Dr Hala Nasr

Graduated in 2023

Project Description

Women and girl safe space interventions are increasingly being implemented by multilateral agencies and, international and local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in areas affected by forced displacement, disaster, and conflict interventions. Women and girl safe space interventions employ gender-segregated space and collective-based strategies in the pursuit of women’s empowerment. There is little research supporting the effectiveness of women and girl safe spaces in empowering women. Much of the existing research uses quantitative methods, and sheds little light on what actually happens in women and girl safe spaces, or the nature of women’s experiences participating in them. To address this, I conducted a feminist ethnographic study exploring Syrian refugee women’s experiences in and because of participating in a women and girl safe space in the Beqaa valley, Lebanon. My research sought to answer the questions: What were women’s experiences in and because of participating in the women and girl safe space? What power relations, practices, and structures facilitated these experiences? What role did their participation (if any) play in transforming gendered norms and power relations?

Supervisors

Professor Cathy Vaughan, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health
Associate Professor Karen Block, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health
Dr Elise Klein, School of Social and Political Sciences