Revealing the Gendered Dynamics of Displacement: A Feminist Security Study on Afghan Refugees in Iran and Türkiye

Abstract

This article examines Afghan refugee displacement across the Afghanistan–Iran–Türkiye corridor through the lens of Feminist Security Perspectives (FSP). It argues that displacement should not be understood as a singular event beginning upon arrival in a destination country, but as a continuous and cumulative security process shaped by conditions in the country of origin, transit, and destination. The article critiques a tendency in Türkiye-centered refugee scholarship to analyze Afghan refugees as if their experiences begin in Türkiye, thereby producing what this study conceptualizes as transit discontinuity: the analytical separation of refugees’ current vulnerabilities from insecurities accumulated during earlier phases of displacement. Methodologically, the article employs a comparative qualitative evidence synthesis of existing empirical studies on Afghan refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers in Afghanistan, Iran, and Türkiye. Reading these studies through FSP, the article shows how conflict and patriarchal restrictions in Afghanistan, legal exclusion and structural violence in Iran, and legal uncertainty, labor exploitation, limited access to services, social exclusion, and gender-based violence in Türkiye are connected across a broader displacement trajectory. The findings demonstrate that Iran is not merely a geographical transit route but a long-term host and transit space where gendered insecurities are produced, intensified, and carried into the Turkish context. The article contributes to a corridor-based, gender-sensitive, and people-centered understanding of refugee security, arguing that research on Afghan refugees in Türkiye must systematically incorporate origin and transit experiences.

Keywords

• Security
• Feminism
• Displacement
• Refugees
• Türkiye
• Iran

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