Afleveringen
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What does life look like when displacement stretches into years?
In the final chapter of Kolimaâs oral history, we hear from her as she lives now â inside the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh. Her days are shaped by sickness, ration schedules, paperwork, and the quiet labor of keeping a household together without a husband or extended family nearby.
Kolima speaks about managing illness with limited medical care, repairing her shelter after landslides, standing in long lines for food, gas, and cash assistance, and raising her children while navigating systems that were never designed for women doing everything alone. She shares the work she once did in Myanmar, the work she wishes she could do now, and the small skills she hopes to learn so she can survive through honest labor.
This episode is not about escape or resolution. It is about continuation. About what it takes to endure when displacement becomes routine and when survival depends on patience, faith, and the support of other women living through the same conditions.
Kolimaâs story brings us inside the everyday reality of Rohingya women leading households â not as statistics, but as people living full lives inside constraint.
This oral history was recorded live inside the refugee camps in Bangladesh in partnership with the Ziabul Hossain Foundation, whose community-based work made it possible for Kolimaâs voice to be documented where she lives.
What Youâll Hear in This Episode
00:00 Fleeing Myanmar06:32 The Struggle for Shelters10:34 Living conditions and Rations15:58 Access to livelihood and means for income16:39 Hygiene and Security in the camp21:44 Necessities outside of basic needs23:30 Work for Rohingya Refugees28:10 Registration problems31:20 Open drains and unsafe latrines in the camp31:59 WATER PROBLEMS33:05 Kolima's son, and her problems as a widow
Why This Story Matters
For many Rohingya women, displacement is not defined by the moment they fled â it is defined by the years that followed. Female heads of household often carry the heaviest burden: caring for children, managing aid systems, maintaining shelters, and making daily decisions without income or protection.
Kolimaâs story shows how survival is built through accumulation â of labor, patience, and care â rather than through singular moments of resilience. Her testimony helps us understand displacement as a condition that reshapes every part of daily life.
Listening to her is an act of recognition.
The Archive Speaks centers the voices of refugee and internally displaced women leading householdsâstories often missing from policy, media, and historical record.
These oral histories reflect personal memory, shaped by time, trauma, and survival. The Refugee Archive preserves these stories without political alignment or editorial interferenceâso women can speak in their own words, on their own terms.
Get full access to The Refugee Archive: Global Center for Displaced FHH at therefugeearchive.substack.com/subscribe -
What does it mean to learn survival before you have words for it?
In the first chapter of Kolimaâs oral history, we meet a Rohingya woman whose early life was shaped by family, restraint, and the quiet labor expected of girls as they grew into womanhood. Her story begins in Rakhine State, Myanmar, where daily life unfolded inside the boundaries of tradition, poverty, and increasing restriction.
Kolima speaks about growing up, reaching maturity, and how her world narrowed as expectations changed. Education faded from reach. Movement became limited. Skills learned at homeâespecially sewingâslowly became a way to stay useful, to contribute, and to imagine a future that still had shape.
Part 1 is about beginnings. Not displacement yet. Not the camps. But the first stitchâhow womenâs work is learned early, often silently, and how those skills later become lifelines when everything else is taken away.
This oral history was recorded live inside the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh in partnership with the Ziabul Hossain Foundation, whose work supports Rohingya women through education, documentation, and community-based programs.
What Youâll Hear in This Episode
00:00 Introduction to Kolima00:55 Childhood and family life in Rakhine State17:33 Growing into womanhood19:22 Getting married at 15
Why This Story Matters
Rohingya women are often spoken about only after displacementârarely before. Kolimaâs story reminds us that long before camps, borders, and aid systems, women were already navigating limits placed on their bodies, movement, and futures.
For female heads of households, these early skills are not incidental. They become the difference between dependence and survival. Between silence and self-reliance.
Listening to Kolima helps us understand how displacement doesnât begin at the borderâit begins much earlier, in the lives women are taught to live.
The Archive Speaks centers the voices of refugee and internally displaced women leading householdsâstories often missing from policy, media, and historical record.
These oral histories reflect personal memory, shaped by time, trauma, and survival. The Refugee Archive preserves these stories without political alignment or editorial interferenceâso women can speak in their own words, on their own terms.
Get full access to The Refugee Archive: Global Center for Displaced FHH at therefugeearchive.substack.com/subscribe -
Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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In Part 2 of Lucilleâs oral history, she returns to the morning everything changed in Goma. One moment, the neighborhood hummed with its usual rhythm â children walking to school, women bargaining at the market, the soft echo of church songs drifting between houses. And then, without warning, the city fell quiet in a way only conflict can silence a place.
Lucille recounts the moment she knew the rebels were close, how the streets emptied, how families pressed together behind locked doors, listening for footsteps that might decide their fate. She speaks about gathering her children, the frantic choices, the haunting calm that comes right before fear breaks open.
Through her voice, we witness what âthe day the city went silentâ really means for a mother, for a woman responsible for the rhythm of a home. We hear how displacement begins not with movement, but with sound â its absence â and the decisions a mother makes before she ever steps across a border.
This episode continues our commitment to centering the lives and leadership of female heads of households navigating conflict and displacement.
What does it feel like when a familiar city begins to shift â not all at once, but in small, almost invisible ways? In this second chapter of Lucilleâs oral history, we return to Goma with her, to the moment when everyday life began to thin out: the quieting streets, the tense glances between neighbors, the unspoken knowledge that something was approaching.
Lucille describes the days when danger didnât announce itself with gunfire â it seeped in through rumors, empty roads, and mothers calling their children home earlier than usual. These were the first tremors before displacement, the moments that rarely make it into reports but live sharply in a womanâs memory.
Part 2 carries us through those early signals: the cityâs slow unraveling, the fear settling beneath ordinary routines, and the moment Lucille understood she could no longer keep her children safe in the only home theyâd ever known. Before flight comes awareness. Before a mother runs, she listens.
What Youâll Hear in This Episode:
01:24 Background And Arrival In Goma04:09 Settling In Goma09:40 Life Before And During The War14:20 Financial Difficulties And Daily Struggle16:29 Human Rights And Womenâs Security19:47 Your Voice As A Journalist And Your Courage25:10 Hope, Community, And The Future32:33 The Realities Of The War And Current Living37:23 Female-Headed Household
Why This Story Matters:
For many families in eastern Congo â especially mothers raising children amid decades of militia presence and instability â displacement is not a single event. It begins slowly, in the pauses between normal routines, in the silence that replaces a bustling street, in the whispered warnings passed from one household to another.
Yet these intimate, early chapters of displacement are rarely documented. Lucilleâs voice opens that space.
Her story reminds us that internally displaced women carry the memory of a world before rupture and the burden of recognizing danger early enough to protect their children. Part 2 reveals the emotional and psychological landscape that precedes flight â the part of conflict the world almost never hears.
Listening to her story widens our understanding of what conflict does long before a family picks up their belongings and runs â and of the vigilance mothers hold long before the world acknowledges a crisis.
These oral histories reflect personal memory, shaped by time, trauma, and survival. The Refugee Archive preserves these voices without political alignment or editorial interference â honoring the stories exactly as they are told.
Get full access to The Refugee Archive: Global Center for Displaced FHH at therefugeearchive.substack.com/subscribe -
What does childhood look like in a place where conflict is always humming in the background?In this first chapter of Lucilleâs oral history, we meet a daughter of Goma, North Kivu â a girl raised between volcanic soil, family tenderness, and the constant shadow of armed groups moving across her homeland.
Lucille grew up in a house where her father taught strength through discipline, her mother taught gentleness through faith, and the mountains around them taught unpredictability. Before displacement, before the rebels, before everything changed, she lived a life shaped by sickness, laughter, school mornings, and the warning signs of a country unraveling.
Part 1 brings us into those early years â the foundations of who Lucille became long before she was forced to flee. Her story reminds us that every internally displaced woman carries two timelines: the world she lost and the world she had to survive.
What Youâll Hear in This Episode
00:33 Introduction01:25 Early memories of illness, caretaking, and family life06:12 Lucilleâs childhood in Butembo11:47 Cultural rhythms of Congolese girlhood17:55 Her Womanhood19:45 The prejudices of society21:56 The concept of displacement for Lucille
Why This Story Matters
For many Congolese women, especially those living through decades of conflict in North Kivu, displacement is not a single moment â itâs a lifetime of interruptions. Yet the world rarely hears from internally displaced mothers, even as they hold entire families together in the absence of stability, safety, and support.
Lucilleâs voice brings us into the intimate world before the rupture â the place where resilience is first formed. Her childhood memories are not just nostalgia; they are testimony. They remind us that every woman uprooted by war once had a life full of ordinary routines and small joys that deserved to continue.
Listening to her story widens our understanding of what displacement steals â and what women rebuild anyway.
These oral histories reflect personal memory, shaped by time, trauma, and survival. The Refugee Archive holds space for these voices without political alignment or editorial interference.
The Refugee Archive: Global Center for Displaced FHH is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
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In the final chapter of Sakenaâs story, we return to her quiet corner of Coxâs Bazar, where life moves between memory and prayer.Each morning begins with the call to fajr and ends with the sound of her childrenâs laughter â reminders that even in exile, life continues.
Sakena reflects on what it means to raise her children alone, to live in a tent that has become home, and to keep faith alive after everything sheâs lost.Through her words, we hear the strength of a Rohingya mother whose love outlasts displacement, and whose prayers still reach the soil she once called her own.
This episode holds space for reflection â not on politics, but on the resilience of women who hold families, stories, and hope together when the world looks away.In Sakenaâs voice, we hear something sacred: the belief that faith and love can still build a home, even when the ground beneath you isnât yours.
What Youâll Hear in This Episode
* Sakenaâs life after years in Coxâs Bazar
* How faith and motherhood shape her sense of home
* The memory of her husband and the weight of loss
* Finding peace in prayer, and passing hope to her children
* Her reflection on what âhomeâ means when return feels impossible
Why This Story Matters
Female-headed households like Sakenaâs make up a quiet majority in displacement.Their stories reveal not just survival, but the invisible labor that sustains entire communities â the love, endurance, and faith that keep life moving forward.
To hear Sakenaâs story is to witness history through the eyes of a mother â one who still believes that âwhere there is hope, there is life, and there is peace.â
The Refugee Archive: Global Center for Displaced FHH is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
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In this chapter of Sakenaâs story, we return to Coxâs Bazar â a place where survival is measured in queues. Every morning, women like Sakena rise before dawn to stand in line for water, for food, for the small things that keep life going. These lines, long and winding, have become more than just systems of aid â they are places of quiet resilience, where mothers trade stories, laughter, and the strength to go on.
Sakena shares what daily life looks like in the worldâs largest refugee camp â how she keeps her home clean, her children learning, and her faith intact, even when the waiting never ends. Her story turns the mundane act of standing in line into something sacred â a reminder that survival itself is a form of resistance.
đWhat Youâll Hear in This Episode
01:19 The daily rhythm of life in Coxâs Bazar refugee camp30:11 How women sustain their families on limited aid47:57 Sakenaâs memories of her husband and the home she lost01:07:37 The small rituals that keep dignity and hope alive
Why This Story Matters
Behind every ration line is a community of women who hold their families together. They wait for food, for safety, for answers â but they also wait with faith. âLines That Feed Usâ is not just about scarcity; itâs about how women like Sakena turn waiting into a shared act of care, endurance, and love.
The Archives Speaks is by The Refugee Archive
The Refugee Archive documents the oral histories of female heads of households â women who carry families through displacement. These stories are told with dignity, neutrality, and deep respect for the voices that have too often been left out of history.
Get full access to The Refugee Archive: Global Center for Displaced FHH at therefugeearchive.substack.com/subscribe -
When danger came to Gudusara, Sakenaâs home in Northern Rakhine, it didnât arrive all at once. It came in whispers firstâthen in fire, and footsteps, and the sound of people running.
In this second part of her story, Sakena recounts the night her family fled Myanmar. The smoke behind them, the river before them, and the choice no mother should ever face: to leave everything behind and carry only her children forward.
Through her voice, we walk the same roadsâthe forests, the long crossings, the silence of loss. We hear about her husbandâs final words, the fear that turned into endurance, and the long road that led her to Bangladeshâs Coxâs Bazar refugee campânow home to nearly one million Rohingya.
This episode preserves a memory shared by many, but rarely told in full. Itâs not just about crossing bordersâitâs about the moments between them: a motherâs breath, a childâs question, a prayer whispered over dark water.
What Youâll Hear in This Episode
* The night Gudusara burned and families began to flee
* Sakenaâs final conversation with her husband before their separation
* The physical and emotional journey to Bangladesh
* How she kept her four children alive on the road
* Arriving at Coxâs Bazar and beginning again as a mother alone
Why This Story Matters
The Rohingya crisis remains one of the largest ongoing displacements in the world. More than a million peopleâmostly women and childrenânow live in camps along the Bangladesh border. But beyond the numbers are the stories of those who carried families across rivers, through smoke and fear, with nothing but faith.
Sakenaâs story is a record of that journey, and a reminder that displacement begins long before a border is crossedâand continues long after.
Sources
* UNHCR. Rohingya Emergency Factsheet, 2024
* Human Rights Watch. âAll of My Body Was Painâ: Sexual Violence Against Rohingya Women and Girls in Burma, 2017
* MĂ©decins Sans FrontiĂšres. Rohingya Refugee Crisis Overview, 2023
* The Refugee Archive Oral History Collection, 2025
Get full access to The Refugee Archive: Global Center for Displaced FHH at therefugeearchive.substack.com/subscribe -
Before displacement. Before the border crossings. Before the word ârefugee.âThere was a girl named Sakena, in a small village called Gudusara in Arakan State, Myanmar â where blue skies meant freedom and family filled every room.
In this first part of her oral history, Sakena, a Rohingya mother and widow now living in Coxâs Bazar, takes us back to the world she knew before exile â the scent of turmeric in her motherâs kitchen, her fatherâs laughter, the games she played in the fields, and the faith that shaped her heart.
As one of the worldâs most persecuted minorities, the Rohingya have faced decades of exclusion and statelessness under Myanmarâs 1982 Citizenship Law. Yet through Sakenaâs voice, we hear the quiet strength of a woman remembering what it meant to belong â before loss, before flight, before the world turned away.
Her story reminds us that displacement doesnât begin at the border. It begins with a home that once was whole.
What Youâll Hear in This Episode
* Life in Gudusara village â home, family, and faith
* Sakenaâs memories of school and her dream of becoming a teacher
* The role of womenâs work and early marriage in her community
* How her familyâs love shaped the woman and mother she would become
Why This Story Matters
Stories like Sakenaâs challenge the way we think about refugee lives. They are not only about loss â they are about memory, identity, and the early worlds that built these women long before war took them apart.
In The Refugee Archive, we listen closely to female heads of households â women like Sakena â whose voices carry the continuity of families, faith, and survival across borders.
Listen to Part 1: âThe Days of Blue Skies.âAnd stay with us for the next chapter â where Sakena recounts the night her family fled Northern Rakhine, and how she carried her four children toward a new, uncertain home in Coxâs Bazar.
The Archive Speaks feature lived memories and stories of resilience and survival from places of conflict like Gaza, told by refugee women and female head of households, and preserved by The Refugee Archive.
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Female heads of households are often the invisible backbone of displacement. They carry a heavier weight in society. Raising children, holding families together, and nurturing the next generation even while enduring loss themselves. Their voices are rarely heard, yet they shape the future in profound ways.
Noorâs story is one of them. Across three episodes, weâve followed her from her roots in Gaza, through October 7, the death of her husband Khaled, and the crossing into Egypt with her son.
In this final chapter, Noor shares her present reality: starting over in Cairo, navigating judgment as a widow, and finding strength in motherhood and faith. Her voice reminds us why listening to women like her is not optional â itâs essential.
What Youâll Hear in This Episode
* Noorâs first days in Cairo as a refugee mother
* The challenges of beginning again after displacement
* Judgment and stigma faced by single mothers and widows
* How she finds resilience through faith and motherhood
Why This Story Matters
Noorâs voice brings us into the lived reality behind the headlines. Her story reflects the experience of countless Palestinian women who, after displacement, find themselves as the sole providers and protectors of their families. Female heads of households are rarely centered in policy or media, yet they carry futures on their backs. Noorâs testimony preserves that truth.
Noorâs journey doesnât end here. You can stand with her family as they face the daily reality of survival in Gaza and beyond.Help Noorâs family survive starvation in Gaza here.
The Archive Speaks feature lived memories and stories of resilience and survival from places of conflict like Gaza, told by refugee women and female head of households, and preserved by The Refugee Archive.
Get full access to The Refugee Archive: Global Center for Displaced FHH at therefugeearchive.substack.com/subscribe -
In Part 3 of Noorâs 4-part series, we follow her through the most difficult turning point of her life: leaving Gaza.
After losing her husband Khaled in the bombings of northern Gaza, Noor became the sole head of her household. With her son at her side, she faced impossible choices â surviving without clean water or electricity, navigating family negotiations about evacuation, and gathering the funds needed to leave through Rafah.
Her words say it all: âIt was really enough for us.â A phrase that carries the exhaustion of war, the grief of loss, and the resilience of a mother who has to keep moving forward.
What Youâll Hear in This Episode
* Noorâs grief after Khaledâs death in northern Gaza
* The daily struggles of survival inside Gaza: food, water, electricity, and dignity
* How her community abroad helped raise the funds to evacuate
* The emotional weight of deciding who leaves, and who stays behind
* Noorâs final journey through Rafah with her son, and their first moments in Cairo
Why This Story Matters
Noorâs voice brings us into the lived reality behind the headlines. Her story reflects the experience of countless Palestinian women who, after displacement, find themselves as the sole providers and protectors of their families. Female heads of households are rarely centered in policy or media, yet they carry futures on their backs. Noorâs testimony preserves that truth.
Noorâs journey doesnât end here. You can stand with her family as they face the daily reality of survival in Gaza and beyond.Help Noorâs family survive starvation in Gaza here.
The Archive Speaks feature lived memories and stories of resilience and survival from places of conflict like Gaza, told by refugee women and female head of households, and preserved by The Refugee Archive.
Get full access to The Refugee Archive: Global Center for Displaced FHH at therefugeearchive.substack.com/subscribe -
In Part 2 of Noorâs story, we step into the turning point of her life in Gaza.
October 7, 2023 â a date the world came to recognize in headlines. For Noor, it was the day her life split apart. What are arguments and debates on the tip of our fingers were Noorâs lived reality: bombs falling, orders to evacuate, and the sudden knowledge that her familyâs home, built brick by brick, memory by memory, could be lost forever.
This chapter is about the often-overlooked aspect of war; lived memories of vulnerable civilians like mothers with children stripped of support. Noor recalls the sound of rockets, the scramble to pack in minutes, the crowded apartment where dozens of relatives tried to survive together, and the silence that followed her husband Khaledâs death. Through it all, she became what so many women in Gaza have had to become: the head of her household, carrying both her child and her grief.
What Youâll Hear in This Episode
* Noorâs memories of life in Gaza just before October 7
* The morning of the attacks, and how she shielded her son
* Orders to evacuate and the impossible choice to leave home behind
* Life in a crowded shelter, where women stitched dignity into survival
* The loss of Khaled, and Noorâs shift into single motherhood
Why This Story Matters
Female Heads of Households are not rare in Gaza; they are the backbone of survival when war tears families apart. Yet their voices remain absent from policy and headlines. Noorâs story places us inside that reality: the exhaustion, the resilience, and the quiet strength it takes to keep a child alive when the ground beneath you is gone.
By listening, we move past numbers and statistics into Noorâs lived truth â the truth of a mother who did not choose this role, but carries it every day.
Noorâs journey doesnât end here. You can stand with her family as they face the daily reality of survival in Gaza and beyond.Help Noorâs family survive starvation in Gaza here.
The Archive Speaks feature lived memories and stories of resilience and survival from places of conflict like Gaza, told by refugee women and female head of households, and preserved by The Refugee Archive.
Get full access to The Refugee Archive: Global Center for Displaced FHH at therefugeearchive.substack.com/subscribe -
In this first chapter of Noorâs story, we trace the threads that formed her identity long before war and loss. Her roots run through Gaza, from her grandmotherâs stories of being displaced from Al-Masmiyya in 1948, in her fatherâs belief that daughters should be educated, in the elegant stride of her mother, and in the traditions of proposals and marriage that carried both duty and pride.
For Noor, womanhood was never separate from these roots. It was shaped by faith, family, and culture â not as restrictions, but as anchors. They steadied her through childhood, guided her into adulthood, and, eventually, gave her the strength to mother her son in the harshest of circumstances.
This episode of The Archive Speaks is not about politics, but about survival and identity. Noor shows us how being Palestinian, Muslim, a teacher, a wife, and eventually a mother were all intertwined â roots that steadied her before displacement reshaped her life.
What Youâll Hear in This Episode
* Noorâs family background and the heritage passed through her grandmother
* Her childhood in Gaza, filled with both joy and uncertainty
* How her passion for education became a bridge to the outside world
* The significance of proposals and marriage in her coming of age
* How faith and culture intertwined to shape her womanhood â and later, her motherhood
Why This Story Matters
Behind every Female-Headed Household is a story of roots â the lessons of family, faith, and culture that prepare women to carry entire families when no one else can.
Noorâs story reminds us that motherhood in displacement is not born out of nothing. It grows from deep foundations of identity and tradition. By listening to her, we begin to understand how Palestinian womanhood is not erased by crisis but becomes the very ground from which survival is possible.
Sources
These oral histories are personal truths and memories, told in the words of those who lived them, shaped by time, loss, and resilience. The Archive Speaks holds space for them without political alignment or editing out their truth.
UNRWA. âWhere We Stand: Palestine Refugees in Gaza.â 2023UN Women. In Focus: Gender in Humanitarian Action in Palestine. 2024OCHA. Gaza Strip Humanitarian Needs Overview. 2023
Noorâs journey doesnât end here. You can stand with her family as they face the daily reality of survival in Gaza and beyond.Help Noorâs family survive starvation in Gaza here.
The Archive Speaks feature lived memories and stories of resilience and survival from places of conflict like Gaza, told by refugee women and female head of households, and preserved by The Refugee Archive.
Get full access to The Refugee Archive: Global Center for Displaced FHH at therefugeearchive.substack.com/subscribe -
What does it mean to become the head of a household overnight?
In this final chapter of Ataaâs Story, we follow her through one of the most overlooked transformations in displacement: the moment a woman becomes everythingâmother, father, provider, protector.
After her husbandâs sudden departure from Zaâatari Refugee Camp, Ataa was left to raise four children alone. With no roadmap, no partner, and little support, she rebuilt her daily life around survival, care, and hope. Her story reflects the lived reality of countless refugee women who are now Female-Headed Households (FHHs)âa growing but underrepresented demographic. In Zaâatari, nearly one in three families is led by a woman.
This episode of The Archive Speaks is a testimony to that shift. We hear Ataaâs reflections on becoming a head of household, navigating judgment, raising children under strain, and building a future with no guaranteeâonly faith and persistence.
What Youâll Hear in This Episode
* What happened the day her husband left the camp
* The emotional shift from partner to sole provider
* How she handles judgment and isolation as a single mother in Zaâatari
* Her approach to parenting, online work, and faith
* What she dreams for her children, and the future she still believes is possible
Why This Story Matters
Female-Headed Households in refugee camps are not the exceptionâthey are the structure many families now rely on. Yet they remain largely invisible in policy, programming, and media. Ataaâs story gives us rare insight into what women carry when no one else is leftâand what leadership in displacement truly looks like.
By listening closely to voices like Ataaâs, we move beyond statistics and into lived truth. This is not just a story of survival. Itâs a story of strategy, strength, and the love that builds futures.
Sources
These oral histories reflect the personal memories and truths of those who tell them, shaped by time, trauma, and resilience. The Refugee Archive holds space for these voices without political alignment or editorial interference.
UNHCR. Zaatari Refugee Camp Factsheet. 2023CARE International. Women in Zaatari: Protection Challenges and Community Roles. 2016International Rescue Committee. Women Alone: The Fight for Survival by Syriaâs Refugee Women. 2014UN Women. Gender Equality and Womenâs Empowerment in Humanitarian Action. 2017Human Rights Watch. âWeâre Afraid for Their Futureâ: Barriers to Education for Syrian Refugee Children in Jordan. 2016
Get full access to The Refugee Archive: Global Center for Displaced FHH at therefugeearchive.substack.com/subscribe -
"Iâm one personâbut I have to be a mother, a father, a teacher, a provider⊠I have to be everything."Ataa speaks from her shelter in Zaatari Camp, where daily life for a woman raising four children alone is both routine and relentless.
In the third chapter of The Archive Speaks, we trace Ataaâs evolving life in displacementâbeginning with her arrival in Zaatari and following her through marriage, motherhood, and ultimately, into the unexpected role of sole provider. Each part of her journey reveals something more about the daily realities of women in protracted displacement: the burden of decisions not entirely their own, the quiet strength of adaptation, and the labor of holding a household together when a partner is no longer present.
When Ataa first arrived in Zaatari, she was a young woman recovering from injury and disoriented by exile. In the early months, she navigated life as a single woman under watchful eyes, surrounded by a culture that equated safety with surveillance. After marrying, she stepped into a more stable routineâone shaped by hope, new responsibilities, and the dream of returning to school. Her husband supported her studies and helped with household tasks, but five months after she gave birth to their youngest child, he left in search of a future in Europe. His departureâvia an irregular migration routeâleft Ataa suddenly alone, with four children and no clear safety net.
This episode captures that shift. Ataa revisits the emotional and logistical rupture of his departure, the pressures of becoming a female head of household, and the day-to-day challenges of parenting, teaching, and survivingâentirely on her own. Her story sits within a larger demographic shift: as of recent reports, more than 50% of households in Zaatari Camp are headed by women. Economic strain, protracted conflict, and gendered migration patterns continue to divide familiesâand leave women to carry what remains.
And yet, this episode is not only about hardship. It is also about clarity. About dignity. And about the slow, deliberate labor of building a life for her children, when everything else feels uncertain.
What Youâll Hear in This Episode
* Ataaâs reflections on life as a single woman in the camp
* Her decision to marry and hopes of continuing her education
* The experience of raising four children in displacement
* The emotional impact of her husbandâs sudden departure
* The identity shift of becoming a female head of household
Why This Story Matters
Displacement rarely unfolds in rapid evacuationsâit is a prolonged process layered with adaptation, survival, and evolving roles. Ataaâs experience offers insight into what happens when family structures fracture, and women emerge as the primary caregivers, decisionâmakers, and emotional anchors.
By listening closely, we begin to understand displacement not only through crisis, but through careâand the invisible leadership of women in situations of protracted displacement.
Sources
These oral histories reflect the personal memories and truths of those who tell them, shaped by time, trauma, and resilience. The Refugee Archive holds space for these voices without political alignment or editorial interference. To support listeners in understanding the broader context of what is shared, weâve included a selection of publicly available sources that document the historical, political, and social events referenced in this episode. These materials are meant to offer backgroundânot interpretation.
UNHCR. Zaatari Refugee Camp Factsheet. 2023.
CARE International. Women in Zaatari: Protection Challenges and Community Roles. 2016.
International Rescue Committee. Women Alone: The Fight for Survival by Syriaâs Refugee Women. 2014.
UN Women. Gender Equality and Womenâs Empowerment in Humanitarian Action. 2017.
Human Rights Watch. âWeâre Afraid for Their Futureâ: Barriers to Education for Syrian Refugee Children in Jordan. 2016.
Get full access to The Refugee Archive: Global Center for Displaced FHH at therefugeearchive.substack.com/subscribe -
"Do you know when you have two lives? Like on your left, you have this lifeâand on your right side, a completely different lifeâŠ" Ataa describes how she felt crossing the border of Syria and Jordan.As Syriaâs uprising turned into full-scale war, hundreds of thousands of civilians were forced into impossible choicesâmany leaving homes, jobs, and dreams behind. The Jordanian border opened to receive a growing wave of displaced Syrians, with Zaatari Camp becoming one of the largest refugee settlements in the world.
This episode of The Archive Speaks enters that moment through one young womanâs experience.
In the second part of the 4-part series of Ataaâs Story, titled The Border Between Two Lives, we hear how Ataaâs life shifted in the aftermath of being shot by a sniper while walking to the library. With her body still healing and her future in Syria uncertain, her family made the decision to leave for Jordan. Ataa, however, did not feel readyâemotionally or otherwise.
She reflects on the tension of that time: her resistance to leaving, the family disagreements that surfaced, and the grief of parting with a life she still believed in. She speaks candidly about her older brother, who blamed her for prioritizing education over safetyâand who stayed behind to fight. She also recalls the gentleness of her mother, who promised, âJust one month. Weâll come back.â
Crossing the border with her parents and younger brother, Ataa brought only what mattered most: her books, her hopes, her quiet refusal to accept the permanence of exile. Her arrival in Zaatari was not marked by relief, but by mourningâfor the version of herself left behind.
In the background of Ataaâs personal story is a pattern experienced by many displaced women: being moved before they're ready, being expected to hold the emotional weight of family survival, and steppingâoften silentlyâinto the role of decision-maker and protector. This is not just a story of loss. It is a story of transition, of emerging leadership, and of reluctant resilience.
What Youâll Hear in This Episode
* Ataaâs reflections on being urged to leave Syria after her injury
* Conflict within her family around safety, autonomy, and blame
* The emotional weight of leaving behind her studies and identity
* Her early arrival and adaptation to life in Zaatari Camp
* The beginnings of her transition into leadership and responsibility
Why This Story Matters
Displacement often unfolds not as a moment, but as a processâlayered with hesitation, memory, and unfinished conversations. Ataaâs story reveals how women in displacement carry far more than physical survival. They hold family, preserve identity, and navigate roles they didnât seek but often embrace with strength.
In The Archive Speaks, we recognize displaced women not just as survivors of war, but as witnesses, caretakers, and community leaders. Listening to their stories shifts how we understand conflictâand whose voices we center when telling its story.
Sources
These oral histories reflect the personal memories and truths of those who tell them, shaped by time, trauma, and resilience. The Refugee Archive holds space for these voices without political alignment or editorial interference. To support listeners in understanding the broader context of what is shared, weâve included a selection of publicly available sources that document the historical, political, and social events referenced in this episode. These materials are meant to offer backgroundânot interpretation.
Doocy, Shannon, et al. âHealth Service Access and Utilization among Syrian Refugees in Jordan.â PLoS Medicine Central, Nov. 2013, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3818785/.
Syrians for Truth and Justice. âSyria: The National Union of Syrian Students as a Tool of Repression in Syrian Universities.â Syrians for Truth and Justice, 29 Mar. 2022, https://stj-sy.org/en/syria-the-national-union-of-syrian-students-as-a-tool-of-repression-in-syrian-universities/.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). âSyria: As Journey to Safety Gets More Dangerous by the Day, Refugees Keep Coming.â UNHCR, https://www.unhcr.org/news/stories/syria-journey-safety-gets-more-dangerous-day-refugees-keep-coming.
Human Rights Watch. âJordan: Syrians Blocked, Stranded in Desert.â Human Rights Watch, 3 June 2015, https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/06/03/jordan-syrians-blocked-stranded-desert.
UNHCR. âSyria: As Journey to Safety Gets More Dangerous by the Day, Refugees Keep Coming.â YouTube, uploaded by UNHCR,
The Refugee Archive is a pilot academic-media project exploring refugee female-headed households (FHHs) through research, storytelling, podcasts, and analysis. Join us as we build a global conversation.
Get full access to The Refugee Archive: Global Center for Displaced FHH at therefugeearchive.substack.com/subscribe -
In this moving first part of the 4-part series of Ataaâs Story, titled From Books to Bullets, we are invited into the early chapters of one womanâs life in Syriaâbefore she became a refugee, before she was forced to flee, before the war redrew the shape of her days.
Ataa was raised in a modest two-room home in a small town outside Damascus, shared with her parents, siblings, and twin sister. Ten people under one roof, and yet, what she remembers most is the warmth. Morning routines. Shared laughter. A father who returned from long hours of carpentry with gentleness and encouragement. Her childhood was shaped not by scarcity, but by connection.
What defined Ataa early on wasnât displacementâbut determination. Her father believed in her education, and so she studied not out of obligation, but out of purpose. Even when the power failed, she read by flashlight. Even when space was tight, she found corners to focus. Her dream was not to leave Syriaâit was to teach in one of its universities.
Life at Damascus University brought her joy and routine. It was where she felt most like herself. She wore her values proudlyâconservative, colorful clothing that reflected both her faith and individuality. Her world was small, focused on books, friends, and her future. She rarely spoke of politics. Until politics came for her.
In 2011, the peaceful protests that began across Syria slowly interrupted campus life. Friday prayers gave way to demonstrations. Roads were blocked. Professors stopped showing up. Still, Ataa went to the library. Still, she believed she could stay.
Then, on an ordinary day, a sniperâs bullet tore through her neck and exited her back. It also grazed her friend beside her. Strangers carried her to a makeshift medical spaceânot a hospital, but a hidden room run by those resisting the regime. She was quiet, conscious, and unable to walk.
What follows is not just the story of injuryâit is the story of displacement as a strategy for survival. Ataaâs brother was later killed in an airstrike. Her uncle became paralyzed. Her parents decided to bring her to Jordan for recovery. She didnât want to go. She didnât want to stop studying. But she packed what matteredâher books, her identityâand crossed the border with hope that sheâd return within a month.
She never did.
What Youâll Hear in This Episode
* Ataaâs memories of life before displacement in rural Syria
* Her fatherâs role in supporting her educational dreams
* Navigating limited resources while excelling in school
* What daily life was like as a university student in Damascus
* How the early stages of conflict began affecting students
* A detailed account of the shooting and her recovery
* The difficult decision to leave Syriaâand what she brought with her
Why This Story Matters
Ataaâs story speaks to the quiet, often unseen lives of displaced women navigating conflictânot only as survivors, but as students, daughters, and leaders in their families. Her voice offers context to what it means to be forced from home, and what it takes to rebuild identity and purpose on the other side of a border.
When we listen to women like Ataa, we donât just learn about war. We learn about strategy, resilience, and the everyday decisions that define survival.
Sources
These oral histories reflect the personal memories and truths of those who tell them, shaped by time, trauma, and resilience. The Refugee Archive provides a space for these voices, free from political alignment or editorial interference. To support listeners in understanding the broader context of what is shared, weâve included a selection of publicly available sources that document the historical, political, and social events referenced in this episode. These materials are intended to provide background information, not interpretation.Links: Education in Syrian State Schools before 2011 Written by Sara Rammal, Produced by Sharq in partnership with the Konrad Adenauer FoundationThe International Rescue Committee (IRC), âAre we listening? Acting on our commitments to women and girls affected by the Syrian conflict,â 2014
The Refugee Archive is a pilot academic-media project exploring refugee female-headed households (FHHs) through research, storytelling, podcasts, and analysis. Join us as we build a global conversation.
Get full access to The Refugee Archive: Global Center for Displaced FHH at therefugeearchive.substack.com/subscribe -
The Archive Speaks: Trailer
Welcome to The Archive Speaksâa podcast by The Refugee Archive, a digital oral history project focused exclusively on the lived experiences of female-headed refugee households (FHHs). In this introductory episode, we share why this archive exists, what stories we seek to tell, and the voices we believe the world needs to hear. At the heart of this project are the women who carry families forwardâoften aloneâthrough displacement, survival, and rebuilding.Each episode will explore how women displaced by war and conflict preserve memory, claim voice, and challenge silenceâthrough storytelling. Subscribe for future episodes and features: [The Refugee Archive on Substack]
Get full access to The Refugee Archive: Global Center for Displaced FHH at therefugeearchive.substack.com/subscribe
