Engendering Armed Militancy in Kashmir: Women as Perpetrators of Violence

Abstract

History provides scarce chronicle of gendered experiences of organized political violence. It is only in the post Second World War era, mainly owing to escalation in armed conflicts and with the growing discipline of gender studies, that there have been attempts to study conflict situations from a gender perspective. Most of these attempts however tend to portray a simplistic characterization of women, that is victims, while neglecting their other experiences — survivors, peace-builders and combatants. In recent years some analysts, although few in number, have brought to the forefront the different roles and experiences of women in conflict (Bennett et al. 1995; Turpin 1998). The inclusion of women’s experiences brings into focus the heterogeneity of the experiences of the subgroups caught in conflict situations. Understanding women’s participation in the conflict, the chapter argues, is essential not only as a mere exercise to add to the literature on conflict but also to understand conflict in its multifaceted dimensions from a perspective hitherto neglected owing to gender-neutral dominant discourse. Discourse on the issue of conflict and peace could certainly be broadened by understanding the whys and hows of women’s participation in conflict. In conflict situations, women’s participation can be direct, indirect or both depending upon a variety of circumstances specific to the location, situation and dynamics of the particular conflict.KeywordsDirect ParticipationSecurity ForcePeace ProcessSuicide BomberMass SupportThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.