Women as Embodied Infrastructures: Self-Led Organisations Sustaining the Lives of Female Victims of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Colombia

Abstract

The article looks at women self-led organisations as embodied infrastructures supporting the lives of victim-survivors of conflict-related sexual violence in Colombia. Focusing on three elements that form the concept of women as embodied infrastructures namely, i) the roles women play as mentors and role models for other women, ii) women's work in women's services, networks, and organisations, iii) radical care, I argue that women as embodied infrastructures provide important listening and learning safe-spaces where victim-survivors can regain self-love, a political understanding of their victimisation, access peer support, gain citizenship skills, and begin to heal. By enabling victims-survivors to become agents in the process of rebuilding their lives, their livelihoods, and their wider ecologies the work of these organisations promotes gender-transformative change and is central to peacebuilding and transitional justice processes.