| Summary/Abstract |
This article is written in response to the stereotypical images of female detainees as weak and powerless. It looks into the victimhood paradigm shift of formerly detained Syrian women, from pathetic victims to heroic and how the perception of these women has changed. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the factors that help former female detainees regain agency after their release, and subsequently transform themselves from being perceived as pathetic to heroic victims. In order to do this, it is necessary to understand the controversial relationship between victimhood and agency, especially in the context of women not least as the conservative social and gender norms in Syria would normally dictate the opposite. This shift is investigated by exploring the burdened agency - the agency despite the constraints and restrictions they experienced in detention and from society. This will be done through using symbolic inversion, meaning I will analyse how former Syrian female detainees acted in a way that defies social norms and expectations. This study has adopted the notion that victimhood is relational and agency cannot be full under any circumstances but burdened or in a spectrum.
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