Constructing Intimate Partner Violence Through Gendered Discourse: A Feminist Poststructuralist Perspective on Syrian Refugee Women in Jordan

Abstract

This qualitative study explores how hegemonic gender roles discourse shapes Syrian refugee women's experiences of intimate partner violence in Jordan. Guided by feminist poststructuralist theory and based on Foucauldian discourse analysis of 40 narrative interviews, the findings reveal three dominant discursive dynamics: men's inability to fulfill provider roles as a catalyst for IPV; sociocultural pressure on men to perform traditional masculinity as a trigger for IPV; and women's assumption of gender role reversal—particularly through economic activity—as provoking IPV. Notably, some women draw on alternative discourses of empowerment, which initially intensify IPV but eventually enable new forms of agency and self-determination.