Biography
Dr. Farhana Afrin Rahman is an interdisciplinary scholar of gender, development, and forced migration, with over 15 years of experience in academia, international development organizations, and the policy sector. She is currently a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow/Isaac Newton Trust Fellow and an Affiliated Lecturer at the Department of Politics and International Studies. Previously, she was a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College Cambridge, a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Tokyo, a Non-Residential Fellow at the Centre for Asia Pacific Refugee Studies at the University of Auckland, and a Fellow at the Harvard University Asia Center. Farhana received her PhD in 2021 from the University of Cambridge's Centre for Gender Studies. Her PhD thesis was shortlisted for the 2023 International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS) Best Dissertation Prize, and received the accolade "Most Accessible and Captivating Work for the Non-Specialist Reader". She also holds an MPhil in Multi-Disciplinary Gender Studies from the University of Cambridge (2014), and an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Peace and Conflict Studies, International Relations, and Arabic from the University of Toronto (2011).
Farhana's first book, "After the Exodus: Gender and Belonging in Bangladesh's Rohingya Refugee Camps" (Cambridge University Press, 2024), won the 2025 L.H.M. Ling Outstanding First Book Prize from the British International Studies Association. Her peer-reviewed articles and chapters have been published in various journals and edited volumes, including Journal of Refugee Studies, Feminist Review, and Journal of International Women's Studies. She has received competitive scholarships/grants for her research from several international funding bodies, including the Cambridge International Trust, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the UNESCO Silk Roads Programme, amongst others.
Farhana co-founded Silkpath Relief Organization – a non-profit providing humanitarian assistance to vulnerable communities in Afghanistan, and to refugee populations in Bangladesh and Malaysia. In 2015, she helped establish the first academic program in gender studies in Afghanistan, based at the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, where she was Adjunct Professor of Gender Studies. Since 2012, Farhana has worked as a consultant for organizations such as UNDP and UN Women, providing technical expertise and trainings on gender equality, social policy, and human rights for various projects across the Global South. In recognition of her contributions to the field of gender and development, she received the 2021 Paula Kantor Award from the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW).
Farhana was born in Bangladesh and raised in Zambia and Canada. She is an avid traveller and has visited over 60 countries.
Research
Farhana’s research interests include gender, refugees and forced migration, international development, lived experiences in Asia, and violence and conflict, amongst others.
Publications
Books
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(2024) After the Exodus: Gender and Belonging in Bangladesh’s Rohingya Refugee Camps, Cambridge University Press. [Series: “South Asia in the Social Sciences”] - Winner, 2025 L.H.M. Ling Outstanding First Book Prize, British International Studies Association
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
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(2023) “Rickety Boats to Refuge(e): Migration, Gender, and Subjectivity Among Rohingya Refugee Women.” Journal of Critical Realism in Socio- Economics (JOCRISE). 1 (4): 327-338.
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(2019) “‘I Find Comfort Here’: Rohingya Women and Taleems in Bangladesh’s Refugee Camps.” Journal of Refugee Studies. 34(1): 874-889. [Published Online First: July 2019]
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(2018) “Narratives of Agency: Women, Islam, and the Politics of Economic Participation in Afghanistan.” Journal of International Women’s Studies. 19(3): 60-70.
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(2018) “The Merits and Limits of a Gendered Epistemology: Muslim Women and the Politics of Knowledge Production.” Journal of International Women’s Studies. 19(1): 20-33. [Shortlisted in the Feminist and Women’s Studies Association, UK & Ireland, ‘2017 Student Essay Competition’]
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(2017) “Farkhunda’s Legacy: Gender, Identity, and Shifting Societal Narratives in Afghanistan.” Feminist Review. 117(1): 178-185.
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(2017) “Rights, Roles, and Rural Realities: A Case Study on the Effects of Fatwa Decrees Against Women in Rural Bangladesh.” Muslim World Journal of Human Rights. 14(1): 1-27. [Special Issue on ‘Gender and Islam’]
Book Chapters in Edited Volumes
- (2024) “Women’s Worlds: Vignettes and Memories of Afghanistan.” In: Choudhury, N. and Schmeding, A. (eds.), Frontier Ethnographies: Deconstructing Research Experiences in Afghanistan and Pakistan. New York: Berghahn.
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(2022) ““I Am Not Alone”: Rohingya Women Negotiating Home and Belonging in Bangladesh’s Refugee Camps.” In: Mayer, T. and Tran, T. (eds.), Displacement, Belonging, and Migrant Agency in the Face of Power. New York: Routledge. [co-authored with Nafay Choudhury]
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(2021) “Survival as Resistance: Rohingya Refugee Women’s Narratives of Life, Loss, and Hope.” In: Bonnerjee, S. (ed.), Subaltern Women’s Narratives: Strident Voices, Dissenting Bodies. London: Routledge.
Commissioned Research Papers & Policy Reports
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(2022) Assessing Gender, Power, and NGO Programming in Bangladesh’s Rohingya Refugee Camps. Centre for Asia Pacific Refugee Studies, University of Auckland.
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(2020) “Trajectories of Gender Inequality, Identity, and Violent Extremism in Rural Bangladesh.” In: Conflicting Identities: The Nexus Between Masculinities, Femininities and Violent Extremism in Asia. UN Women and UNDP.
Teaching and Supervisions
Farhana created and teaches the "Gender and Forced Migration" course for the MPhil in Politics and International Studies.
Farhana is a dissertation supervisor for students in the MPhil in Politics and International Studies and the MPhil in Development Studies.
