Behind Closed Doors is a serie of photo essays by nine syrian women during a one-week participatory photography workshop by Jungleye Association in Bourj el Barajneh camp in Beirut. As an urban refugee camp Burj el Barajneh looks and functions more like a ghetto than a camp. For security reasons, it wasn’t possible for the women to take pictures outside, or even walk within the area holding a camera. As a result of this limitation and because of the subject matter the women proposed, Jungleye quickly decided to do the workshop behind closed doors, meaning the women would focus their reportage on what happened with the confines of their home.
“Behind Closed Doors” photo essay is an intimate and deeply moving testimony about these women’s lives documenting what it means to flee Syria and find refuge in Lebanon. Each of them focused on various topics and issues they are facing everyday, such as: health problems, lack of access to education for their children, sanitation conditions, security problems, and unemployment. As these strong women share their emotions and their private lives since they had to flee from Syria, they help spread the word about the situation of millions of Syrians in Lebanon.
In a stunning display of openness, the women shared their emotions and their private life during the workshop and as a result, the women developed a close bond with one another. The images of home life and children seen through iron window grills and ghosted behind scrim like curtains remind the viewer what is still at stake in their daily struggle.