Positing Women Volunteers as Planetary Humanists Amid Refugee Crisis: A Literary Perspective

Abstract

The role of women is critical to both addressing the refugee crisis and promoting a planetary humanist perspective. By recognizing and valuing the contributions of women, we can work towards more equitable and sustainable solutions to global challenges. The paper attempts to explore the role of women as ‘volunteers’ who play a crucial role in supporting and assisting the refugees in Nadia Hashmi’s novel “when the moon is low” (2015). A lot of research has been carried out on women refugees in terms of trials and tribulations that they face in their migration journey including how their experiences as refugees are different from those of males taking into account factors such as race, ethnicity, religion, class, and sexuality, but no significant work has been done on the non-refugee women who volunteer themselves, both formally and informally, to support and assist the refugees on ground level. Such a concept presents a positive step towards a planetary humanist approach. Thus, the study proposes that it is paramount to consider the role of non-refugee women as volunteers in moving towards an all-inclusive planetary approach. To accomplish this, this paper aims to build a synapse between the notions of planetary humanism, refugee crisis, and volunteerism as presented by numerous theorists on the relevant areas such as Gilroy (2002), Phipps (2019), Lahusen, and Grasso (2018). Moreover, most of the work on volunteerism comprises field work based on quantitative analysis. This study however, applies this idea to the refugee narrative.