Violence

Citation:

Mushtaq, Samreen. 2020. "The Myth of Empowerment: Gender, Conflict, and ‘Development’ in Kashmir." In Minorities and Populism - Critical Perspectives from South Asia and Europe, edited by Volker Kaul and Ananya Vajpeyi, 277-86. Cham: Springer, Cham.

Author: Samreen Mushtaq

Abstract:

This paper attempts to look at the discourse of development and empowerment in a conflict zone like Kashmir to explore how such narratives are employed by the state to suppress people’s resistance. Kashmir has been noted as one of the longest running ‘disputes’ between India and Pakistan following the Partition of the subcontinent in 1947—a narrative that ignores the centrality of Kashmir and Kashmiris to the conundrum. This paper brings forth India’s nation-building exercise in Kashmir, often hinged on the discourse of development, to show how gender and conflict intersect with violence being central to state control. It looks into women’s empowerment narrative propagated by the state, presenting itself as a saviour of the otherwise ‘oppressed’ women. In doing so, the paper highlights how such empowerment does not translate into a life of dignity for the women. It brings forth women’s subversion of statist impositions to participate in resistance as they demand their right to a national imaginary of their own.

Keywords: Gender, empowerment, violence, Kashmir, India

Topics: Development, Conflict, Gender, Governance, Violence Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 2020

Citation:

Walker, Shnecia Lenise. 2019. “The Art of Being Unseen: A Phenomenological Study Exploring Alienation as Told through the Lived Experiences of LGBTQ U.S. Military Service Members Who Served before and during the DADT Repeal.” EdD diss., Drexel University.

Author: Shnecia Lenise Walker

Abstract:

For many years, mastering the art of being unseen been a practice for countless LGBTQ military personnel in order to avoid harassment, violence, and expulsion from the U.S. Armed Forces. Prior research on LGBTQ military personnel who served both before and after the repeal of DADT has documented their multifaceted experiences (Alford & Lee, 2016; Allsep, 2013; Gatson, 2015; Goldbach & Castro, 2016; Mondragon, 2013; Parco, Levy, & Spears, 2014; Quam, 2015; Spinks, 2015; Vaughn, 2014). While several studies identified the participants’ experiences of alienation, these studies were largely exploratory and did not investigate or interrogate alienation with any depth or rigor. Drawing on Seeman’s (1975) six variants of alienation, this dissertation explores the phenomenon of alienation as experienced by LGBTQ military personnel. Understanding their experiences of alienation may help to inform and improve military policies and procedures intended to ensure their full integration into the U.S. Armed Forces. This research study utilized a phenomenological approach to explore alienation as lived and experienced by five LGBTQ military personnel during both the enactment and repeal of DADT. Participants were recruited from private and closed military and veteran LGBTQ partnering support groups and organizations located online. Of the five participants, three identified as lesbian, one identified as gay and/or homosexual and the fifth participant identified as queer. Analysis of the data resulted in three themes: 1) experiences with coming out; 2) a climate of oppression; and 3) alienation. This research study includes four major findings: 1) three of the five participants identified themselves as being in the identity acceptance stage the first time that they disclosed their sexual orientation; 2) participants described military culture as oppressive to LGBTQ military personnel both before and after the repeal of DADT; 3) of Seeman’s six variants of alienation, cultural estrangement was the most prominent variant described by the participants; and 4) in addition to Seeman’s six variants of alienation, participants exhibited a resilient variant of alienation in the form of self-preservation. Findings from this study inform both practice and future research. In addition, the study identifies the need for further exploration of the lived experiences of transgender military persons.

Keywords: alienation, diversity, Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT), isolation, LGBTQ, military

Topics: Gender, LGBTQ, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Sexuality, Violence Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2019

Citation:

Kirby, Paul. 2020. "The Body Weaponized: War, Sexual Violence and the Uncanny." Security Dialogue 51 (2-3): 211-30.

Author: Paul Kirby

Abstract:

It is today common to argue that rape is a weapon, tool or instrument of warfare. One implication is that armed groups marshal body parts for tactical and strategic ends. In this article, I interrogate this discourse of embodied mobilization to explore how body weaponry has been made intelligible as a medium for sexual violence. First, I show that, despite wide rejection of essentialist models, the penis and penis substitutes continue to occupy a constitutive role in discussions of sexual violence in both political and academic fora, where they are often said to be like weapons, a tendency I term ‘weapon talk’. Second, I trace the image of the body weapon in key threads of feminist theorizing and commentary, to show how the penis has appeared as a ‘basic weapon of force’ in various permutations. Third, I explore the weaponization of the body as it appears in military thought and in the cultural circulation of ideas about the soldiering body in which sexual pleasure and violence are frequently conflated. Building on this foundation, I propose that these literatures collectively describe an uncanny weapon object, and I draw out the significance of this term for feminist security studies and martial empiricism. In short, the uncanny haunts accounts of sexual violence in the collision of sexuality and machinery in the image of a body weapon, in the unsettling designation of sexuality as itself both familiar and dangerous, and in the strange movement of violent bodies across the boundary between wartime and peacetime. A concluding discussion draws out implications and challenges for thinking about embodied violence, advocating renewed attention to the history of weaponization as a fallible and confounding process.

Keywords: critical war studies, embodiment, feminism, phenomenology, uncanny, wartime sexual violence

Topics: Feminisms, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Security, Sexual Violence, Rape, Violence, Weapons /Arms

Year: 2020

Citation:

True, Jacqui. 2020. "Continuums of Violence and Peace: A Feminist Perspective." Ethics & International Affairs 34 (1): 85-95.

Author: Jacqui True

Abstract:

Topics: Economies, Feminisms, Gender, Peace and Security, Violence

Year: 2020

Citation:

Wibben, Annick T. R. 2020. "Everyday Security, Feminism, and the Continuum of Violence." Journal of Global Security Studies 5 (1): 115-21.

Author: Annick T. R. Wibben

Abstract:

This article returns to the original forum question “What is Global Security Studies?,” looking at it in relation to the theme of inclusion and exclusion to point out that security studies scholars exclude feminist scholarship on (everyday) security at their own peril. Showcasing the increasing body of feminist security studies scholarship, the article then highlights not only what scholarship might be included in a truly global security studies, but also the important insights (e.g., about the continuum of violence that spans peace- and wartime) that are missed without it. The article ends with a reflection on the need to also include a wider range of approaches as eminently valuable to global security studies.

Keywords: feminist security studies, everyday security, continuum of violence, Gender, critical security studies

Topics: Feminisms, Security, Violence

Year: 2020

Citation:

Abimbola, Foluke Oluyemisi. 2019. "Women in Post-Conflict Niger-Delta of Nigeria: Amnesty versus Restorative Justice." Journal of Law and Criminal Justice 7 (1): 23-34.

Author: Foluke Oluyemisi Abimbola

Abstract:

The Niger-Delta of Nigeria is known for violence and conflicts as a result of opposition of militant groups to oil exploration activities concentrated in this area of Nigeria. The militant groups are still agitating for a share of the oil revenue and for the development of their region. Women in the Niger-Delta of Nigeria have experienced different levels of violence and torture during these conflict situations. Some of the crimes perpetrated against women during these conflicts are rape, forced labour, sex slavery, and brutal murder of their family members. In addition, during conflict situations and even thereafter, the women experience a deeper level of poverty as a result of their inability to continue with their economic activities such as farming or fishing due to displacements caused by the conflict as most of the women living in the Niger-Delta rural communities are subsistence farmers. Following years of insurgency by angry militants against the Nigerian government, the amnesty strategy was eventually mapped out by the government of the day in order to give the militant youth economic opportunities to stem the tide of conflicts. However, the vast majority of women and girls who were and are still victims of these conflicts were not included. This paper shall highlight the need for restorative justice especially for women who are victims of the insurgency. Whereas amnesty seeks to give a better future to the militants, the women are unable to recover effectively with little or no means of indemnifying their losses. This paper proposes restitution or compensation for victims while creating constructive roles for victims in the criminal justice process.

Keywords: women, Niger Delta, post-conflict mechanisms, amnesty, restorative justice

Topics: Age, Youth, Agriculture, Displacement & Migration, Economies, Poverty, Conflict, Resource Conflict, Extractive Industries, Gender, Women, Governance, Justice, Torture, Sexual Violence, Rape, Sexual Slavery, SV against Women, Violence Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Nigeria

Year: 2019

Citation:

Niaz, Unaiza, and Qudsia Tariq. 2020. "Challenges in Women’s Mental Health: Care in Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations." In Mental Health and Illness of Women, edited by Pradha S. Chandra, Helen Herman, Jane Fisher, and Anita Riecher-Rössler, 109-24. Singapore: Springer, Singapore.

Authors: Unaiza Niaz, Qudsia Tariq

Abstract:

Keywords: gender based violence, healthcare services, mental health stigma, sexual violence

Topics: Armed Conflict, Economies, Poverty, Conflict, Education, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Health, Mental Health, Trauma, Justice, Political Participation, Rights, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Violence

Year: 2020

Citation:

Kelly, Jocelyn T. D., Elizabeth Colantuoni, Courtland Robinson, and Michele R. Decker. 2019. "From Political to Personal Violence: Links between Conflict and Non-Partner Physical Violence in Post-Conflict Liberia." Global Public Health 14 (12): 1639-52.

Authors: Jocelyn Kelly, Elizabeth Colantuoni, Courtland Robinson, Michele R. Decker

Abstract:

War and interpersonal violence together account for a large burden on global health. Yet very few studies look at the relationship between these types of aggression. Non-partner physical violence (NPPV) is an often-understudied form of gender-based violence (GBV). This analysis draws on two datasets from one conflict-affected country, Liberia, to evaluate the impact of conflict on NPPV post-conflict. The Armed Conflict Location and Event Dataset (ACLED) measures the intensity of the conflict in Liberia from 1999-2003, while the Demographic and Heath Survey (DHS) data measure women's experiences with violence four years post-conflict. Almost half of women surveyed (45%) indicated that they experienced any kind of NPPV, highlighting the widespread nature of this issue. A multilevel modelling approach was used to account for the nesting of individuals within districts. Women living in districts that experienced conflict events in four or five years were almost three times as likely (aOR 2.93, p < .001) to experience past-year NPPV compared to individuals living in no conflict districts. Findings from this study suggest women residing in a conflict event-affected district may be at heightened risk of increased violence even years after peace is declared.

Keywords: interpersonal violence, conflict, civil war, contagion of violence, human rights

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Post-Conflict, Violence Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Liberia

Year: 2019

Citation:

Chilmeran, Yasmin, and Jacqui True. 2019. "The Political Economy of Gender and Peacebuilding." In Handbook on Intervention and Statebuilding, edited by Nicolas Lemay-Hébert, 323-38. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.

Authors: Yasmin Chilmeran, Jacqui True

Abstract:

UNSCR 1325 and subsequent Security Council resolutions emphasise the importance of women’s participation in peace processes and peacebuilding to ensure the sustainability of peace and prevent the recurrence of conflict. However, in post-conflict contexts, gender inequalities are heightened, contributing to women’s vulnerability to gender-based violence and structural violence. This chapter applies a feminist political economy framework to examine women’s experiences of these forms of violence. Through an analysis of the post-occupation Iraq case we explore: (1) the political economy causes of women’s insecurity, and (2) the consequences of this insecurity for women’s participation in the peacebuilding process. We examine the types of peacebuilding women are involved in and why they are often excluded from major peacebuilding decisions with implications for the failure to adequately address conflict-related gendered violence. In particular, we consider the work that women are doing to address violence and insecurity within their communities outside of state-sanctioned processes. Above all, the case of Iraq demonstrates that there is an inextricable connection between the gendered experience of insecurity and unequal gendered forms of post-conflict participation.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Occupation, Conflict Prevention, Feminisms, Feminist Political Economy, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Political Economies, Post-Conflict, Peacebuilding, Political Participation, Peace Processes, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325, Violence Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Iraq

Year: 2019

Citation:

Fausiah, Fitri, Sherly Saragih Turnip, and Edvard Hauff. 2020. "Gender Differences and the Correlates of Violent Behaviors among High School Students in a Post-Conflict Area in Indonesia." Asia-Pacific Psychiatry. doi:10.1111/appy.12383.

Authors: Fitri Fausiah, Sherly Saragih Turnip, Edvard Hauff

Abstract:

Introduction: Adolescent violence is a public health problem worldwide. Studies show that challenging environments, such as poverty and war, increase the risk of adolescent violence. This paper aims to assess gender differences in violent behaviors among adolescents in a post‐conflict area in Indonesia. The other aim of this study is to investigate the correlates of adolescents' violent behaviors using the socio‐ecological framework.

Keywords: adolescent, Gender, Indonesia, post-conflict, violence

Topics: Age, Youth, Economies, Poverty, Gender, Post-Conflict, Violence Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Indonesia

Year: 2020