event
Gender Seminar Series
Thursday
27
April
Shirin Heidari

Intersecting liminalities in forced displacement: drivers and consequences of transactional sex

Shirin Heidari, Geneva Graduate Institute
, -

Room S 11 | Maison de la paix, Geneva

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Ongoing and recent conflicts and crises have resulted in large population being forcibly displaced, seeking safety and security in other countries. Disconnected from their home countries and social support network, displaced people are funneled into a prolonged state of liminality. Caught in different administrative limbo, displaced people experience multiple forms of gender-based discrimination and inequalities in transit and host countries and linger in overlapping liminal states as a result of inefficient and unjust humanitarian systems and asylum processes. These structural vulnerabilities limit their access to basic needs, such as housing, employment, education, or healthcare. In the face of these hardships, refugees craft survival strategies, including by engaging in transactional sex (TS).

The research examines the gendered drivers and consequences of transactional sex among women, men and people of diverse sexual orientation and gender identities and expressions (SOGIE) in forced displacement across six countries and examines the health repercussions with a focus on sexual and reproductive and mental health, across six countries.

 

About the speaker

Shirin Heidari is Senior Researcher at the Gender Centre where she is the lead investigator of a multi-country research on sexual and reproductive health and rights in forced displacement and humanitarian settings. She is also the founding president of GENDRO, a Geneva-based association with the mission to advance gender-sensitive research. In addition, Dr Heidari serves as Senior Technical Consultant to the Gender, Equity and Human Rights team at World Health Organization. Shirin Heidari received her doctorate at Karolinska Institute. She is the author of several publications and has been a TEDx speaker. She is currently a commissioner to the Lancet Commission on Women and Cancer, and member of the Foundation Board of the Geneva International Film Festival and Forum for Human Rights (FIFDH).

 

PART OF THE GENDER SEMINAR SERIES

The Gender Centre has developed this series of research seminars in order to offer a platform for exchange for students, doctoral students in particular, and researchers whose work includes a gender perspective. During this monthly series, researchers have the opportunity to discuss their work, meet peers from different disciplines at the Graduate Institute, as well as interact with other students, guest speakers and faculty members.

See the programme of this semester's Gender Seminar Series here.