Family, religion and individual rights

This thesis aims to investigate a theoretical base for the process of identity transformation of Syrians since they arrived into a new social setting. Based on particular experiences that young adults of Syrian origin who settled in Gaziantep, Turkey, have had, I will study the roles that Syrians were fulfilling in pre-revolutionary Syria and their overall effects in comparison to their experiences in Turkey. The civil war has caused a massive refugee flow, and those refugees who settled in Turkey are facing new challenges. Then, the thesis will compare different aspects of alienation in both Syrian and Turkish social settings. The key for comprehending the context and background of pre-revolutionary Syria requires a deep understanding of family and religion roles in Syrians' lives; their influence on people's liberty and their limitations over individuals' rights. In the Syrian context state, family, and religious institutions constituted the social structure that individuals were embedded. This context led to social and political alienation for the Syrians, especially for the members of the younger generation who were yet to be incorporated by the social structure completely. Institutions that suppressed individuals' identities can be categorized into formal institutions consisting of formal restrictions and government policies, and informal institutions which include family, tribe, and religious entities that used customs and traditions to influence the behavior of people, and impose policies and procedures on individuals informally. In this research, therefore, I will talk about the family and religion as informal institutions; how they were utilized by the formal institutions, for the sake of achieving the state's aims and objectives in leading unified people under a set of rules, norms, traditions, and cultural practices, and how identities formed accordingly in comparison of Syria and Turkey.