Migração e Conflito Sírio: A Narrativa por Trás da Imagem

Suzana Ramos Coutinho; Jesner Esequiel Santos

doi:10.21814/vista.3650

Authors

Suzana Ramos Coutinho Centro de Educação, Filosofia e Teologia, Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, São Paulo, Brazil/Centro de Humanidades, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, Brazil https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5629-1914
Jesner Esequiel Santos Centro de Educação, Filosofia e Teologia, Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, São Paulo, Brazil https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7705-657X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21814/vista.3650

Keywords:

migration, Syria, war, policy, photography

Abstract

This article aims to reflect on migratory flows and the political role of the image using the war in Syria as a reference. Hamza Al-Ajweh's photograph titled "A Syrian child walks down a street past the rubble of destroyed buildings in the rebel-controlled city of Douma in the Eastern Ghouta enclave outside Damascus", taken on March 8, 2018, and published for the first time at the Los Angeles Times, will be used as a point of reference for the discussion and analysis proposed here. The complexity of displacements in this specific context of war leads us to design Syrian mobility after the beginning of the war in 2011, understanding that this complexity goes far beyond the formal definitions used by international agencies. For a closer understanding of the debate, we designed the discussion in three parts: a brief contextualization of the conflict in Syria, which began with the Arab Spring and continues until today. This socio-political contextualization serves here as a backdrop for discussing not only generic migratory categories but to help better understand people, movements and the demand for new categories and visual reflections that go beyond current perspectives. And in the last part, we will discuss how the image of the photographer Hamza Al-Ajweh helps us think about multiple political and transformative aspects of the picture.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Suzana Ramos Coutinho, Centro de Educação, Filosofia e Teologia, Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, São Paulo, Brazil/Centro de Humanidades, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, Brazil

Suzana Ramos Coutinho is a photographer, anthropologist and PhD in religious studies (Lancaster University). She is a senior lecturer at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo and Mackenzie Presbyterian University/São Paulo (Brazil), teaching at the Postgraduate Program in Education, Art and History of Culture. She is part of the editorial team of REVER (Journal of Religious Studies/Revista de Estudos da Religião) and the thematic editor of Revista TRAMA ("History of Culture" section). She is a member of the Brazilian Association of Anthropology, the International Society for the Sociology of Religion, and the International Visual Sociology Association. She is the head of the research group Center for the Interdisciplinary Studies on Migration and Image.

Jesner Esequiel Santos, Centro de Educação, Filosofia e Teologia, Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, São Paulo, Brazil

Jesner Esequiel Santos is the author of The Religious Path in the Syrian Arab Spring, published by BTbooks in 2015. He is part of the master's program in Education, Art and History of Culture at Mackenzie Presbyterian University, linked to the Center for Education, Philosophy and Theology, São Paulo (Brazil). He is a member of the research group at the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies on Migration and Image (Mackenzie Presbyterian University). He has a degree in theology from Mackenzie Presbyterian University (2015). He has a second bachelor's degree in theology from the Presbyterian Theological Seminary: Reverendo José Manoel da Conceição (2020).

References

Afeganistão: O que é a sharia, lei islâmica que o talebã quer aplicar no país? (2021, 17 de agosto). BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/internacional-58251684

Appadurai, A. (1998). Putting hierarchy in its place. Cultural Anthropology, 3(1), 36–49.https://doi.org/10.1525/can.1988.3.1.02a00040

Araújo, C. (2012, 16 de julho). Alauítas: A minoria síria que mata por temer ser aniquilada. Veja. http://veja.abril.com.br/noticia/mundo/alauitas-a-minoria-siria-que-mata-por-temer-ser-aniquilada

Azoulay, A. (2008). The civil contract of photography. MIT Press.

Azoulay, A. (2012). Civil imagination: A political ontology of photography. Verso.

Barthes, R. (1990). O óbvio e o obtuso: Ensaios sobre fotografia, cinema, teatro e música – Ensaio críticos III (L. Novaes, Trad.). Nova Fronteira. (Trabalho original publicado em 1982)

Bell, E., & Davison, J. (2013). Visual management studies: Empirical and theoretical approaches. International Journal of Management Reviews, 15(2), 167–184. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2012.00342.x

Bleiker, R. (2012). Aesthetics and world politics. Palgrave Macmillan.

Bowen, J. (2012). The Arab uprisings: The people want the fall of the regime. Simon & Schuster UK.

Brummitt, W. (1973). Photography is... American Photographic Book Publishing.

Bulos, N. (2018, 8 de março). Thousands displaced, aid delivery halted as violence consumes Syrian enclave. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-syria-ghouta-20180308-story.html

Burgin, V. (1982). Looking at photographs. In V. Burgin (Ed.), Thinking photography (pp. 142–153). Macmillan.

CNN. (2013, 5 de fevereiro). Christian militia standing behind Assad [Vídeo]. YouTube. http://youtu.be/FQIrSR6tKJg

Cogo, D. (2001). Mídia, imigração e interculturalidade: Mapeando as estratégias de midiatização dos processos migratórios e das falas imigrantes no contexto brasileiro. Comunicação & Informação, 4(1/2), 11–32. https://doi.org/10.5216/c&i.v4i1/2.23453

Coulter, G. (2013). Gerhard Richter's use of photography to challenge our understanding of the real. International Journal of Arts and Commerce, 2(10), 83–92.

Dados, N. (2010). Liminal transformations: Folding the surface of the photograph. Conserveries Mémorielles, (7), 1–16.

Daher, J. (2019, 4 de setembro). The paradox of Syria's reconstruction. Carnegie Middle East Center. https://carnegie-mec.org/2019/09/04/paradox-of-syria-s-reconstruction-pub-79773

Falk, F. (2010). Invasion, infection, invisibility: An iconology of illegalized immigration. In C. Bischoff, F. Falk, & S. Kafehsy (Eds.), Images of illegalized immigration: Towards a critical iconology of politics (pp. 83–100). Transcript.

Fayyad, H. (2021, 10 de fevereiro). The Arab Spring: A social media revolution? [Vídeo]. Middle East Eye. https://www.middleeasteye.net/video/arab-spring-social-media-revolution

Fildis, A. T. (2012). Roots of Alawite-Sunni rivalry in Syria. Middle East Policy Council, 19(2), 148–156. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4967.2012.00541.x

Glass, C. (2017, 25 de outubro). The Syrian civil war is decided. Stratfor. https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/syrian-civil-war-decided

Grau, O., & Hinterwaldner, I. (Eds.). (2021). Retracing political dimensions: Strategies in contemporary new media art. De Gruyter.

Grossman, A., & O'Brien, A. (Eds.). (2007). Projecting migration: Transcultural documentary practice. Wallflower Press.

Ianchovichina, E., & Devarajan, S. (2021, 21–25 de junho). Why does the Arab Spring keep coming back? [Apresentação em conferência]. Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics 2021: Global Unrest. https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/8215471cb2c756b0908a67de4e0d9ca8-0050022021/original/Why-Does-the-Arab-Spring-Keep-Coming-Back.pdf

Interview with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. (2011, 31 de janeiro). The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703833204576114712441122894

Jameson, F. (1992). The geopolitical aesthetic: Cinema and space in the world system. Indiana University Press.

Kafehsy, S. (2010). Images of victims in trafficking in women: The Euro campaign against trafficking in women in Switzerland. In C. Bischoff, F. Falk, & S. Kafehsy (Eds.), Images of illegalized immigration. Towards a critical iconology of politics (pp.71–81). Transcript.

Kaplan, R. D. (1993, fevereiro). Syria: Identity crisis. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1993/02/syria-identity-crisis/303860/

Kimball, D., & Davenport, K. (2021). Timeline of Syrian chemical weapons activity, 2012-2021. Arms Control Association. https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Timeline-of-Syrian-Chemical-Weapons-Activity

Köhn, S. (2016). Mediating mobility: Visual anthropology in the age of migration. Wallflower Press.

Langmann, S., & Pick, D. (2018). Photography as a social research method. Springer.

Maigret, E. (2010). Sociologia da comunicação e das mídias (M. Bagno, Trad.). Senac. (Trabalho original publicado em 2003)

Malkki, L. (1995). Purity and exile: Violence, memory and national cosmology among Hutu refugees in Tanzania. Chicago University Press.

Marks, L. U. (2008). Experience – Information – Image: A historiography of unfolding. Arab cinema as example. Cultural Studies Review, 14(1), 85–98. https://doi.org/10.5130/csr.v14i1.2100

Momani, B. (2014, 10–12 de abril). The Arab Spring is genuine revolution, but a bumpy and arduous road ahead [Comunicação]. The Institute for New Economic Thinking and the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canadá. https://www.ineteconomics.org/uploads/papers/MOMANI_Bessma_-Arab-Spring-a-Genuine-Revolutionary-Movement.pdf

Ozkizilcik, O. (2021). War without end: Who will be king-maker in Syria in 2022? TRT World. https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/war-without-end-who-will-be-king-maker-in-syria-in-2022-53176

Santos, M., Petrus, R., & Loureiro, A. (Eds.). (2014). Recortes interdisciplinares sobre migrações e deslocamentos. Léo Christiano Editorial.

Seale, P. (1989). Asad of Syria: The struggle for the Middle East. University of California Press.

Seale, P. (2011). Os dilemas da dinastia de Al-Assad. Le Monde Diplomatique. https://diplomatique.org.br/os-dilemas-da-dinastia-de-al-assad/

Silva, J. C. J., Bógus, L. M. M., & Silva, S. A. G. J. (2017). Os fluxos migratórios mistos e os entraves à proteção aos refugiados. Revista Brasileira de Estudos de População, 34(1), 15–30. https://doi.org/10.20947/S0102-3098a0003

Slackman, M. (2011, 25 de março). Syrian troops open fire on protesters in several cities. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/world/middleeast/26syria.html

Slim, R. (2012, 24 de fevereiro). Unite Syria's opposition first. MEI@75. https://www.mei.edu/publications/unite-syrias-opposition-first

Soszynski, M. (2006). How do pictures represent? Philosophy Now, (57), 20–21.

Spencer, S. (2011). Visual research methods in the social sciences: Awakening visions. Routledge.

Syrian Arab Republic. (2021). 2021 Needs and response summary. https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/som_summary_2021.pdf

Valenta, M., Jakobsen, J., Župarić-Iljić, D., & Halilovich, H. (2020). Syrian refugee migration: Transitions in migrant statuses and future scenarios of Syrian mobility. Refugee Survey Quarterly, 39(2), 153–176. https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/hdaa002

van Dijk, T. (1999). Discourse and racism. Discourse and Society, 10(2), 147–148. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926599010002001

Warren, S. (2005). Photography and voice in critical qualitative management research. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 18(6), 861–882. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513570510627748

Wood, G. (2017). A guerra do fim dos tempos (L. T. Motta, Trad.). Companhia das Letras. (Trabalho original publicado em 2016)

Wright, T. (2002). Moving images: The media representation of refugees'. Visual Studies, 17(1), 53–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/1472586022000005053

Wright, T. (2016). Press photography and visual rhetoric. In E. Margolis & L. Pauwels (Eds.), The Sage handbook of visual research methods (pp. 317–336). Sage.