National Liberation Wars

Citation:

Jad, Islah. 2011. “Islamist Women of Hamas: Between Feminism and Nationalism.” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 12 (2): 176-201. doi:10.1080/14649373.2011.554647.

Author: Islah Jad

Abstract:

In December, 1995, when Hamas announced the establishment of the Islamic National Salvation Party, a political organisation separate from its military wing, it opened the way for involvement of the Islamic movement in the political processes brought about in the West Bank and Gaza with the signing of the Oslo Accords and the arrival of the Palestinian National Authority. In speaking of the rights of different groups, including women, in its founding statement, and in setting up in Gaza a Women’s Action Department, the new Party opened its doors to the ‘new Islamic woman’ and to a significant evolution in Islamist gender ideology in Gaza, if not in the West Bank – where, due to Hamas’ policy there of targeting only males, there exists no parallel to the Salvation Party or organisational support for women like that represented by the Women’s Action Department in Gaza. Hamas’ gender ideology, like that of the secularist parties, remains contradictory, and doors to women’s equality only partly open; nevertheless, Islamist women have managed to build impressive, well-organised women’s constituencies among highly educated and professional women coming from poor and refugee backgrounds; and the Salvation Party shows an increasing tendency to foster gender equality and more egalitarian social ideals, while holding fast to the agenda of national liberation. These advances have been achieved both through alternative interpretations of Islamic legal and religious texts, and through positive engagement with the discourses of other groups, whether secular feminists or nationalists. In contrast, secularists are losing ground by advocating a discourse of rights in isolation from the national agenda and in the absence of a mobilising organisation. These developments suggest possibilities for mutual accommodation between Islamist and other Palestinian groups. They suggest also that the nature of the state proposed by Islamists will depend to a large extent on the visions and challenges posed by other nationalist and secularist groups.

Topics: Armed Conflict, National Liberation Wars, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Non-State Armed Groups, Nationalism, Political Participation Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories

Year: 2011

Citation:

Ranchod-Nilsson, Sita. 2006. “Gender Politics and the Pendulum of Political and Social Transformation in Zimbabwe.” Journal of Southern African Studies 32 (1): 49-67. doi:10.1080/03057070500493761.

Author: Sita Ranchod-Nilsson

Abstract:

In the two decades following its 1980 independence, Zimbabwe's gendered social and political transformation seemed, on the face of it, to be characterised by a swinging pendulum of state led progress on women's issues followed by a period of back-sliding on earlier commitments. However, upon closer examination, the state's commitment to women's issues was always ambivalent, at best. If the story of gendered social and political transformation begins during the decade-long liberation war that preceded independence, the contradictory gender ideologies of ZANU(PF), the liberation movement that became the dominant party after independence, and the contradictory expectations of women who supported the liberation struggle in different capacities are clear. These contradictions, combined with the state's shallow commitment to improving the lives of Zimbabwean women, help to explain the state's lacklustre gender transformation, particularly in the areas of legal reform and developing state institutions to address women's development needs. As the state's increasing authoritarianism effectively eliminated spaces for advocacy that it created after independence, a growing number of women's NGOs developed issue-oriented approaches that criticised the government while at the same time developing relationships with particular segments of the government, and the increasingly organised opposition, in order to address women's issues. Thus, the gendered social and political transformation in Zimbabwe has been both non-linear and reconfigured to fit the spaces of the transformed state.

Topics: Armed Conflict, National Liberation Wars, Gender, Women, Governance, NGOs Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Zimbabwe

Year: 2006

Citation:

West, Harry G. 2000. “Girls with Guns: Narrating the Experience of War of Frelimo’s ‘Female Detachment.’” Anthropological Quarterly 73 (4): 180-94.

Author: Harry G. West

Abstract:

This article examines the way in which female guerrillas both appropriated and contributed to the FRELIMO narrative of women's participation in the struggle for Mozambican liberation. The author argues that ideological commitment to the cause was essential to defining the experience of violence for these girls and young women and that, concurrent with their convictions, they felt empowered rather than victimized by the war. The article contributes to an emerging literature suggesting that the culturally-specific meanings given to the social category of youth as well as to experiences of violence are essential to understanding the impact upon Africa's youth of the continent's many armed conflicts.

Keywords: child soldiers, violence, guerrilla war, women's emancipation, ideology, narrative

Topics: Age, Youth, Armed Conflict, National Liberation Wars, Combatants, Child Soldiers, Female Combatants, Gender, Girls, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Non-State Armed Groups, Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Mozambique

Year: 2000

Citation:

Stoner, K. Lynn. 2003. “Militant Heroines and the Consecration of the Patriarchal State: The Glorification of Loyalty, Combat, and National Suicide in the Making of Cuban National Identity.” Cuban Studies 34 (1): 71-96. doi:10.1353/cub.2004.0028.

Author: K. Lynn Stoner

Abstract:

The female combatant, a common icon of Cuban nationalism, is found in every historical period from independence through the post-Soviet period. Unlike most other nations, Cubans have eulogized women who have defended their nation with their own lives and with those of their husbands and children. Yet, for all the fanfare these heroines have received in the nationalist discourse, few scholarly treatments of their lives exist. Instead, their heroism has been used to exalt male leaders and to uphold a patriarchal state. Their martyrdom has served as a model of sacrifice unto death for all citizens to follow. This article examines the nature of Cuban combatant iconography that followed the Cuban wars of independence, the Early Republic, and the Cuban Revolution, and connects that iconography to the purposes of state building in each era.

Topics: Armed Conflict, National Liberation Wars, Combatants, Female Combatants, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Nationalism Regions: Americas, Caribbean countries Countries: Cuba

Year: 2003

Citation:

Bernal, Victoria. 2000. “Equality to Die For?: Women Guerrilla Fighters and Eritrea’s Cultural Revolution.” PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review 23 (2): 61-76.

Author: Victoria Bernal

Topics: Armed Conflict, National Liberation Wars, Combatants, Female Combatants, Gender, Women Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Eritrea

Year: 2000

Citation:

Charlesworth, Hilary, and Mary Wood. 2002. “Women and Human Rights in the Rebuilding of East Timor.” Nordic Journal of International Law 71: 325–48.

Authors: Hilary Charlesworth, Mary Wood

Abstract:

This article considers how the discourse of women's human rights has been employed in the lead up to independence in East Timor. It describes the way that the United Nations' temporary administration responded to the situation of women after the Indonesian occupation and assesses the adequacy of its attempts to 'mainstream' gender in the independence process.

Keywords: globalization, human rights, United Nations, gender mainstreaming

Topics: Armed Conflict, National Liberation Wars, Occupation, Gender, Women, Gender Mainstreaming, International Organizations, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Oceania Countries: Timor-Leste

Year: 2002

Citation:

Brown, Matthew. 2005. “Adventurers, Foreign Women and Masculinity in the Colombian Wars of Independence.” Feminist Review, no. 79, 36-51.

Author: Matthew Brown

Abstract:

This paper examines changing conceptions of honour and masculinity during the Colombian Wars of Independence in the early 19th century. It explores the position of the foreign women who accompanied British and Irish expeditions to join the war against Spanish rule, and shows how colonial, imperial and republican conceptions of masculinity were affected by the role that women played in these volunteer expeditions and in the wars in general. The paper considers women's experiences during war and peace, and examines their experiences in the light of changing conceptions of masculinity at home, in the British empire and in Hispanic America in the early nineteenth century. The social mobility of the Wars of Independence shifted the ground on which these concepts rested for all groups involved. The participation of foreign women alongside male adventurers was a further ingredient in this disorientating period.

Topics: Armed Conflict, National Liberation Wars, Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Gender, Women, Masculinity/ies Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2005

Citation:

Kalediene, Ramune, and Ruta Nadisauskiene. 2002. “Women’s Health, Changes and Challenges in Health Policy Development in Lithuania.” Reproductive Health Matters 10 (20): 117-26.

Authors: Ramune Kalediene, Ruta Nadisauskiene

Abstract:

Health is a sensitive mirror of social circumstances. This paper looks at the situation of women's health in Lithuania in the context of the social, political and economic transition in the country following independence in 1990, and reforms to the health system. Data since 1990 show that considerable social and demographic inequalities in the health of women exist in Lithuania, with low-educated women and those living in rural areas in the most unfavourable situation, including in relation to reproductive health. Reproductive health issues have received some recognition in recent years, with the main attention and resources directed to the development of a Maternal and Child Health Programme, especially perinatal care and the organisation of neonatology services, which has resulted in a notable decrease in maternal, perinatal and infant mortality. Services for family planning, abortion, infertility, cervical and breast cancer, and violence against women are under-developed. Non-governmental organizations are beginning to be formed to advocate for increased resources and services for reproductive health. Improvements in the health status of Lithuanian women can be expected if attention is paid to social determinants of health.

Topics: Armed Conflict, National Liberation Wars, Gender, Women, Girls, Boys, Health, Mental Health, Reproductive Health, Post-Conflict Regions: Europe, Baltic states, Northern Europe Countries: Lithuania

Year: 2002

Citation:

Hale, Sondra. 2001. “The State of the Women’s Movement in Eritrea.” Northeast African Studies 8 (3): 155–77.

Author: Sondra Hale

Topics: Armed Conflict, National Liberation Wars, Combatants, Female Combatants, Democracy / Democratization, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Religion Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Eritrea

Year: 2001

Citation:

Abu-Haidar, Farida, and Daniele Djamila Amrane-Minne. 1999. “Women and Politics in Algeria from the War of Independence to Our Day.” Research in African Literatures 30 (3): 62-77.

Authors: Farida Abu-Haidar, Daniele Djamila Amrane-Minne

Topics: Armed Conflict, National Liberation Wars, Gender, Women, Political Participation Regions: Africa, MENA, North Africa Countries: Algeria

Year: 1999