Suchergebnisse

Women social leaders in Colombia say that the biggest danger posed by the global pandemic comes not from contracting the virus, but rather from non‐state armed groups taking advantage of the quarantine to violently pursue social and territorial control. This article details three phenomena that highlight how existing vulnerabilities for women social leaders have been sharpened by the global pandemic: (a) women's community work increases while state and institutional support decrease; (b) armed groups' ability to target violence increases while women's ability to self‐protect decreased; and (c) armed groups' ability to act with impunity is increasing as access to justice is limited.

High-Risk Feminism in Colombia documents the experiences of grassroots women's organizations that united to demand gender justice during and in the aftermath of Colombia's armed conflict. In doing so, it illustrates a little-studied phenomenon: women whose experiences with violence catalyze them to mobilize and resist as feminists, even in the face of grave danger. Despite a well-established tradition of studying women in war, we tend to focus on their roles as mothers or carers, as peacemakers, or sometimes as revolutionaries. This book explains the gendered underpinnings of why women engage in feminist mobilization, even when this takes place in a 'domain of losses' that exposes them to high levels of risk. It follows four women's organizations who break with traditional gender norms and defy armed groups' social and territorial control, exposing them to retributive punishment. It provides rich evidence to document how women are able to surmount the barriers to mobilization when they frame their actions in terms of resistance, rather than fear

Fear and agency are complex, interrelated and gendered phenomena for the madres buscadoras, the women searching for the disappeared in Mexico. These women operate in a context of unrelenting, multisided violence. At the same time, they choose to engage in activism that puts them at heightened risk of violence at the nexus of criminal organisations, state corruption and insecurity. This article investigates how the madres navigate contexts of gendered violence in Veracruz, Mexico, to engage in expressions of complex gendered agency. It makes the argument that we can understand why the fear of violence does not necessarily lead to demobilisation or inaction when we locate their activism within a hierarchy of fears. By recognising that the fear of never knowing about their missing loved ones outweighs the fears of violence that they are exposed to on a day-to-day basis, we gain insight into why they choose 'fight', rather than 'flight'.

The Asociación de Mujeres Afro por la Paz (Association of Afro Women for Peace—AFROMUPAZ) is an organization of displaced Afro-Colombian women now based in Bogotá. The organization represents a differential brand of feminism in the face of historical and ongoing violence and provides community, support, and employment opportunities for dozens of women and their families. Its "feminism with a woman's body and face" is part of the landscape of popular feminism in the region, but its specific social location and its actions cannot be understood without a deliberate and critical understanding of race. La Asociación de Mujeres Afro por la Paz (AFROMUPAZ) es una organización de mujeres afrocolombianas desplazadas ahora radicadas en Bogotá. La organización representa un tipo distinto de feminismo frente a la violencia histórica y continua, y ofrece oportunidades comunitarias, de apoyo y de empleo para decenas de mujeres y sus familias. Su "feminismo en cuerpo y cara de mujer" es parte del panorama del feminismo popular en la región, pero la comprensión de su ubicación social específica y acciones requiere de un acercamiento deliberado y crítico de la cuestión racial.

While scholars increasingly focus on the gendered elements of genocide, these are not often holistically discussed in the prevention literature. There is a tendency to fall into a gendered binary, whereby prevention is a masculine activity, while peacebuilding is represented as more maternal and feminine. However, women do not always exclusively mobilise for others, nor do they fit neatly within circumscribed categories of victims or peacebuilders. Rather, they have the ability to develop and refine a contextually relevant style of feminist agency that allows them to navigate and make sense of the everyday violences to which they are exposed. This article challenges trends of gendered essentialism and critically reads genocide and atrocity crimes "from the bottom up." It expands beyond case studies to highlight the emergent lessons of Zulver's High Risk Feminism framework for critical genocide prevention studies.

While scholars increasingly focus on the gendered elements of genocide, these are not often holistically discussed in the prevention literature. There is a tendency to fall into a gendered binary, whereby prevention is a masculine activity, while peacebuilding is represented as more maternal and feminine. However, women do not always exclusively mobilise for others, nor do they fit neatly within circumscribed categories of victims or peacebuilders. Rather, they have the ability to develop and refine a contextually relevant style of feminist agency that allows them to navigate and make sense of the everyday violences to which they are exposed. This article challenges trends of gendered essentialism and critically reads genocide and atrocity crimes "from the bottom up." It expands beyond case studies to highlight the emergent lessons of Zulver's High Risk Feminism framework for critical genocide prevention studies.

This article uses the case of Colombia to evaluate the gendered risks of social leadership and human rights activism in territories governed by armed groups. Existing data on Colombian human rights and social leader deaths reveals that men leaders are being killed at a much higher rate than women social leaders. In this article, we delve deeper into gendered patterns of violence against men and women leaders by focusing specifically on the content of the threats these leaders receive from armed groups. We analyzed 40 qualitative interviews with men and women social leaders who have worked in nine different conflict regions of Colombia to find that armed actors target men and women leaders with uniquely gender-specific threats. These findings tell us a great deal, not only about how armed groups govern those in the territories they control, but also about the gender biases they hold about men and women leaders who challenge their authority. Although women leader deaths are less common than those of their male counterparts, the threats and violence both receive are grounded in stereotypical gender norms, and thus merit gender-sensitive, context-specific analyses and responses.