Dr Nafi Ghafournia

Nafiseh Ghafournia completed her PhD in Social Policy and Gender Studies at The University of Sydney in 2017 (supported by the Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) Scholarship).  She has been working as a researcher and sessional academic at University of Newcastle.

Her research revolves around domestic violence, social policy, gender and immigration. She has published several papers on religion and domestic violence, Islamic feminism, domestic violence policy, immigration policy, culture, domestic violence and intersectionality. Her latest publications are Ghafournia, Nafiseh; Easteal, Patricia, 2018, “Are Immigrant Women visible in Australian Domestic Violence Reports that Potentially Influence Policy?”, Laws and “Spouse Sponsorship Policies: Focus on Serial Sponsors”, 2017, Laws. 

Her recent book "Faith in Freedom: Muslim Immigrant Women's Experiences of Domestic Violence" published by Melbourne University Publishing (2019) is one of the pioneering efforts to address domestic violence among Muslim immigrant women in the Australian context. Focusing on Muslim immigrant women distinctively adds to the sensitivity and complexity of the topic. More uniquely, and indeed innovatively, the book contributes to understandings of the intersections between factors such as gender, culture, religion and immigration, and the ways in which different social locations interact in Muslim immigrant women’s experiences of abuse. The book examines the implications of feminist intersectional perspectives for service provision, social work education and policy. 

Ghafournia has membership of some professional bodies such as International Sociological Association (ISA), The Australian Association for the Study of Religion (AASR), The Australian Sociological association (TASA), Australian Association of Islamic and Muslim Studies (AAIMS).

She has also worked as a multicultural health liaison officer in NSW health. She has extensive experience working with immigrant and refugees and delivers regular lectures and trainings to health professionals on cultural aspects of health and cultural competency.