Violence and Resilience: Women, War and the Reality of Everyday life in Sudan

Citation:

Jok, Jok Madut. 2006. “Violence and Resilience: Women, War and the Reality of Everyday Life in Sudan.” The Afhad Journal 23 (2): 58–80.

Author: Jok Madut Jok

Abstract:

In his article Violence and Resilience, Dr. Jok Madut explores the insidious effect that militant opposition to the Sudanese government and that the Sudanese government’s counter-insurgency tactics has had on Sudanese women. Madut begins his article by highlighting and criticizing the majority of the media attention and academic scholarship on gender in Sudan, which myopically focuses on Sudanese women as helpless victims of warfare. Madut’s article illustrates how gender-based violence has been an unquestionable trait of Sudanese warfare used by all parties of the conflict to dehumanize and devastate enemy populations. Madut argues, however, that the militarization of Sudanese society has led to the continuous reproduction and entrenchment of gender-based violence throughout Sudanese society resulting in widespread gender-based violence and marginalization within communities and families. Moreover, Madut’s article illuminates a complex of subculture of “expanded self-reliance” created by Sudanese women relying on newly found and traditional methods of resisting gender-based violence and marginalization. Madut warns that development programs often fail to address women’s rights in Sudan in an attempt to return Sudanese women to their traditional female roles.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Development, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Gender-Based Violence, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization, Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Sudan

Year: 2006