El Shabab Bayn Naran - The Men Are Between Two Fires: A Study on How a Denial of Civil Rights Affects Palestinian Men’s Performance of Masculinity in Lebanon

This thesis examines how denied civil rights in Lebanon affects how Palestinian men can perform masculinity with dignity and security. In a context where Palestinians remain stateless and excluded from employment and citizenship, men confront structural barriers that shape their daily lives and gendered expectations. Drawing on two months of ethnographic fieldwork in Shatila and Burj Barajneh refugee camps, including interviews and a focus group conducted with Palestinian men and women, the study explores three central themes: mobility, providing, and love. Findings show that men pursue forms of masculinity centered on care, responsibility, and moral standing, yet are constrained by legal exclusion that disrupts marriage prospects, economic stability, and freedom of movement. These constraints lead to expressions of “thwarted masculinities,” understood as coping strategies within the gender order rather than failures of ambition. The thesis contributes conceptually by linking masculinity studies with legal precarity, and empirically by foregrounding refugee voices.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Migration and Diaspora Studies

Grantor dc:publisher

Carleton University

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Sleiman, Lena

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright © 2025 the author(s). Theses may be used for non-commercial research, educational, or related academic purposes only. Such uses include personal study, distribution to students, research and scholarship. Theses may only be shared by linking to the Carleton University Institutional Repository and no part may be copied without proper attribution to the author; no part may be used for commercial purposes directly or indirectly via a for-profit platform; no adaptation or derivative works are permitted without consent from the copyright owner.

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

10.22215/etd/2025-16831

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:carleton.scholaris.ca:20.500.14718/44858