The Aftermath: Women in Post-conflict Transformation

by Meredeth Turshen (Editor), Sheila Meintjes (Editor), Anu Pillay (Editor)

Overview

What happens to women in the aftermath of war and internal armed conflict? Are gender and inter-generational relations transformed during the process of post-war reconstruction? This book asserts that there is no aftermath for women — a truce does not bring an end to gendered violence. It shows how the post-war period is too late for women to transform patriarchal gender relations; the foundations for change must be built during conflict.

The first part of this book asks how transitions from war to peace and from authoritarian to democratic regimes can be used as opportunities to move beyond the reconstruction of pre-war institutions to real social transformation. It presents an honest accounting of what women lose and gain in wartime and how they organise, as well as an analysis of why they fail to consolidate their gains. It explores the many dimensions of violence against women before, during and after war. It reflects on how war changes identities, on the myths that men and women invent about each other in wartime, and on the problems of reconciliation and women's solidarity; and it focusses specifically on shifts in gender relations in the context of post-conflict reconstruction and transformation. Finally, the contributors consider the relation of the state to society in the aftermath, searching for a vision of the transformed society.

The evidence presented in the second part of this book documents the varied nature of war and the many post-war situations, including Haitian and Balkan examples, Asian cases, and experiences in different African conflict zones. The contributors analyse what women endure and what they construct during and after conflict, what obstacles they encounter in their search for autonomy and what bonds of solidarity they create in building peace.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781842770672
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	05/01/2002
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Meredeth Turshen teaches gender and development and third world social policy at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University. She has published widely on health, public policy and women's issues and is political co-chair of the Association of Concerned Africa Scholars.

Anu Pillay is a gender and development practitioner and winner of South Africa's Ma Afrika award in 1996 for her contribution to women's education and activism.

Sheila Meintjes is a senior lecturer in political studies, and co-ordinator of the Gender Studies Programme in the Graduate School of the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of the Witswatersrand, South Africa
Meredeth Turshen teaches gender and development and third world social policy at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University. She has published widely on health, public policy and women's issues and is political co-chair of the Association of Concerned Africa Scholars.

Anu Pillay is a gender and development practitioner and winner of South Africa's Ma Afrika award in 1996 for her contribution to women's education and activism.

Sheila Meintjes is a senior lecturer in political studies, and co-ordinator of the Gender Studies Programme in the Graduate School of the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of the Witswatersrand, South Africa

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgements	ix
	Notes on Contributors	x
	Abbreviations	xiv
Part I	Overviews of the Themes	1
1	There Is No Aftermath for Women	3
	Breaking Down the Category 'Women'	5
	Women's Wartime Gains and Potential for Post-war Transformation	7
	The Failure to Consolidate Wartime Gains	8
	The Political Economy of Violence against Women	11
	Myths about ldentity, Problems of Solidarity and Reconciliation	13
	Power and Authority in the Aftermath	15
	Our Vision of a Transformed Society	17
2	Women in Conflicts, Their Gains and Their Losses	19
	Social and Political Gains	20
	Economic Gains	24
	The Loss of Identity	25
	Loss of Bodily Integrity	26
	Adding to Women's Responsibilities	27
	Economic Losses	28
	Women's Loss of Leadership	30
	Losses in Education	32
	Losses in Health	33
	Conclusion	33
3	Violence against Women in the Aftermath	35
	An Analysis of the Experiences	38
	What Underlies Violence against Women?	39
	What Do Men Lack that Makes Them Inflict Violence on Women?	43
	Emerging Themes	44
	Conclusion	44
4	Problems of Identity, Solidarity and Reconciliation	46
	Multiple and Shifting Identities--Socially Constructed, Contextually Based	47
	Women Crossing Political and Social Divisions	53
	Truth Commissions, Tribunals and Healing in the Aftermath	57
	Conclusion	60
5	War and Post-War Shifts in Gender Relations	63
	How War Mobilises Women	65
	Military Demobilisation and Political Remobilisation	69
	The Long-term Effects of Wartime Changes	70
	Conclusion	76
6	Engendering Relations of State to Society in the Aftermath	78
	Tradition	80
	Sex and the State	84
	Women in Government	86
	Women in Nongovernmental Organisations	87
	Women in Peace Negotiations	89
	Demobilisation and Demilitarisation	91
	Reconciliation and Reparations	93
	Conclusion	94
Part II	Contemporary Experiences	97
7	Ambivalent Gains in South Asian Conflicts	99
	Kashmir: Domestic 'Accidental' Activism	103
	Backlash: Veiling Kashmiri Women	107
	The Naga People's Struggle: Women of Peace and Militant Women	108
	Civil War in Sri Lanka: Ambivalent Empowerment	112
	Interrogating Agency: Militant Women Bearing Arms	114
	Women in Nepal's People's War: From Invisibility to Visible Protagonist?	116
	Women without Men Take on New Roles	117
	Women Combatants Engendering the People's War	118
	Conclusion	120
8	Liberated, but Not Free: Women in Post-War Eritrea	122
	The Context	123
	Theoretical Framework and the Policy and Activist Implications	125
	What Do Women Fighters Say about Being Civilians?	127
	The National Union of Eritrean Women after the War	131
	The Organisation and Its Discontents	132
	Class and Ethnic Hierarchies	133
	Education	134
	Politics, Equal Representation and the Constitution	135
	Coexisting with the 'Traditional Order'	136
	What Kind of Organisation is the NUEW?	136
	Some Policy Implications	137
	Conclusion	138
9	Rape in War and Peace: Social Context, Gender, Power and Identity	142
	The Struggle to Combat Gender-based Violence	144
	Rape in War and Peace: Same Category, Different Experiences?	146
	War: Gender Roles and Gender Identity	150
	Sexual Violence in the Aftermath	153
	Conclusion	157
10	Between Love, Anger and Madness: Building Peace in Haiti	159
	Historical and Economic Background	160
	Violence against Women's Bodies	163
	Violent Systems--Economic and Political	166
	Women Fighting Back	168
11	Caring at the Same Time: On Feminist Politics during the NATO Bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Ethnic Cleansing of Albanians in Kosovo, 1999	172
	Background: The Region	173
	Background: The Author	174
	Insisting on Constructionism	175
	Rules for Dealing with Trauma	176
	Resisting the Role of Victim	178
	Work	178
	Fear in Serbia and Montenegro	178
	Fear in Kosova	179
	What We Learned	180
	Without Fear in Belgrade	181
	The Regime's Construction of Fear	181
	Caring at the Same Time	183
12	Healing And Changing: The Changing Identity of Women in the Aftermath of the Ogoni Crisis in Nigeria	189
	Identities and Social Action	189
	Healing and Changing	192
	The Ogoni Crisis	194
	The Ogoni Crisis and Violence against Women	199
	Crisis and the Changing Identity of Ogoni Women	206
	Conclusions	209
13	Ambivalent Maternalisms: Cursing as Public Protest in Sri Lanka	210
	Ritualised Cursing	212
	Situating Sorcery within Maternalist Politics	214
	Towards a Contingent Reading	219
14	'We Want Women to Be Given an Equal Chance': Post-Independence Rural Politics in Northern Namibia	225
	War and Violence in Northern Namibia	227
	National and Local Gender Politics after Independence	230
	National Discourse on Gender and Tradition	232
	Gender, Power and Traditional Authority in Precolonial and Colonial Ongandjera	234
	After Independence: Women in Traditional Authority Positions	237
	Postcolonial Local Discourses on Gender and Tradition	238
	Conclusion	240
	Bibliography	243
	Index	252

Editorial Reviews

What Women do in Wartime provide[s] a powerful delineation and analysis of women's experiences in civil wars, wars of liberation and their aftermath.” —Praise for Meredeth Turshen's previous book, What Women do in Wartime, Agenda

“This volume does contain much detailed and empirical research on the roles of women in modern conflicts.” —Barbara Hately-Broad, Jourbanal of Military History

“This remarkable book should be compulsory reading for anyone wanting to understand more about conflict and its impact on women and society as a whole...Comprehensive, readable and well referenced.” —Praise for Meredeth Turshen's previous book, What Women do in Wartime, Health and Policy Planning

“What Women do in Wartime describes and analyses the experience of women in African civil wars...The images which emerge are both powerful and disturbing. [The book] serves as an insistent testimony of the personal suffering, tragedy and degradation of warfare.” —Praise for Meredeth Turshen's previous book, What Women do in Wartime, International Affairs

“The testimony provided in this book is vitally important...Turshen and Twagiramariya are to be commended for forcing the unthinkable into our awareness.” —Praise for Meredeth Turshen's previous book, What Women do in Wartime, Review of African Political Economy

“An important and exciting contribution to [the] writing of women's narratives of war... It drives home the need to bring women into the decision-making process, be it for war-waging or sustainable peace-making.” —Praise for Meredeth Turshen's previous book, What Women do in Wartime, Seminar

From the Publisher

Focusing both on the gendered violence rampant during wartime and the abilities of women to use the disruption of wartime to attempt to change the everyday gendered violence of "peacetime," 14 contributions from a variety of fields explore the experience and activities of women in post-conflict societies. Introductory essays deal with issues of theory, exploring issues of gender, identity, the state, and reconciliation. The remaining eight essays focus on the experiences of women in South Asia, Eritrea, Haiti, Yugoslavia, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, and Namibia. Distributed by Palgrave. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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