Reviewer ’s report  
 
Title: Continuum of Sexual and Gender -Based Violence Risk s among Syrian RefugeeWomen 
and Girls in Lebanon  
 
Version: 2 Date: 12 Jan 2020  
 
Reviewer's report:  
 
General Comments:  
 
- This study reports survey data obtained in Lebanon with Syrian refugees, regarding their the 
challenges faced by Syrian girls related to gender -based violence.   
- The study reported unique data collection using the SenseMaker tool, which asks a series of 
open -ended questions regarding Syrian refugee girls and the challenges they face, which elicited 
stories of gender -based violence that respondents faced themselve s or that they have heard about 
in their community. The study included responses from both female and male respondents to 
examine gender differences in perceptions of gender based violence among Syrian refugees in 
Lebanon.  
- The study reports interesting findings to understand the different forms of GBV that 
impact girls in the public sphere, in their families, and through forced or early marriage. There 
are some areas in the manuscript, however, where further clarification is needed regarding key 
concepts  in relation to the study design and interpretation of the data.  
  
 
Detailed comments:  
 
Grammar:  
 
- There are a few places in paper that could be edited to clarify verb tense.  
o Page 4, first line. Change "remains" to "has remained" in the sentence, "Sin ce the start 
of the conflict in 2011, the situation in Syria "has remained" one of the worst….  
 
Abstract:  
 
- The abstract, line 13 refers to "forced prostitution" as a "negative coping mechanism" 
which is confusing since the idea of being forced indicates  an oppressive power dynamic rather 
and an individual's "coping" strategy. Consider changing the term used in the abstract to reflect 
how the authors frame this as "survival sex" on page 6 of the paper.  
 
Introduction  
 
- The authors provide important context ual information regarding the proportion of 
Syrian refugees living in Lebanon and SGBV in times of conflict.  
- Some points to include:  
o Page 4, first paragraph. It may be helpful to clarify that Lebanon is not a signatory to 
the 1951 UN Refugee Conventio n; 
o Also the strain in Lebanon due to the influx of Syrian refugees builds upon previous 
history of receiving refugees from Iraq and Palestine.  
o The authors could then consider including in their interpretation of the data how anti -
Syrian sentiment may b e fueling GBV against Syrian women and girls.   
o Page 5, bottom of the page. Perhaps clarify the percentage of forced migrants from 
Syria who are children (or the overall proportion of force migrants world -wide who are women 
and children)  
- Some sections of the introduction are repetitive; could be integrated.  
o Page 6, lines 33 -41. The discussion of the different types of violence repeats from the 
list provided earlier on the page. Perhaps here, the authors could emphasize further the role of 
economic in security related to immigration status and lack of work authorization for forced 
migrants (some of which appears in the discussion).  
- Some concepts could be further clarified in the introduction, then later when discussing 
the data  
o On page 6, last para graph. What does "integrated into their host communities" refer to? 
In the discussion the authors provide some contrast to the absence of formal refugee camps in 
Lebanon, but do not clearly discuss how Syrian refugees commonly rent apartments and live in 
different neighborhoods in urban and suburban Lebanon. This would help define what the 
authors mean by "integrated".  
- It would help to discuss gender -based violence in Lebanon and/or Syrian (pre -war) as a 
way to contrast or contextualize the study finding s with Syrian refugees in Lebanon.  
 
Methods  
 
- The use of the SenseMaker tool seems like a creative and effective approach to eliciting 
stories of gender based violence.  
- Research design —Some additional information is needed to clarify and reorganize the 
methods section:  
o What is SenseMaker? Is this a software? Where was it developed and for what 
purpose?  
o The order of the methods sections could be changed so the researc h design appears 
first. 
o Page 7, bottom of the page. It is unclear what "plot" means in the context of 
participants "plotting" their interpretation of the shared narrative using the tablets.  
- Recruitment  
o Page 8, the authors say they have a convenience  sample, but do not say how they 
recruited participants.  
- Analysis  
o What does "screening" mean in this study? It appears that the analysis team used some 
form of inclusion or exclusion criteria to determine if a story was about gender -based violene 
towa rds women or girls. It would help to provide some information about this process of 
"screening", perhaps connecting the discussion of screening on page 9, lines 16 -24, with the 
definition of SGBV used in the study that appears later on the page.  
o Page 10 , line 8. The authors say tha the study focused on the "experiences of Syrian 
girls" but do not define who is a girl. Social constructions of youth or girl vary cross -culturally 
and in different context, so it would help to know if there was common underst anding of who is 
a girl (vs. a woman) or if an age cut off and if so what was the age?  
o The lower age limit for participants was included, but it is unclear how the analysis 
team defines 'girls'.  
- Power analysis  
o Throughout, the paper would benefit fr om engagement with more analyses of gender -
based violence in relation to systems of power. For example, when discussing parents' decision 
to marry their children at a young age as a 'coping strategy' could be discussed in relation to 
existing research that  conceptualizes child marriage as a controlling behavior; where women and 
girls' bodies are under patriarchal control. The concept of "coping strategy" seems to 
individualize the problems that Syrian refugees face which include political and economic 
insec urity in the broader community.  
o In a related comment, the authors provide indirect information regarding the 
racism/xenophobia towards Syrians expressed by Lebanese. How might this contribute to 
different forms of GBV?  
- Concepts that could be further clarified:  
o Public vs. private? The authors discuss public versus private sphere in their analysis of 
different forms of violence. These concepts are not fully defined. Some engagement with 
feminist analysis of public vs. private violence may also be usef ul, to discuss what forms of 
violence are seen as a social problem, versus attributed to individual problems.  
o "Later SGBV risks". It is unclear what the term "later" or "earlier" refers to. How did 
the authors analyze chronology or temporal dimensions o f reported violence?   
 
Discussion:  
 
- The points raised in the discussion seem to repeat some of the descriptive themes 
shared earlier in the paper and could be further developed to strengthen the analysis of this data 
in relation to the social context of forced migration to Lebanon and the proportion of the 
population (1/3) who are currently Syrian refugees.  
- The types of gender differences in stories appears to be presented at face value. 
However, when reading this paper (as a reader) I was wondering to  what extent the stories shared 
by male participants reflect shared perceptions of "risks" to women in their community which in 
turn are used to justify controlling behaviors (i.e. early marriage) or the sense that women are 
powerless or unable to take car e of themselves? These stories also seem to focus on cases people 
have heard about (a friend, a family member, someone in the community) thus it is unclear how 
prevalence the cases of exploitation are, or if these represent the magnitude of concern; that 
sexual  
exploitation of Syrian women represents a threat to male Syrian identity (which is not to say 
these cases are not real).  
- The authors also seem to miss an opportunity to discuss the agency and positive coping 
strategies (to use the authors terms) employed by young Syrian women as a theme from their 
data. Several interview quotes illustrate cases where a child bride or young woman got away 
from an abusive situation. Although young women were vulnerable to further exposure to 
violence, these acts of agency may be important to highlight, so as not to reproduce the sense of 
women as passive objects of violence.  
 
Are the methods appropriate and well described?  
If not, please specify what is required in your comments to the authors.  
 
No 
 
Does the work include the necessary controls?  
If not, please specify which controls are required in your comments to the authors.  
 
Unable to assess  
 
Are the conclusions drawn adequately supporte d by the data shown?  
If not, please explain in your comments to the authors.  
 
No 
 
Are you able to assess any statistics in the manus cript or would you recommend an 
additional statistical review?  
If an additional statistical review is recommended, please spe cify what aspects require further 
assessment in your comments to the editors.  
 
Not relevant to this manuscript  
 
Quality of written English  
Please indicate the quality of language in the manuscript:  
 
Acceptable  
 
Declaration of competing interests  
Please comp lete a declaration of competing interests, considering the following questions:  
 
1. Have you in the past five years received reimbursements, f ees, funding, or salary from an 
organisation that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of t his 
manuscript, either now or in the future?  
 
2. Do you hold any stocks or shares in an organisation t hat may in any way gain or lose 
financially from the publication of this manuscript, either now or in the future?  
 
3. Do you hold or are you currently apply ing for any patents  relating to the content of the 
manuscript?  
 
4. Have you received reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organization that 
holds or has applied for patents relating to the content of the manuscript?  
 
5. Do you have any other financial competing interests?  
 
6. Do you have any non -financial competing interests in relation to this paper?  
 
If you can answer no to all of the above, write 'I declare that I have  no competing interests' 
below. If your reply is y es to any, please give details below.  
 
I declare that I have no competing interests  
 
I agree to the open peer review policy of the journal. I understan d that my name will be included 
on my report to the authors and, if the manuscript is accepted for publicat ion, my named report 
including any attachments I upload will be posted on the website along with the author s' 
responses. I agree for my report to be made available under an Open Access Creative Commons 
CC-BY license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). I understand that any comments 
which I do not wish to be included in my named report can be in cluded as confidential comments 
to the editors, which will not be published.  
 
I agree to the open peer review policy of the journal