Sexual violence against women is a broad and serious problem all over the world, but South Africa is one of the countries that stand out with their high statistics, where women are mostly targeted and exposed to this violation. At the same time, there are many women’s and human right’s organisations in South Africa working to address sexual violence and support survivors and fighting for equality between men and women. In this study, five organisations have been interviewed, whereof four of them are working with religious leaders as an approach to fights sexual violence. The result and analysis suggest the importance of both women’s and human rights organisations as norm entrepreneurs, as well as the importance of religious leaders as local actors to facilitate the work of internalizing gender equality and fight sexual violence. The mentoring and support from organisations and the work with religious leaders have shown positive progress in several areas of their work to localize and internalize gender equality. However, the organisations are facing limitations in their work with religious leaders which might limit the progress of localization and internalization.

Since the end of the 1990s, the number of forcibly displaced people has increased from 33 million to 80 million at the end of 2019. The living conditions within the refugee camps have progressed beyond emergency assistance, with the main objective being to provide short-term protection in refugee camps designed for short-term stays. However, the average time spent in a refugee camp is 20 years, and refugees often lack food security and power supply to meet basic needs such as cooking or lighting. Refugee settlements are stressful and unstable environments, especially for women and girls, who are vulnerable to various sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) forms. A systematic literature review of eight peer-reviewed articles and seven semi-structured interviews are used in this study to assess the effectiveness of humanitarian energy initiatives in reducing SGBV against women in refugee camps. In this thesis, a feminist lens is used to shed more light and unlock place-based challenges to sustainable energy solutions. Our study's findings indicate that establishing a link between sexual and gender-based violence and energy is difficult, and we cannot rule out the possibility of an existing link. We assert, however, that the most effective approach to reducing SGBV among refugee women is not through energy interventions but through a combination of mixed long-term solutions that address the root causes of violence.

The patriarchal societies in the MENA region have their entire social framework around the protection and regulation of female sexuality. The woman’s male relatives have to make sure that her honor is under their control and fulfills the patriarchal family demands. Women’s failure to stick to the code of honor may result in aggressive reactions that may mount to honor killings and this had happened in 2019 to Israa Gharyeb. The murder of the 21-year-old girl sent a shockwave of protests not just in the Palestinian society where the crime had happened but also across the Arab region. Activists on social media and the streets are sending a clear and strong message that murdering women will not be hidden anymore. Accordingly, this thesis sheds the light on the Twitter hashtag # كلنا_اسراء_غریب (we are all Israa) to reflect on the participants’ responses to both crime event and the traditional discourse on “Honor killings.” Theoretically, the paper offers a rereading of the theory of critical discourse analyses on the notions of ideology, power, and dominance. Empirically, this paper will analyze 460 tweets by conducting critical discourse analysis and qualitative content analysis.

Sexual and gender-based violence against women and girls is a major challenge across the world which requires engaged and sustained action to see change (Abramowitz and Moran, 2012). Communication for Development approaches are often used in GBV-prevention programmes because they provide a means of engaging people at a community-level, whether that is through one-way behaviour-change messages on mass media or through participatory community projects engaging people in dialogue. Through analysis of the Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) Project on ‘Engaging Faith-Based Organizations to Prevent Violence Against Women & Girls and Increase Survivors’ Access to Services (2015-2017)’, this degree project explores the question of whether engaging with the faith-realities of communities will increase the depth of participation amongst participants. The ERD project focusses on equipping faith leaders, both Muslim and Christian, to engage in activity which shares GBV-prevention messages with their congregations and points victims and survivors to relevant support services. From the available data, it is not possible to conclusively argue that engagement with the faith context enhanced the depth of participation. However, applying three of Freire’s concepts, namely conversion to the people, dialogue and context, I argue that the ERD project aligns with Freire’s conceptualisation of participation more closely than similar projects that are ‘faith blind’.

Rape culture permeates the landscape of post-secondary education throughout Canada. In recent years, student-survivors and advocates have been influential in the creation of provincial legislation mandating colleges and universities to develop stand-alone sexualized violence policies. In British Columbia these policies are to be institutionally reviewed every three years, but there is no clear legislative direction as to how these reviews should be conducted, or how survivors and advocates voices will be included. My thesis examines the impacts of campus sexualized violence and the integral role that student-survivors and their stories play in transforming rape culture. Through the voices of nine University of Victoria student-survivors and five community-based service providers, I demonstrate that student-survivors and those who support them act as both change-agents and subject matter-experts regarding campus rape culture; as such, their inclusion in policy development and review is essential. However, my thesis also demonstrates that student-survivors and advocates navigate an increasingly corporatized post-secondary environment, whereby the stories of student-survivors are considered dangerous to the campus brand and reputation. In taking seriously the trauma associated with sexualized violence and the consequences of the corporate campus, my thesis offers a Trauma Informed Consultation Guideline. This guideline provides a trauma-informed and community based approach to consulting student-survivors in policy review with the intention of creating safer opportunities for story to inform future policy directions. / Graduate

The Afghan Women’s Writing Project (AWWP) emerged in 2009 as a platform through which Afghan women could express their lived experiences and perspectives on a range of culturally relevant issues while retaining their anonymity. The purpose of this research was to understand poetry as a conflict resolution tool that Afghan women are using to be active participants in the social, political and cultural dialogue that is determining their rights. This research focused on three questions: 1) How do Afghan women describe the state of womanhood in Afghanistan? 2) How do Afghan women describe the conflict they experience in their everyday lives? 3) How might poetry and narrative be used to manage the conflict that Afghan women are facing? This research presents a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of one hundred published poems from the AWWP poetry database. Data analysis included open coding, thematic analysis, and the use of van Dijk’s six-step CDA model to evaluate the semantic macrostructures, local meanings, linguistic markers, global and local discourse forms, linguistic realizations, analysis of context, and the researcher’s own interpretive analysis. The findings identify and explain the major themes derived from the study as well as describe how Afghan women feel about womanhood and conflict. The major themes included: child brides/forced marriage, hijab/burqa/niqab, women’s resistance, parents as protectors and/or perpetrators, the power of writing and stress as a result of conflict. This dissertation concludes with a discussion of implications for sustainable norm change using poetry, directions for future research, and recommendations for policy and programming.

This research focuses on unaccompanied or separated adolescent girls who have survived gender-based violence and have sought asylum in Greece. It seeks to explore the interpretations and identities that asylum and psychosocial professionals assign to the girls and to research whether and how the process of the asylum interview may shape the narrative of violence and victimhood of the girls and predefine their self-representation.  The research draws from different theoretical frameworks in exploring the power of the state as reflected in the official discourses on vulnerability and the legal processes of granting asylum; the stereotypical ideations of victimhood and the gendered character it often entails; the intersection of gender, age, migration, and the lived experience of violence.  Two methodological approaches are implemented; semi-structured interviews conducted with five professionals and autoethnography. The data from the interviews were thematically codified and analyzed, while the autoethnographic data fed the construction of two case studies. The recurring themes identified commonly shape a set of concluding remarks and make apparent the need for further research in the field.

Despite the amount of studies conducted in the field and actions taken, gender-based violence continues to be rampant in both Afghanistan and Armenia. This study investigates potential causes and factors as to why the two societies look and function the way it does. By conducting a comparative case study by using a most similar system design, the aim with the thesis is to gain a broader understanding of why the women of Afghanistan and Armenia are suffering to these levels. Experiences of Afghan and Armenian women will be studied together with the legal and social construction of the countries. The study is primarily based on the theoretical framework of factors contributing to gender-based violence. The combination of sources that have been selected and used have done so in order to create as fair and representative a picture of Afghan and Armenian society and the experiences of the women living there as possible.

One of the most prevalent human rights violations in the world is Violence Against Women and Girls. It is estimated that 1 in 3 women, which is equal to 736 million women, have been experiencing sexual and/or physical violence in her lifetime since the age of 15. Previous research states that women with intellectual disabilities are more vulnerable to Gender Based Violence (GBV) than other women in Tanzania. A minor field study was done in Tanzania with the ame to; finding how women with intellectual disabilities are more vulnerable than other women in Tanzania, understand how the society's support for abused women with disabilities can be improved in Tanzania and to find how stakeholders perceive that violence against women with intellectual disabilities can be prevented. The study has been carried out by holding key informant interviews with employees of NGOs, lawyers and teachers that work for these women's rights in different ways in Tanzania. To analyze the empirical material, the Human rights based approach has been made made into an analytical framework by identifying and defining the key concepts: capability, functionings and freedom and with the perspective of Leave no one behind. The findings show that poverty, cultural beliefs and beliefs in witchcraft, among other things contribute to the fact that women with intellectual disabilities are extra vulnerable in Tanzania. They are at great risk of being locked up, become victims of human trafficing, subjected to rape and murder.  Society should raise awareness that GBV is illegal and wrong to improve the situation of women with intellectual disabilities. The police and healthcare workers should be better trained to respond to women with special needs who have been subjected to violence or sexual violence. The government could also give these women support to be able to work on their own terms. Through work, the women get a better life and meaning, which reduces the risk that she will be exposed to GBV. To prevent violence against these women the government should offer availability to adapted and inclusive schools with trained staff who know the needs of disabled children. If these kids can go to school with others, people with disabilities will be normalized and the stigma will reduce. To conclude, women with intellectual disabilities are extra vulnerable in Tanzania and much can be done to improve their situation.

Gender-based violence has been widely used by various actors against the most vulnerable individuals in conflict-affected settings. Internally displaced girls and women are especially susceptible to suffer from this type of violence; nevertheless, they frequently choose not to report it. The present research identifies and analyses the reasons for the under-reporting of gender-based violence occurrences against the above-mentioned individuals in northern Mozambique, namely, the province of Cabo Delgado. In the first phase of primary data collection, the researcher conducted two focus group discussions to obtain a transparent understanding of the community members’ interpretations, including internally displaced people. In a second phase, seventeen semi-structured interviews were conducted with community agents, activists, service providers, international and non-governmental organizations representatives, and political and religious figures. Subsequently, the findings were evaluated through an altered version of the ecological model (What Works to Prevent Violence, 2018). The results revealed that under-reporting of gender-based violence cases is caused by the following reasons: victim’s fear; social stigma; fear of retaliation; lack of information about gender-based violence and respective materialization; culture-blaming; distorted interpretations of female and male identities; the perpetrators’ influence within the community; lack of preparedness of officials working formal institutions, including hospitals, to refer victims to judicial bodies; women empowerment as a secondary subject within decision-making bodies; prevalence and importance of informal institutions and respective decisions; lack of official supervision on informal institutions; grassroots’ lack of knowledge on the creation or amendment of laws; male majority in security forces, including police stations and military; abuse of authority; lack of training of security forces concerning gender-based violence and respective long-term implications; absence of a standardized reporting process; and morosity of the trial. Therefore, this research points out that under-reporting of gender-based violence must be evaluated from a variety of cultural, social, and political perspectives.