The Ideal Refugees : Gender, Islam, and the Sahrawi Politics of Survival

Refugee camps are typically perceived as militarized and patriarchal
spaces, and yet the Sahrawi refugee camps and their inhabitants
have consistently been represented as ideal in nature: uniquely
secular and democratic spaces, and characterized by gender
equality. Drawing on extensive research with and about Sahrawi
refugees in Algeria, Cuba, Spain, South Africa, and Syria, Fiddian-
Qasmiyeh explores how, why, and to what effect such idealized
depictions have been projected onto the international arena.