of the country population before the crisis [3]. Unlike other massive population displacements characterized by refugees mainly living in camp settings, the Government of Lebanon refused the formal establishment of camps. By 2016, Syrian refugees are dispersed all over Lebanon, living in informal tented settlements (ITS) or renting homes and apartments [4,5]. The highest numbers have been found in the governorate of Bekaa (360,733) followed by Beirut and Mount Lebanon (BML) (287,651) [6]

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