Making aid work for displaced women: Integrating Islamic philanthropy and the international humanitarian system
Project summary
‘Making aid work for displaced women’ is an interdisciplinary research initiative which explores how Islamic philanthropy can be leveraged to improve humanitarian work and achieve more effective outcomes for women. Connecting humanitarian, migration and religious systems, it seeks to develop innovative conceptual and financing solutions to support displaced women through integrating different aid paradigms.
Alarmingly, the number of forcibly displaced people continues to increase yearly with many displacement emergencies becoming protracted. Resources, capacity, political will, and governance models to protect displaced people have fallen woefully short of needs in often feminised displacement emergencies. There is a massive need for a more inclusive humanitarian policy to address the complex and intersecting needs of displaced women and children. It is estimated that over half of the world’s forcibly displaced people are hosted in Muslim-majority countries, yet the principles of Islamic philanthropy, such as zakat (obligatory charity), sadaqah (voluntary charity) and waqf (endowment) have received little attention in terms of their potential to support forcibly displaced women, lacking integration into policy and humanitarian discourse.
Although religion is often avoided in the humanitarian system, humanitarian agencies increasingly turn to Islamic philanthropy tools to bridge funding gaps and address critical needs. Therefore, the growing role of Islamic philanthropy in humanitarian action requires investigation, especially in relation to how it can be leveraged to support displaced women to unleash effective solutions.
The project builds on Dr Sandra Pertek’s research, policy and practical experience to date at the intersection of gender, religion and forced migration. While evidence shows religion matters for displaced women as a protective and risk factor and engaging religious resources is essential for improving outcomes for displaced populations, little is known about how Islamic philanthropy can support the complex and intersecting needs of displaced women. Therefore, the ‘Making aid work for displaced women’ initiative critically analyses various aid paradigms and works towards integrating different approaches to enhance their
coordination and effectiveness in the context of global forced displacement. Specifically, it investigates how the (dis)connections between the international humanitarian system and Islamic philanthropy actors shape humanitarian commitments and responses to women in conflict and forced migration. In doing so, the project seeks to negotiate gender-sensitive Islamic philanthropy models, linking these with the ethics of women’s protection within the humanitarian system.
Research methodology/objectives
‘Making aid work for displaced women’ is a multi-methods and multi-country research initiative with a strong policy and capacity-building component to help strengthen responses to women in displacement in Muslim-majority contexts. The initiative involves a global analysis and case studies in some of the largest Muslim-majority and minority refugee-hosting countries, focusing on some of the most protracted displacement crises, including Bangladesh, Kenya, Türkiye, and the UK, where Islamic philanthropy operates transnationally.
Project objectives
- To develop a better understanding of key Islamic philanthropy principles and ethics related to displaced women’s protection and inclusion
- To examine the (dis)connections between Islamic philanthropy actors and the international humanitarian system
- To generate evidence on what works in Islamic philanthropy to strengthen displaced women’s protection and inclusion
- To facilitate multi-stakeholder knowledge exchange and policy engagement
Work packages
- ‘Investigating (dis)connections between Islamic philanthropy and the international humanitarian system, and faith ethics’ includes literature review, stakeholder mapping, gender policy analysis and Islamic ethics analysis.
- ‘Understanding the lived experiences of displaced women receiving humanitarian assistance’ includes in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with forced migrant communities, semi-structured key-informant interviews with humanitarian policymakers and practitioners, and a global consultative workshop for interim feedback.
- ‘Policy impact and innovation: Integrating Islamic philanthropy and international humanitarian system’ includes policy dialogues and workshops, a guidance note, “Making Islamic philanthropy work for displaced women”, and pilot training.
Outputs and impact
‘Making aid work for displaced women’ initiative works towards a range of academic outputs, policy impacts and capacity building of diverse humanitarian actors.
Publications:
Articles
- Pertek, S 2024, “Adaptive Religious Coping with Experiences of Sexual and Gender-based Violence and Displacement” Journal of Refugee Studies.
- Pertek, S 2024, “Integrating Gender Sensitivity into Faith-Based Humanitarianism“, Muslim Humanitarianism Review, vol. 1, no. 1, 1, pp. 31-56.
- Pertek, S 2024, “How can Muslim charities improve protection from violence against women in displacement? ” The Forum, vol. 6, pp. 62-67.
- Pertek, S, Block, K, Goodson, L, Hassan, P, Hourani, J & Phillimore, J 2023, ” Gender-based violence, religion and forced displacement: Protective and risk factors” Frontiers in Human Dynamics, vol. 5, 1058822.
- Pertek, S, Kuznetsova, I & Tsarevska, I 2023, ” Ukrainian internally displaced women at risk of sexual and gender-based violence” Forced Migration Review, no. 72, pp. 56-59.
- Pertek, S 2022, ” “God helped us”: resilience, religion and intersectional experiences of gender-based violence and trafficking among African forced migrant women ” Social Sciences, vol. 11, no. 5, 201.
- Rutledge, K., Pertek, S., Abo-Hilal, M., & Fitzgibbon, A. (2021). Faith and MHPSS among displaced Muslim women . Forced Migration Review, 66, 24-26.
Book chapters
- Le Roux, E., & Pertek, S. (2022). On the Significance of Religion in Violence Against Women and Girls. (1st ed.) (Religion Matters). Routledge.
- Pertek, S 2023, A Muslim perspective on gender equality and violence against women and girls (VAWG) . in ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF RELIGION FOR THE SDGs: “Your Women, Let Them Be Silent in the Assemblies” – Religion Matters for Gender Equality (SDG 5). Routledge, New York, pp. 80.
- Pertek, SI 2022, A Muslim perspective: Religion as intersecting risk in violence against women and girls . in On the Significance of Religion in Violence Against Women and Girls. 1st edn, Religion Matters, Routledge, London, pp. 55-78.
- Pertek, SI 2022, A Muslim perspective: Religion as protective resource in violence against women and girls . in On the Significance of Religion in Violence Against Women and Girls. 1st edn, Religion Matters, Routledge, London, pp. 117-136.
Policy briefs:
- Pertek, S. (2024) Prioritising protection and inclusion of conflict-affected displaced women and girls in Muslim-majority contexts. Policy Brief. University of Birmingham.
- Pertek, S. (2023) Protection from violence against women in forced displacement. Integrating religion into intersectional and socioecological approaches. Policy Brief. University of Birmingham.
- Pertek, S. (2022) The SEREDA project. Highlighting the continuum of SGBV in forced migration . Policy Brief. University of
Birmingham. - Pertek, S., Phillimore, J., Goodson, L., Jones, L., and Stevens, A. (2021) Forced migration, sexual and gender-based violence and health: findings from the SEREDA project. Policy Brief. University of Birmingham.
blog posts/op-eds:
- Pertek, S. (2023) Gender and forced displacement: Time to integrate religion into humanitarian responses to violence against women | Religion and Global Society (lse.ac.uk)
- Pertek, S. (2023) Gender, Religion, and Forced Displacement in Muslim Settings: Missed Opportunities? (georgetown.edu)
- Pertek, S., Al-Dawood, A. and Saleem, A. (2023) Sexual and gender-based violence in migration contexts: does faith sensitivity matter? (icrc.org)
- Pertek, S (2021) About funerals, soups and compassion: how does the Tatar faith minority respond to the border crisis? Untold Forced Migrant Stories
- Pertek, S (2018) SGBV across migrant and refugee journeys: Early lessons learnt from Tunisia
- Pertek, S (2019) How faith can help refugee and migrant women to heal from Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV)
- Pertek, S (2021) Reflections on Refugee Backlash and Gendered Harms
Infographic:
- Pertek, S. (2021). Ayesha’s Untold Migrant Story: Gender-based Violence in Displacement. Digital or Visual Products, University of Birmingham.
Join the team
Job alert! If you are passionate about advancing inclusive aid approaches to women in displacement, join Dr Sandra Pertek in transforming humanitarian policy by pairing aid paradigms. Looking for the next challenge beyond a standard academic research?
Consider this opportunity open to all applicants regardless of current UK right to work status:
–Research Fellow in Gender, humanitarianism and Islamic studies – 1yr
–Research Fellow in Gender, humanitarianism and social finance – 3 yrs
Project Team
