Religion

Invisible Bodies: Gender, Conflict and Peace in Mindanao

Citation:

Hilsdon, Anne-Marie. 2009. “Invisible Bodies: Gender, Conflict and Peace in Mindanao.” Asian Studies Review 33 (3): 349–65.

Author: Anne-Marie Hilsdon

Annotation:

Summary:
"Against a backdrop of “conflict” and “violence”, this article explores several community spaces where Maranao women become “invisible”. It argues that through attempts to explain how and why such exclusions and omissions occur, Maranao women's negotiated embodied existence can be understood. I focus on a number of aspects of women's invisibility. First, although women are active in community peacemaking, this activity remains invisible and generally unacknowledged in both Muslim and Christian communities. Second, the intra-community conflict of rido remains unacknowledged in both “war” and peacemaking as the government focuses almost solely on the resolution of national political conflict. In addition, Muslim women's peacemaking abilities remain unacknowledged in national peace forums. Third, although religious tolerance underpins and often propels peacemaking processes, social justice for women is lacking" (Hilsdon 2009, 350).

Topics: Conflict, Gender, Women, Justice, Peace Processes, Religion, Violence Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Philippines

Year: 2009

Women and Land in Northern Nigeria: The Need for Independent Ownership Rights

Citation:

Abdullah, Hussaina J., and Aisha Fofana-Ibrahim. 2003. “Women and Land in Northern Nigeria: The Need for Independent Ownership Rights.” In Women and Land in Africa: Culture, Religion and Realizing Women’s Rights, edited by L. Muthoni Wanyeki. London: Zed Books.

Authors: Hussaina J. Abdullah, Aisha Fofana-Ibrahim

Annotation:

Summary: 
"This study is therefore intended to contribute to an understanding of land as it relates to women and as viewed from the human rights paradigm. The main objective is to undertake a critical, empirical study of women's land rights in northern Nigeria, and the manner in which these rights are shaped by religion, tradition and law. The purpose is not only to examine women's rights of access to, ownership of and control over land, including women's inheritance rights, but also to study how religion (canonical and Sharia), tradition and law (customary and non-customary) act and interact to condition the definition and practice of women's land rights. The primary focus is a review of historical practice and an analysis of empirical data on three categories of women (married, divorced, and widowed). Marriage is used as a determining variable in women's land rights because it is the major means by which women and men access land in Africa. However, whereas women's land rights are dependent on their relations with men, men's land rights are not dependent on their relations with women. Moreover, women are threatened with dispossession if divorced or widowed (Small 1997: 46)" (Abdullah and Fofana-Ibrahim 2003, 134).

Topics: Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Religion, Rights, Human Rights, Land Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Nigeria

Year: 2003

Religious Revivalism, Human Rights Activism and the Struggle for Women's Rights in Nigeria

Citation:

Abdullah, Hussaina J. 2000. "Religious Revivalism, Human Rights Activism and the Struggle for Women's Rights in Nigeria." In Beyond Rights Talk and Culture Talk: Comparative Essays on Political Rights and Culture, edited by Mahmood Mamdani, 96-120. Cape Town: David Philip Publishers.

Author: Hussaina J. Abdullah

Annotation:

Summary:
“Within the context of economic crisis, structural adjustment and political authoritarianism which have characterized Nigeria since the 1980s there has been a growth of human rights and civil liberties activism, together with a process of religious revivalism and a rising and institutionalized "State" feminism. From their different positions, the various associations have either shown total disregard for women's rights issues or proved incapable of dealing with them. The struggles of activist women's organizations, such as Women in Nigeria (WIN), which emerged in 1983, have involved the articulation of strategies for responding to the de-politicizing thrust and consequences of "State" feminism/"femocracy", whilst simultaneously attempting to tap potentially positive elements from the process for the benefit of Nigerian women. At another level, they have entailed the broadening of the campaign for women's rights with regard to issues of legal and constitutional reform. International networking has also been employed to advance the interests of Nigerian women, especially as they pertain to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Furthermore, there has been an attempt by some women's groups, such as the Federation of Muslim Women's Associations in Nigeria (FOMWAN), to use the idiom of religion and contestations over doctrinal interpretation to press the case for reforms. However, the struggles of Nigerian women for change still have to contend with resilient patriarchal structures, which aspects of religious revivalism have tended to reinforce and which the explosion of human rights activism has, so far, been insufficient to challenge significantly” (Abdullah 2000, 162-3).

Topics: Economies, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Governance, Constitutions, Religion, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Nigeria

Year: 2000

From Guns to God: Mobilizing Evangelical Christianity in Urabá, Colombia

Citation:

Theidon, Kimberly. 2015. “From Guns to God: Mobilizing Evangelical Christianity in Urabá, Colombia.” In Religious Responses to Violence: Human Rights in Latin America Past and Present, edited by Alexander Wilde, 443–76. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.

Author: Kimberly Theidon

Annotation:

Summary:
“This chapter draws on field research with former combatants from the paramilitaries Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) and Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN). Since January 2005 I have been conducting anthropological research on the individual and collective demobilization programs. To date my Colombian colleague Paola Andrea Betancourt and I have interviewed 236 male and 53 female former combatants. In addition, we have interviewed representatives of state entities and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) as well as the military, the Catholic and Evangelical churches, and various sectors of the 'host communities' to which former combatants are sent or to which they return. I sought to understand the local dynamics between victims and victimizers and the experiences of those individuals and communities the UNDPKO rightly describes as lying somewhere in between" (Theidon 2015, p. 445). 
 
“I begin with an overview of Colombia’s current DDR program and its impact on Urabá, located in the region with the highest concentration of demobilized combatants. I then explore how evangelical pastors manage memory and the past, issues of great relevance in the lives of former combatants and those around them. This leads to a discussion of repertoires of justice and the elaboration of local theologies of redemption and reconciliation. I conclude by analyzing the role these churches play in providing a space for the development of alternative masculinities and the much-desired personal transformations that may allow these former combatants to forge una nueva vida” (p. 446).

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, DDR, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Justice, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Paramilitaries, NGOs, Post-Conflict, Religion Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2015

Implementing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda? Somali Debates on Women's Public Roles and Political Participation

Citation:

Horst, Cindy. 2017. "Implementing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda? Somali Debates on Women's Public Roles and Political Participation." Journal of Eastern African Studies 11 (3): 389-407.

Author: Cindy Horst

Abstract:

In conflict and post-conflict settings, the international community operates with the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda supporting gender equality. During and after war, gender roles are often deeply contested as part of larger societal transformations and uncertainties. In Somalia since the 1960s, gender identities and roles have undergone substantial changes, influenced by contemporary political systems, the women’s movement, civil war and religious transformations. The international community’s role in these societal transformations should not be over-estimated. Life history research with Somali women shows that debates on women’s roles in the public sphere are taking place irrespective of the international agenda. Somali women have, at least since the 1960s, held civil-political leadership positions, despite substantial disagreements on the public role of women in Somalia. Furthermore, the “international”and “local” are difficult to disentangle. The Somali female elite have often spent years abroad and introduced new gender perspectives from places as divergent as Egypt, Russia and the United States. Global cultural and religious trends are influencing post-war Somalia, Somaliland and Puntland. In this complex socio- cultural landscape, the international WPS agenda can support –but also risk delegitimizing – Somali processes and perspectives. The article illustrates the gap that exists between global norms and local realities by focusing on Somali discourse on women’s public roles and political participation.

Keywords: Gender, Somalia, women, civil war, social change, diaspora, statebuilding, nation-building, peace, security

Topics: Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Peace and Security, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance, International Organizations, Peacebuilding, Political Participation, Post-Conflict, Religion, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Somalia

Year: 2017

Gendering Ethnic Conflicts: Minority Women in Divided Societies – the Case of Muslim Women in India

Citation:

Harel-Shalev, Ayelet. “Gendering Ethnic Conflicts: Minority Women in Divided Societies – the Case of Muslim Women in India.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 40, no. 12 (September 26, 2017): 2115–34.

Author: Ayelet Harel-Shalev

Abstract:

This article explores the practical and theoretical significance and long-term consequences of the failure to incorporate women’s interests in post-conflict negotiations by examining the case of Muslim women in India. Analyses of deeply divided societies must recognize that political competition and political violence do not affect all citizens equally. Also, the “larger picture” depicted by inter-community conflicts should not overshadow the effects of intra-community conflicts, which are no less important. Evident within each community conflict are the winners and the losers of the political accommodation process, in which the marginalized and weaker sections of each “side” of the conflict may be the real “losers”. Gendered analysis of ethnic conflicts and ethnic conflict resolution demands a reorientation of the concepts of conflict and security – Whose conflict is being solved and who is being secured? (Abstract from original)

Keywords: Gendering conflict analysis; women; Muslim Women; India; family law; conflict resolution; minority rights

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Religion Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 2017

The Warias of Indonesia in Disaster Risk Reduction

Citation:

Balgos, Benigno, J.C. Gaillard, and Kristinne Sanz. 2012. “The Warias of Indonesia in Disaster Risk Reduction: The Case of the 2010 Mt Merapi Eruption in Indonesia.” Gender & Development 20 (2): 337–48. doi:10.1080/13552074.2012.687218.

Authors: Benigno Balgos, J.C. Gaillard, Kristinne Sanz

Abstract:

English Abstract:
This field note draws upon the concepts of vulnerability, marginalisation, and capacity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people to face natural hazards. As a case study, this paper highlights the response of warias, members of the LGBT community in Indonesia, during the 2010 Mt Merapi eruption. Through key informant interviews and observation of actual relief operations led by warias in several evacuation sites in Yogyakarta and Central Java, the paper highlights that warias contributed to disaster risk reduction (DRR) even though they are marginalised and discriminated in the country because of prevailing religious and societal attitudes. The paper argues that their needs and capacities should be acknowledged in DRR policies and practice.
 
French Abstract:
Cette note de terrain a recours aux concepts de vulnérabilité, de marginalisation et de capacité des personnes homosexuelles, bisexuelles et transsexuelles (HBT) à faire face aux aléas naturels. Comme étude de cas, cet article met en relief la réaction des warias, membres de la communauté HBT en Indonésie, durant l’éruption de 2010 du Mont Merapi. Grâce à des entretiens avec des interlocuteurs clés et l’observation d’opérations humanitaires menées par des warias dans plusieurs sites d’évaluation à Yogyakarta et au centre de Java, cet article souligne le fait que les warias ont contribué à la réduction des risques de catastrophe (RRC) en dépit du fait qu’ils sont marginalisés et victimes de discriminations dans le pays à cause des attitudes religieuses et sociétales répandues. Les auteurs de cet article soutiennent que leurs besoins et capacités devraient être reconnus dans les politiques et pratiques de RRC.
 
Spanish Abstract:
Esta nota de campo se centra en la vulnerabilidad, la marginación y la capacidad de las personas lesbianas, gays, bisexuales y transexuales (LGBT) de enfrentar los desastres naturales. A modo de estudio de caso, este ensayo destaca la respuesta de los warias, integrantes de la comunidad LGBT de Indonesia, tras la erupción de Monte Merapi en 2010. Mediante entrevistas a informantes clave y la observación de operaciones de ayuda concretas encabezadas por los warias en varias localidades evacuadas de Yogyakarta y Java Central, el ensayo subraya que los warias ayudaron a reducir los riesgos de desastres (DRR por sus siglas en inglés) a pesar de la marginación y la discriminación que sufren en el país por las actitudes religiosas y sociales. El ensayo sostiene que las necesidades y las capacidades de los warias deberán tomarse en cuenta en las políticas y prácticas de DRR.

Keywords: LGBT, waria, disaster risk reduction, humanitarian action, capacity, vulnerability, Indonesia

Topics: Environment, Environmental Disasters, LGBTQ, Religion Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Indonesia

Year: 2012

Islamic Culture, Oil, and Women’s Rights Revisited

Citation:

Rørbæk, Lasse Lykke. 2016. “Islamic Culture, Oil, and Women’s Rights Revisited.” Politics and Religion 9 (1): 61–83. doi:10.1017/S1755048315000814.

Author: Lasse Lykke Rørbæk

Abstract:

According to recent research, oil abundance is the principal explanation for women’s poor human rights record in many Muslim societies. However, this study argues that resistance to gender equality in the Muslim world originates in its specific historical trajectory and that the critical juncture precedes the extraction of oil by a thousand years. The study assesses data on women’s economic, social, and political rights in 166 countries from 1999–2008 and shows that whereas the negative effect of oil is driven by the 11 members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries, Muslim countries consistently underperform even when oil and gas rents and other relevant factors such as income and democracy are accounted for. The study concludes that persisting orthodox tendencies in Islamic culture provide the best explanation for Muslim women’s limited empowerment.
 

Topics: Extractive Industries, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Religion, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights

Year: 2016

What is the Sex Doing in the Genocide? A Feminist Philosophical Response

Citation:

Schott, Robin May. 2015. “What is the Sex Doing in the Genocide? A Feminist Philosophical Response.” European Journal of Women’s Studies 22 (4): 397-411.

Author: Robin May Schott

Abstract:

This article reviews the literature on Holocaust and genocide studies to consider the question, ‘what is the sex doing in the genocide?’ Of the three answers usually given: (1) sexual violence is like other forms of genocidal violence, (2) sexual violence is a coordinate in genocide and (3) sexual violence is integral to genocidal violence, the author argues for the third position, but takes issue with Catharine MacKinnon’s claim that sexual violence destroys women as a group, thereby destroying the ethnic, racial, religious, or national group to which women belong. Drawing on Hannah Arendt’s concept of natality, the author argues that sexual violence is an attack on a fundamental condition for the possibility of the existence of human groups. When political violence is used to force biological birth in the service of death, it is a form of thanatonatality.

Keywords: genocide, Holocaust, natality, sexual violence, thanatonatality

Topics: Ethnicity, Gender, Women, Gendered Discourses, Gendered Power Relations, Conflict, Genocide, Race, Religion, Sexual Violence, SV against Women, Violence

Year: 2015

Invisible Victims? Where are Male Victims of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in International Law and Policy?

Citation:

Gorris, Ellen Anna Philo. 2015. “Invisible Victims? Where are Male Victims of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in International Law and Policy?” European Journal of Women’s Studies 22 (4): 412-427. 

Author: Ellen Anna Philo Gorris

Abstract:

In this article the author argues that men and boys have been historically and structurally rendered an invisible group of victims in international human rights and policy responses towards conflict-related sexual violence stemming from the United Nations. The apparent female-focused approach of instruments on sexual violence is criticized followed by a discussion – through analysis and interviews with legal scholars and champions for the recognition of male survivors’ experiences – of the first ‘emergence’ of male victims in these instruments and key actors involved in this process. The existing serious dichotomy between visible and invisible victims is prominently based on their ‘gender identity’ and leads to structural discrimination of male victims of rape or other forms of sexual violence. To overcome this situation and develop more inclusive instruments, a reconceptualization is needed of the meaning and use of words like ‘gender’ and ‘gender-based violence’. Additionally, a more intersectional approach to sexual violence should be adopted, understanding that victims have a multitude of identities such as ethnicity or religious affiliation that make them particularly vulnerable to suffering.

Keywords: sexual violence, male victims, human rights, conflict, Gender, intersectionality, women, women, peace, and Security

Topics: Ethnicity, Gender, Women, Men, Boys, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Conflict, Intersectionality, Religion, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325, UNSCR 1820, UNSCR 1888, UNSCR 1889, UNSCR 1960, UNSCR 2106, UNSCR 2122, Sexual Violence, SV against Men

Year: 2015

Pages

© 2024 CONSORTIUM ON GENDER, SECURITY & HUMAN RIGHTSLEGAL STATEMENT All photographs used on this site, and any materials posted on it, are the property of their respective owners, and are used by permission. Photographs: The images used on the site may not be downloaded, used, or reproduced in any way without the permission of the owner of the image. Materials: Visitors to the site are welcome to peruse the materials posted for their own research or for educational purposes. These materials, whether the property of the Consortium or of another, may only be reproduced with the permission of the owner of the material. This website contains copyrighted materials. The Consortium believes that any use of copyrighted material on this site is both permissive and in accordance with the Fair Use doctrine of 17 U.S.C. § 107. If, however, you believe that your intellectual property rights have been violated, please contact the Consortium at info@genderandsecurity.org.

Subscribe to RSS - Religion