Disability and Difference in Syria under the French Mandate

This paper draws on sources from Paris, Nantes, Damascus, and Aleppo to discuss the social and political significance of labeling and coping with physical, mental, and sexual difference among Syrians under the French Mandate. Using a variety of sources, including patient case files and psychiatrist’s records, court cases, police records, church and mosque papers, correspondence from officials at charitable organizations, art, music, literature, and photography, I argue that Syrians identified as abnormal or unhealthy by French and elite Syrian medical and political experts were not only manipulated to fit political and cultural goals of those in positions of power, but were also themselves, along with non-elite actors considered healthy or normal, transforming notions of difference and identity.