Eastern Europe

Citation:

Kunovich, Robert M., and Catherine Deitelbaum. 2004. “Ethnic Conflict, Group Polarization, and Gender Attitudes in Croatia.” Journal of Marriage and Family 66 (5): 1089-107.

Authors: Robert M. Kunovich, Catherine Deitelbaum

Abstract:

We examine the sources of traditional gender attitudes during a period of social conflict and change. Using survey data from Croatia (Center for the Investigation of Transition and Civil Society, 1996; N = 2,030) we explore the relationships between war-related experiences, in-group and out-group polarization, and two dimensions of gender attitudes: policy attitudes (e.g., attitudes toward divorce and abortion) and gendered family roles (e.g., attitudes toward the division of household labor). We argue that ethnic conflict promotes in-group polarization (i.e., attachment to the Croatian nation) and out-group polarization (i.e., distrust of "others"), which lead to a resurgence of traditional values, including traditional gender attitudes. We also examine the effects of childhood socialization, individual resources, and interpersonal familial ties on gender attitudes. Results support the conflict-group polarization model and indicate that out-group polarization has the most powerful effect on both gendered family role attitudes and policy attitudes for men and women. In-group polarization does not affect gender attitudes, however.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Households Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Croatia

Year: 2004

Citation:

Olujic, Maria B. 1995. “Women, Rape and War: The Continued Trauma of Refugees and Displaced Persons in Croatia.” Anthropology of East Europe Review 13 (1): 40-3.

Author: Maria B. Olujic

Topics: Armed Conflict, Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, Health, Trauma, Sexual Violence, Rape Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Croatia

Year: 1995

Citation:

Moghadam, Valentine. 1995. “Gender and Revolutionary Transformation: Iran 1979 and East Central Europe 1989.” Gender and Society 9 (3): 328-58.

Author: Valentine Moghadam

Abstract:

The sociology of revolution has produced a prodigious body of scholarship that is nonetheless deficient in one area: attention to gender in the unfolding of revolutions and in the building of new states. Feminist scholars, however, have been attentive to women's participation in revolutions, the effects of revolutions on gender systems and women's positions, and how gender shapes revolutionary processes, including patterns of mobilization, revolutionary programs, and the policies of revolutionary states. This article discusses the literature on revolutions, presents a theoretical framework for the study of revolutions based on gender outcomes, and examines two cases of revolutionary transformation that conform to what I call the patriarchal model of revolution: Iran in 1979 and the 1989 revolutions in East Central Europe.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Women Regions: Africa, MENA, Asia, Middle East, Europe, Central Europe, Eastern Europe Countries: Iran

Year: 1995

Citation:

Mežnarić, Silva. 1993. “The [Serbian] Rapists’ Progress: Ethnicity, Gender and Violence.” Revija Za Sociologiju 24 (3-4): 119-29.

Author: Silva Mežnarić

Abstract:

The paper examines two cases of rape as politics where violence, gender, ethnicity intersected with tragic consequences. First, the Serbian media campaign against the Albanians as rapists in Kosovo in 1990 is examined; secondly, the rape as politics of ethnic cleansing in the Serbian aggression in Bosnia in 1992-1993 is analyzed. It has been shown that Serbian media's rape campaign against Kosovo Albanians as perpetrators has been a prelude to the actual rapes by Serbian soldiers in Bosnia. In both cases, rape served as the special mean for defining the boundary of the Serbian ethnic niche in the Balkans.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Ethnicity, Gender, Women, Media, Sexual Violence, Rape, SV against Women Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia

Year: 1993

Citation:

Kovarić-Kovačić, Dragica, Dubravka Kocijan-Hercigonja, and Andrea Jambrošić. 2002. “Psychiatric Help to Psychotraumatized Persons during and after War in Croatia.” Public Health and Peace 43 (2): 221–28.

Authors: Dragica Kovarić-Kovačić, Dubravka Kocijan-Hercigonja, Andrea Jambrošić

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Health, Mental Health, Trauma, Humanitarian Assistance, Context-Appropriate Response to Trauma, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Croatia

Year: 2002

Citation:

Bracewell, Wendy. 2000. “Rape in Kosovo: Masculinity and Serbian Nationalism.” Nations and Nationalism 6 (4): 563–90.

Author: Wendy Bracewell

Abstract:

Accusations of Albanian rape of Serbs in Kosovo became a highly charged political factor in the development of Serbian nationalism in the 1980s. Discussions of rape were used to link perceptions of national victimisation and a crisis of masculinity and to legitimate a militant Serbian nationalism, ultimately contributing to the violent break-up of Yugoslavia. The article argues for attention to the ways that nationalist projects have been structured with reference to ideals of masculinity, the specific political and cultural contexts that have influenced these processes, and the consequent implications for gender relations as well as for nationalist politics. Such an approach helps explain the appeal of Milošević’s nationalism; at the same time it highlights the divisions and conflicts that lie behind hegemonic gender and national identities constructed around difference.

Topics: Gender, Women, Masculinity/ies, Nationalism, Sexual Violence, Rape Regions: Europe, Baltic states, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, Yugoslavia (former)

Year: 2000

Citation:

Allen, Beverly. 1996. Rape Warfare: The Hidden Genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Author: Beverly Allen

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Genocide, Justice, War Crimes, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Sexual Violence, Rape, SV against Women Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia

Year: 1996

Citation:

Hughes, Donna M., and Zorica Mrsevic. 1997. “Violence against Women in Belgrade, Serbia: SOS Hotline 1991 - 1993.” Violence Against Women - An International Interdisciplinary Journal 3 (2): 101–28.

Authors: Donna M. Hughes, Zorica Mrsevic

Abstract:

The SOS Hotline for Women and Children Victims of Violence opened in Belgrade, Serbia, in 1990. For each call reporting an incident of violence, a data form was completed with the details of the call. Almost all the callers were victims of violence from family members or intimate partners. The majority reported incidents of physical and verbal/emotional violence; a minority reported sexual and economic violence. The frequency and duration of violence were very high. Callers were often forced to live with perpetrators because of the lack of available housing, which worsened due to privatization, economic sanctions against Serbia, and the influx of refugees. Men's participation in the wars in Croatia and Bosnia increased their violence against women at home, especially sons against their mothers. Most refugees were housed in private homes, resulting in increased violence against women refugees and women hosts.

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Domestic Violence, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Serbia

Year: 1997

Citation:

Tétreault, Mary Ann. 1997. “Justice for All: Wartime Rape and Women’s Human Rights.” Global Governance 3 (2): 197–212.

Author: Mary Ann Tétreault

Abstract:

Among the issues to be resolved after an armed conflict are how to reconcile war victims to crimes committed against them, and whether sexual assaults should be incorporated formally among injuries to be redressed. The omission of rape as a war crime is attributed to the gender-differentiated development of human rights norms in the western tradition and in international law. The patterns of redress followed after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the recent civil war in Bosnia are compared. While each incorporates significant advantages to victims of wartime rape, the more cumbersome procedure requiring that criminals be tried before an international tribunal is more likely ultimately to assuage the pain of victims individually and promote reconciliation among groups formerly at war.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Gender, International Law, Justice, International Tribunals & Special Courts, War Crimes, Post-Conflict, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, Rape, SV against Women Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kuwait

Year: 1997

Citation:

Benard, Cheryl. 1994. “Rape as Terror: The Case of Bosnia.” Terrorism and Political Violence 6 (1): 29–43.

Author: Cheryl Benard

Abstract:

Using Bosnia since 1992 as a case study, this article examines the significance of rape as a deliberate instrument of terror in the context of war. Political science has generally neglected to analyze this phenomenon, but has instead generally adhered to the popular view that rape is simply an inevitable by-product of war. The article therefore seeks first to differentiate contexts and functions of rape on the basis of socio-military ideology, intent and consequences. Four distinct configurations of wartime rape are identified: rape as bounty; rape as a formally forbidden but de facto tolerated outlet for the soldiers; rape as a breakdown of the command structure and the morale of the troops; and rape as part of the deliberate assault strategy. The Bosnian case is found to represent a combination of the first and fourth configurations. Based on data from 250 interviews with Bosnian refugees in Croatia and Austria, the tactical functions of rape as a part of 'ethnic cleansing' are described, and parallels are determined between rape and the terrorizing of other vulnerable civilians such as children. The interviews also yielded incidental reports of the efforts of individual dissenting soldiers to prevent rape. In conclusion it is noted that while a tactical interpretation of rape is illuminating, it leaves many questions concerning the willingness of large numbers of men to employ sexual violence.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Combatants, Ethnicity, Gender, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Sexual Violence, Rape Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina

Year: 1994