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Risks of intimate partner violence (IPV) intensify when women and men experience armed conflict, political instability, and forced migration (Goessmann et al., 2019). Armed conflict, foreign occupation, and forced migration have persisted for decades in Afghanistan. Yet, how IPV shifts and manifests when Afghans resettle as refugees in another country is not well understood, hampering efforts to effectively serve this population and inform policy and practice. The purpose of this scoping review was to ascertain the scope and nature of the IPV literature focused Afghan populations in Afghanistan and across the diaspora, and glean insights into salient risk and protective factors.
Methods
This study drew from Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) framework for scoping reviews. We followed a systematic approach to search for, identify, and include peer-reviewed articles published in English in our analysis. We targeted three comprehensive databases and pilot-tested our search string. The search was conducted in February 2023; 190 records were downloaded into Zotero, and 83 duplicates removed. An initial screening of abstracts resulted in the removal of 45 records; 62 articles were then passed forward into the full-text review, during which team members charted preliminary results. This process resulted in the elimination of five articles. Fifty-seven articles were retained in the final analysis.
Results
Our process yielded articles that were published between 1998 and 2023, with the highest number of articles published in 2021 (n=11), followed by 2022 (n=9), and 2020 (n=8). The majority of articles were based on empirical research (n=44; 29 quantitative; 14 qualitative; 1 mixed methods), followed by conceptual pieces (n=5), policy reviews (n=2), systematic reviews (n=2), textual analyses of novels (n=2), and case studies (n=2). The geographic context for most pieces was Afghanistan (n=49), followed by Iran (n=3), Australia (n=3), Pakistan (n=1), and Greece (n=1). Nine articles explicitly included Afghan refugees who fled Afghanistan to Iran, Pakistan, and Greece. IPV prevalence ranged from 52% to 56%; higher rates (79.8%) were reported in Afghan refugee samples. Studies conducted in Afghanistan identified numerous IPV risk factors, including poverty, young age at marriage, polygamous marriages, attitudes endorsing inequitable gender roles, food insecurity, childhood trauma, living in a rural area, low education, IPV acceptance, inequality in property ownership, depression and PTSD, and previous exposure to violence. Experience of IPV was also a clear risk factor for adverse pregnancy outcomes. Protective factors included women’s participation in household decision-making and income.
Conclusions and Implications
The findings from this scoping review highlight a rich literature on IPV in Afghanistan and significant gaps in IPV research across the Afghan diaspora and in contexts of refugee resettlement, including the U.S. The results will advance understanding of the drivers of IPV across contexts and highlight context-specific gaps and needs for ongoing research. This review responds to needs expressed by U.S. policy makers and practitioners involved in the 2021 evacuation and resettlement of Afghans for more knowledge and guidance on addressing IPV in this population.