Stories of Strength: Exploring Education for African Refugee Girls in Cairo

The way we tell stories matters, and it matters even more if the stories are about refugees. Narratives have transformative potential because the way we talk about displaced communities influences how we think and treat them. My research journey in Cairo is about Stories of Strength. Cairo is dust, organized chaos, and constant noise, but I enjoyed walking on Cairo’s gritty streets with my friend Didi who told me her story. Life in exile is not easy, especially if you are a young African refugee female dreaming about going to university and becoming a businesswoman. Life in exile is not easy, but none talks about it, and none cares, or at least, this is how my friends felt. This thesis intends to denounce the exhausting social context that young African refugee females experience when accessing education in Egypt, while at the same time, demonstrating that those girls are warriors. Ethnography became the central research method used to test the hypothesis, while the outcome resulted...Show moreThe way we tell stories matters, and it matters even more if the stories are about refugees. Narratives have transformative potential because the way we talk about displaced communities influences how we think and treat them. My research journey in Cairo is about Stories of Strength. Cairo is dust, organized chaos, and constant noise, but I enjoyed walking on Cairo’s gritty streets with my friend Didi who told me her story. Life in exile is not easy, especially if you are a young African refugee female dreaming about going to university and becoming a businesswoman. Life in exile is not easy, but none talks about it, and none cares, or at least, this is how my friends felt. This thesis intends to denounce the exhausting social context that young African refugee females experience when accessing education in Egypt, while at the same time, demonstrating that those girls are warriors. Ethnography became the central research method used to test the hypothesis, while the outcome resulted in non-fictional life stories of young African refugee female students, including their flight to Egypt and their struggle to survive, gender, and racial discrimination, and obtain an education. Two life experiences have been included in the Annexes of this study, while an analysis of them has been conducted in the main body. The results showed that African refugee females effectively navigate alternatives in a challenging educational context that limits them from achieving their academic and professional dreams. On this basis, it was confirmed that the stories of young African refugee girls are Stories of Strength while reminding the reader that narratives have transformative potential and that the way we tell stories matters.Show less

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Stories of Strength: Exploring Education for African Refugee Girls in Cairo