Sites of Violence: Gender and Conflict Zones - Paperback

by Wenona Giles (Editor), Jennifer Hyndman (Editor)

In conflict zones from Iraq and Afghanistan to Guatemala and Somalia, the rules of war are changing dramatically. Distinctions between battlefield and home, soldier and civilian, state security and domestic security are breaking down. In this especially timely book, a powerful group of international authors doing feminist research brings the highly gendered and racialized dimensions of these changes into sharp relief. In essays on nationalism, the political economy of conflict, and the politics of asylum, they investigate what happens when the body, household, nation, state, and economy become sites at which violence is invoked against people.

In particular, these hard-hitting essays move us forward in our understanding of violence against women-how it is perpetrated, survived, and resisted. They explore the gendered politics of ethno-nationalism in Sri Lanka, the post-Yugoslav states, and Israel and Palestine. They consider "honor killings" in Iraqi Kurdistan, armed conflict in the Sudan, and geographies of violence in Ghana. This volume augments feminist analysis on conflict zones and contributes to transnational coalition-building and feminist organizing.

Front Jacket

Insightfully and lucidly maps the gendered contours of militarized conflict, from war zones to refugee camps, and across continents as diverse as Africa, South Asia, Central America and Europe. This exciting book provides a variety of incisive feminist critiques of ethnic-nationalism, disputes over oil rights, and discourses about religious fundamentalism. This work not only explores and interrogates conflict, but also seeks to provide a feminist framework for moving beyond the violence of war.--Kumari Jayawardena, author of Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World

"Offers a broad range of essays on gender, identity and conflict. What makes this collection exceptional is its critical stance, which draws from political geography as well as scholarship on feminisms, nationalisms and identities. The resulting analysis is both original and provocative. Moreover, the breadth and currency of its coverage renders the collection particularly useful for students and scholars alike."--Julie Mertus, author of Kosovo: How Myths and Truths Started a War

"An important contribution to one of the most significant new fields in both women's studies and international politics--the study of post-conflict societies. Giles and Hyndman have brought together gritty, subtle case studies from Iraq, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Guatemala, and the former Yugoslavia to pose edgy questions about what subverts genuine national reconstruction and what thwarts real demilitarization. Anyone interested in international feminist organizing, nationalism, democratization, and the workings of modernized patriarchy will want to read this book cover to cover."--Cynthia Enloe, author of Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women's Lives

Author Biography

Wenona Giles is Associate Professor in the School of Social Sciences, Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies, York University, Toronto. She is co-editor of Feminists Under Fire: Exchanges Across War Zones (2003). Jennifer Hyndman is Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, and the author of Managing Displacement: Refugees and the Politics of Humanitarianism (2000).