Elizabeth Modupe Animashaun is a PhD candidate at the Institute for Peace and Strategic Studies at the University of Ibadan. She is working on her thesis titled “Commercial Sex Workers and Gender Based Violence along Nigerian-Benin Republic Border Corridor.” She has been a part of a few local and international projects like the IFRA Nigeria collaboration on Human Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation. Animashaun has worked on violence and vulnerability of women in volatile communities, such as the border.
Animashaun’s childhood experience while living in the military barracks, her various encounters with victims of violent conflict which besieged Africa in the 1990s and internally displaced persons, and refugees’ domicile in the barracks influenced her research interests. She is passionate about gender issues—particularly how socio-economic and cultural restrictions impact negatively on the women in many African societies. Animashaun believes in community led intervention, a situation where each member of the community is involved in reducing woman’s vulnerability, and a situation where human security is achieved from the individual bases.
Animashaun is a lively person who is well-coordinated and enjoys social interactions and group activities.
Award Information
Gender based violence against females is both systematic and normative in many African societies. However, the socio-cultural disposition to the commercialization of the female body, places commercial sex workers on the extreme spectrum of women who are exposed to risk and violence from members of the prostitution subculture, (Harris 2000). In addition, women in more precarious and violence prone locations like violent border communities, are more vulnerable and susceptible to violence and human insecurity (Walker 2009). Thus the aim of this project is to examine the socio-economic, gender and criminal injustice that female sex workers are exposed to in the violence- prone communities along Nigeria-Benin Republic border corridor. It will be an explorative research using open and close ended interviews, participant observation and case study. The commercial sex workers will be interviewed during the day and observed at night in their natural environment to ensure content and face validity.
