Human Security and Sustainable Development Goals: The Voices of Afghan Women Refugees in Pakistan

Abstract

This study investigates the lived experiences of Afghan women refugees in Kohat camps in Pakistan. The objective of the study is to understand women’s everyday experiences of discrimination and/or empowerment while living in these camps. Using the thematic analysis (TA), the major themes extracted in this study relate to submissiveness and docility, gender equality and empowerment, and structural inequalities culminating in discrimination. These themes were found to be influential in the lives of Afghan women refugees. Drawing from the discussions surrounding human security, gender security, SDGs 5 (gender equality) and 10 (reduced inequalities), the key findings suggest that women in camps have cocooned lives, and their patriarchal cultural set-up perpetuates gender-spatial segregation which consequently limits women’s opportunities to access and traverse spaces other than their immediate residential location (camps). In addition, they are deprived of seeking education outside the radius of the camps and are not allowed to have mobile phones. Consequently, this limits their worldview. Given these circumstances, it is pertinent to extend facilitation to refugee women in Pakistan within a holistic framework.