Suchergebnisse

Based on large research material collected in Hungary, Macedonia, Serbia and Bulgaria Social change, Gender and Violence is the book which explores the impact of transition from communism and war on everyday life of women and men, as well as the way how everyday life and gender related changes affect women's vulnerability to domestic violence and trafficking in women. The book also explores the impact of micro level changes on development of civil society, women's movement, and legal and policy changes regarding violence against women. This is a unique book, which tries to look at violence against women as connected to oppression of both women and men. It argues that violence against women in post-communist and war affected societies is significantly connected to the increase of social stratification, economic hardship, unemployment, instability, uncertainty and related social stresses, changes in gender identity and structural inequalities brought by new world order. Using largely accounts of more than hundred interviewed people, the author shows vividly how, in post-communist societies, the contradictions of capitalism are interlaced with the mostly negative relics of communism. Moreover, the book shows how contradictory processes in post-communist societies have led to a rather paradoxical result: political pluralism and a capitalist economic system generated both violence against women and a women's movement, albeit not the conditions for a reduction of violence

In this paper, I explore the experiences of women who found refuge in Serbia during the war in the former Yugoslavia. I look at the women's experiences of both leaving home and coping with everyday life in refuge. The exploration of refugee women's experiences is mainly based on analyses of their own stories, which I collected while researching women and war. In spite of all the hardship of their lives, refugee women who fled to Serbia have been treated by Western media, the public and aid organizations as 'UNPEOPLE' or as non-existent. Making their experiences visible as women, refugees and citizens is the main purpose of this article.

Reasons to distinguish between the elites responsible for war & violence in the former Yugoslavia & the rest of the Serbian population are advanced. The war in Yugoslavia has been portrayed in black & white terms; ie, all Serbians supported the aggressive & nationalistic policies of the elites. However, more recent reports show that many Serbs were not properly informed about political decisions by elites & were subjected to exploitation & manipulation. After the war, in 1997, demonstrations against the elites reached a high point, but the international community has not recognized differences between the incumbent, Slobodan Milosevic, & the opposition parties, nor the differences between civil & nationalistic demonstrations. It appears that the international community is reluctant to punish the elites for war crimes for fear that a less manipulatable leader than Milosevic may appear. It is recommended that the West impose punishment & sanctions on those responsible for war crimes, not on the entire populace, & assist the opposition coalition with the country's increasing economic difficulties. Adapted from the source document.

Explores the effects of nationalist sentiment on motherhood, arguing that nationalist propaganda urges mothers to support war & reproduce to increase the population of the nation. The case of war in the former Yugoslavia illustrates how the church & state usurped control of women's bodies by supporting nationalist antiabortion movements, even to the degree of accepting rape-related pregnancies. Patriarchal constructions are seen in the objectification of women in relation to the notion of rape as ethnic cleansing; ie, only the male seed determines the identity of a child that a women must passively agree to carry. The psychological trauma caused by wartime rape is discussed, as well as the UN's responsibility for it. M. Nichols-Wagner