Lina AbiRafeh is an Arab-American feminist activist and author who works gender issues in development and humanitarian contexts. She has worked for various United Nations agencies and international non-governmental organizations and was the executive director of the Arab Institute for Women at the Lebanese American University. She is the author of ''

Gender and International Aid in Afghanistan ''Gender and International Aid in Afghanistan: The Politics and Effects of Intervention'' is a 2009 book by Lina AbiRafeh. It documents and critiques western efforts to bring gender equity to women in Afghanistan after the 2001 United States in ...

.''

Early life and education

AbiRafeh was born to a Palestinian pharmacist mother and a Lebanese father and spent time in Saudi Arabia while growing up. AbiRafeh has a master's degree in international economics and development from the Johns Hopkins University. She completed her

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2008, her thesis focusing on gender based violence in

humanitarian aid Humanitarian aid is material and logistic assistance to people who need help. It is usually short-term help until the long-term help by the government and other institutions replaces it. Among the people in need are the homeless, refugees, and ...

in conflict and post-conflict zones.

Career

AbiRafeh has worked with various United Nations and humanitarian organizations in Afghanistan, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Lebanon, Nepal, and Papua New Guinea. For seven years, starting in 2015, she was the executive director of the Arab Institute for Women at the Lebanese American University. She has critiqued western obsession with how Afghan women dress. She has also critiqued the humanitarian aid system for neglecting the needs of men and drawn links between that neglect and increased rates of gender based violence in Afghanistan.

Awards

In 2019 she was identified by Apolitical Group as one of the top most influential people in gender equity policy.

Selected publications

* Lina AbiRafeh, ''

: The Politics and Effects of Intervention'', 2009. *Lina AbiRafeh, ''Freedom on the Frontlines: Afghan Women and the Fallacy of Liberation'', 2022, *Lina AbiRafeh, ''Lessons from Gender-focused International Aid in Post-Conflict Afghanistan...Learned?,'' 2005, *Lina AbiRafeh, ''Freedom is Only Won From the Inside: Domestic Violence in Post-Conflict Afghanistan'', 2006, The Peaceful Families ProjectSuhrke, Astri. "Reconstruction as modernisation: the ‘post-conflict’project in Afghanistan." ''Third World Quarterly'' 28.7 (2007): 1291-1308.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:AbiRafeh, Lina Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Lebanese feminists Alumni of the London School of Economics Johns Hopkins University alumni 21st-century Lebanese writers American gender studies academics