Abstract
Rohingya women are doubly marginalized owing to their ethnicity and gender. Therefore, this study aims to describe the unique experiences of violence faced by Rohingya women who fled Myanmar and Bangladesh to seek asylum in Malaysia before, during, and after their transit. Primary data were collected from 33 participants comprising Rohingya women refugees and asylum seekers, medical social workers, medical officials, volunteer workers/activists, refugee organization officers, and a mental health care provider. Thematic analysis was used to identify the patterns in and relationships between the concepts in the collected data. Rohingya women were exposed to various forms of violence and trauma by various groups of men, including those from their own community, throughout their journey to and in Malaysia. The lack of recognition of refugees and asylum seekers in Malaysia prevents them from having mainstream or legal access to jobs, education, and healthcare, and this predicament compounds their suffering from violence, especially for women and girls. Rohingya women and girls in Malaysia need better access to healthcare, resources, and support to identify and address violence, which has a significant impact on their health.
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Data availability
The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available to retain informant privacy.
Notes
A term referring to people from “Arakan,” the old name for Rakhine state in Myanmar.
Refers to the Rakhine Buddhist people in the Rohingya language.
USD1.00 is equivalent to RM4.70 as of November 2023
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Acknowledgements
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the informants who made this study possible. Your valuable contributions and time are greatly appreciated. We extend a special thanks to the Rohingya women informants who placed their trust in us and generously shared information for this study. We are also deeply grateful to Sharifah Shakira from RWDN and Imran Mohammed (formerly MSF) for their invaluable support and guidance. Without their assistance, this study would not have been completed.
Funding
The cost to conduct this study was funded by the authors as part of the first author’s PhD thesis. This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by, the organizations the authors are affiliated with.
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Conceptualization: SR and AA; methodology: SR and AA; formal analysis and investigation: SR; writing—original draft preparation: SR; writing—review and editing: SR and AA; funding acquisition: SR; resources: SR; supervision: AA.
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This study was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of Universiti Sains Malaysia (HREC) (code: USM/JEPeM/17020143) and the Medical Research & Ethics Committee (MREC) (ID: NMRR17-3136-38699).
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Rajaratnam, S., Azman, A. Violence and trauma encountered by Rohingya women fleeing to Malaysia: a qualitative study. Arch Womens Ment Health 27, 233–240 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-023-01402-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-023-01402-4