Gender in Refuge: Women’s Lives, Spaces and Everyday Experiences in Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Uganda

Abstract

Although the whole refugee population is heavily affected by precarious life, uncertainty, and unsafety, women are particularly vulnerable in the situations of exile. Throughout their whole migration route – from a war or disaster inflicted country of origin, over their migration journey, to their destination countries – they are at a disproportionately higher risk of harm, especially gender-based violence. This includes refugee camps as well, where har-assments, rape, abuses, and exploitation are common in refugees’ everyday life. This paper focuses on one of those camps – Nakivale refugee settlement in Uganda. The paper uses some theoretical tools of feminist geography to look at the gendered experience of life in a refugee camp, and see how gender shapes women’s experiences of space, movement, changing surroundings and cultures, family relations, etc. in it. Moreover, through the voices of refugee women, it uncovers how gender, intertwined with other social locations, marginalize refugee women even further, alarmingly jeopardizing their safety and wellbeing in the camp.