Thousands of Syrian women who escaped the bloodshed in their homeland are barely scraping by and face everyday threats of violence as they struggle to keep their broken families together, a report from the U.N. refugee agency shows.
More than 145,000 Syrian refugee families now living in Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan are headed by women, the report released Tuesday reads. Living in refugee camps, makeshift tents or crowded homes, these women struggle to feed their families and pay their rents while facing harassment from men around them. According to the report, a third of them say they don't have enough to eat.
"They have run out of money, face daily threats to their safety, and are being treated as outcasts for no other crime than losing their men to a vicious war. It's shameful," read a statement from Antonio Guterres, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees. "They are being humiliated for losing everything."
According to the report, the women have become the main breadwinners and caregivers in their families after their men were killed in the ongoing violence or captured.
