Paper short abstract:

Syrian Druze women who have married across the border between Israel and Syria with no possibility of return, recount marriage, family, and youth to remember their homeland and protect the identity of their children from the double jeopardy of diasporic life.

Paper long abstract:

Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in the last days of 1967’s Six-Day-War. Most of the Syrian Arabs who lived there for generations fled the area in the wake of the conflict, splitting across the UN-brokered border. In a relentless effort to maintain ethnic and demographic sustainability, brides and grooms are sought strictly within the Druze community.

“All my life in Syria, my parents told me stories about the Golan: the villages, the orchards, the hills… When my husband arrived from the Golan to Damascus, it was as if he had descended from The Garden of Eden”. Rabeaa is the daughter of Golan Druze refugees who fled the plateau to Damascus. When she married her cousin, she moved back to the land of her ancestors. Her parents’ stories and memories of the Golan ignited and nurtured her resolve to leave Syria and her life behind to ‘go back home’.

Like Rabeea, other so-called Syrian Brides were stripped of their documents at the Quneitra checkpoint, were forced to re-invent themselves, and go through the core experiences of life on their own. They built their new personal identity using their personal and collective memories from Syria. Now, their experience and stories will mold their children's identity, navigating the harsh reality of doubly diasporic life.