July 2023: Afghanistan is facing a ‘Gender Apartheid.’ Since the fall of Kabul in August 2021, the rights of Afghan girls and women have been systematically reduced and erased. Today nearly 2.5 million (80%) of school-aged Afghan girls and young women are out of school, given the ban on education of girls. 

In a recent paper, for L'Asile en France Samuel Hall’s Nassim Majidi and Cyrus Ettehadieh illustrate how international support from Europe and neighbouring Iran and Pakistan is paramount in sustaining protection through migration for Afghans. 

In Afghanistan, the high costs of obtaining a passport restrict a section of population from migration. Most Afghans cannot afford to pay for a legal way out. The challenge today is not to know whether Afghans are entitled to international protection - but how to access this right to asylum in the context of regional closure, both in their region and in Europe. 

They emphasise on the need to improve access to asylum and strengthen asylum policies for Afghan girls and young women. Together, we call for an end to forced returns and facilitating special visas to allow Afghan girls and women to access international protection. 

Dans le dernier numéro de L'éléphant, l'équipe de Samuel Hall expliquela situation en Afghanistan où la moitié de la population est rendue socialement invisible, effacée de la vie économique et écartée du débat politique. 

Ce numéro spécial - dans vos kiosques depuis le 13 juillet -  présente notre entretien avec la fondatrice et la responsable des programmes de Radio Begum, la seule radio féminine à émettre en Afghanistan sur la fréquence FM.L'émission de radio sert d'espace d'expression pour les femmes et contribue à combler le vide laissé par les restrictions des droits des femmes. Radio Begum propose à l'antenne des programmes éducatifs et de soutien psychologique.

‘Aujourd’hui, les priorités sont d’aider les femmes à se mettre à l’abri et de renforcer les capacités de réponses humanitaires dans le pays.’ L’article appelle le gouvernement français à offrir un droit de protection en s’appuyant sur sa diplomatie féministe pour offrir une voie de sortie de cet apartheid de genre. 

Plus d'informations ici: https://lelephant-larevue.fr/numero/?n=-21 

02.07.23: In a recent academic article published by American Behavioral Scientist, ‘Deterring Migration in Times of Crises: The Ethics of Behavioral Change in Migration Information Campaigns’ by Samuel Hall’s team and co-founder, Nassim Majidi, we analysed a specific program carried out in Ethiopia and Afghanistan between 2016 and 2019, which focused on changing the behaviour of potential migrants through an information campaign. 

The case study reveals that certain practices in migration information campaigns diverged from established standards in social and behavioural communication campaigns.

This article advocates for applying UNICEF's standards on strategic behavioural change, highlighting good practices and emphasising their relevance to the field of migration. The goal is to establish a constructive approach for planning information campaigns that empowers individuals and communities, addresses and lower structural barriers hindering the adoption of positive practices, and supports local initiatives aimed at building better societies.

The article also serves as a reminder to a broader audience that maintaining these standards is crucial in all contexts, particularly in challenging situations like Afghanistan and Ethiopia. In such contexts of forced migration, where people rely on migration as a means of protection, ethical challenges arise when attempting to control or manage migration.

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16.03.23: Storytelling is a powerful tool for researchers in gathering data and information. It provides context, meaning, and emotion to otherwise dry and factual information, making it all the more compelling, understandable, and importantly, relatable to policy-makers to action change. What researchers, or aid workers, do with the stories gathered from forced migrants can be a tool to amplify refugee voices as forms of knowledge that are valid not only as testimony but as expertise to design research, programmes and policies.

Building up to the Migration Summit 2023, Samuel Hall’s co-founder, Nassim Majidi spoke to Clay Lowe on the Voices of Resilience podcast by Na’amal exploring the power of storytelling within migration & refugee research - including its ethics and realities on field

Some of these insights were based on a co-authored paper Storytelling in Research with Refugees by Nassim Majidi & Adam Saltsman from the Department of Urban Studies, Worcester State University - who explore the potential of such methods in their research.

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