Women in coastal Bangladesh face greater challenges while staying at evacuation centers during cyclone emergencies. This study explores the lived experience of women and their well-being as evacuees.

The research undertook a phenomenological approach to conduct in-depth interviews of nineteen women from three extremely vulnerable districts of coastal Bangladesh.

The interviews revealed that women experienced obstacles to maintaining hygiene, using the toilets and accessing privacy, and suffered distress as pregnant women, lactating mothers, and through menstruation, which affected them physically and hampered their mental health. Coming from a male-dominated socio-cultural background, female evacuees unaccompanied by male guardians experienced fear and uncertainty. Some participants recollected facing social pressure and overwhelming emotions as carers of children and elderlies, whereas some reconciled traumatizing incidents such as witnessing death. Such experiences led to anxiety, stress, and depression with either temporary or permanent trauma. Participants frequently mentioned panic attacks and stress-related physical issues such as heart palpitations, dizziness and light-headedness. However, spiritual beliefs and social bonds within the community enabled peace and optimism among the women. Findings highlight that certain factors determined women evacuees' experience of wellbeing. Social context of the women imposed burdens of responsibility and caused inaccessibility of resources to restore physical-mental wellbeing. The settings, infrastructures and environment of the evacuation centers were not women-friendly, which resulted in many negative experiences among the evacuees, greatly affecting their sense of wellness. However, participants could channel positive mindsets through prayers and spiritual faith. Women were able to access some resources and use these for their well-being through social bonding and connecting with the women within the shelters.

Unconditional trust in a deity and sisterhood within communities have been two quintessential features of women, which played major roles in women’s experiences and molded their understandings of well-being in the cyclone shelters.