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This content downloaded from 140.232.1.111 on Tue, 1 Oct 2013 16:05:46 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Women's Agency in Peace Building
Gender Relations in Post-Conflict Reconstruction
Although there is a growing body of feminist discourse establishing that war and peace are gendered activities, and consequently women's experiences, responses and needs are different, this is often overlooked by national and 'internationalpolicy-imakers. Studies making visible the centrality of women's agency in peace building and the need to have women participate at the peace table are ignored by the dominant cornflict,peace and security discourses. This paper maps the complex and variegated picture of civilian and militarised women's agency in moments of violent social transformationand the peculiarities of their languages of resistance and empowerment.
RITA MANCHANDA
Peace building is a process that flows throughthe pre- Humanitariandiscourses continue to configure women as victims conflict or conflict prevention,conflict and post-conflict and end up devaluingthe multiple(empowering) roles women phases. Such an approachdraws attentionto the reality take on duringconflict of managingcommunity survival and of theno war-nopeace hiatus characteristic of so manyintra state peace building.The post-conflictreconstruction is faced with conflicts in the global south and challenges the assumptionof the challengeof socially recognisingthese new roles thathave a "post-conflict"closure, especially with regardto the attention implicationsfor social transformation.An attentionto these areas- Afghanistanand Sri Lanka or Nepal1 thathas been sucked changes could provide a basis for reworkingmore equitable backinto an activeconflict stage. Manypeace builders,particu- genderrelations during the conflict itself. The postponementof larly women, operateat all of these stages. the "women'squestion" to the aftermathis too late [Turshen Althoughthere is a growing body of feminist discoursees- 2001]. The historicalexperience is that the momentopened up tablishingthat war and peace are genderedactivities and con- by the societal upheavalof conflict, slips back to a restoration sequentlywomen's experiences, responses and needs arediffer- of genderstatus quo with women pushedback to theirsewing ent, it is often overlookedby nationaland internationalpolicy- machineand men supervising and marketing their products [Kumar makers.Studies making visible thecentrality of women'sagency 20011. in peacebuilding and the need to have womenparticipate at the Violence is an importantvariable in determiningwhether war peace table are ignored by the dominantconflict, peace and time"gains" can be consolidated as menuse violence and the threat securitydiscourses. of violence to marginalisewomen, especially in restructuring The UN SecurityCouncil Resolution 1325 on Women,Peace "normalcy".Empirical research reveals a co-relationbetween and Securityis a path-breakingendorsement of women's inclu- conflict and increasingdomestic violence, i e, the connection sion in peaceprocesses [Anderlini 2000; Porter 2003]. Butwhere between violence, militarismand the constructionof a macho are the women in decision-makingin conflict resolutionand masculinity. Humanitarianand Relief, Reconstructionand reconstructioneither within the UN systemor in enablingwomen Rehabilitation(RRR) frameworks rarely recognise domestic vio- to translatetheir authority in the informalsphere to the formal lence as systematicin conflict and post-conflict,consequently, sphereof politics in the aftermath2of violent conflict?The UN humanitarianand securityresponses do not addressit during SecretaryGeneral's 2004 reporton 1325, fouryears after it was trainingin emergenciesor in articulatinglegal andpolicy frame- adopted,states "The number of womenwho participatein formal worksfor post-conflict reconstruction [Rehn and Sirleaf: Unifem peace processesremains small... The desire to bring peace at 2002].There is littleattempt to relateit to women'sinferior socio- any cost may resultin a failureto involve women and consider economic status and lack of voice and therefore,to addressit their needs and concerns." througha resource-basedand empowermentapproach [Kelkar There is a broadrecognition among humanitarianand relief and Nathan2004]. agenciesthat women bear the bruntof armedconflict. Empirical Thereis a lack of attentionto the post-conflictexperience of evidence shows that women will not receive their fair share "peace" that produces greater impoverishmentof women. withoutdeliberate planning of gender-sensitiverelief, rehabili- Dominantreconstruction models involve downsizing govern- tation and reconstruction.However, multi donor frameworks ment and privilegingprivate sector as the engine of growth. for buildingpeace in war-tornsocieties, at best, insertgender- Womenare the first to be laid off in wage employmentin the sensitive languageand ignore it at the field level. There is the public sector. The feminisation of the informal sector is a visibilityof settingup genderfocal points, but usually without phenomenonof post-conflict societies. Moreover, structural resources and authorityto effectively leverage the system. adjustmentprogrammes reduce the availabilityof public re- Consequently, they are set up to fail [Rehn and Sirleaf: sources for food security, health and education.In the post- Unifem2002]. conflict situationsthere is a trend towards a feminisationof
Economicand Political Weekly October29, 20054737
This content downloaded from 140.232.1.111 on Tue, 1 Oct 2013 16:05:46 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions poverty. Arguably, it is linked with failure to address gender and its mirror image in contesting groups and communities inequalities, especially at a time when conflict conditions have (Essays in Cultural Dynamics: 2004). produced shifts in gender relations. Conflict conditions compel women to take on new independent War and Peace Are Gendered Activities roles and demonstrate capacities for decision-making with implications for at least, the equal involvement of women in In today's "civil wars" civilians are not just collateral victims, community management, peace process and reconstruction ac- but the direct targets of armed conflicts. As more men than women tivities. The norms of women's dependence have changed and join the soldiery, it is women and children who make up the social taboos challenged as non-traditional roles are assumed as majority of the civilians and become the major casualties of intra- women manage family/community survival and peace-building state conflicts. (and war-making). Women in conflict areas disproportionatelyshoulder the burden "Post-conflict" structures of development require policies, of survival coping with "family strategies in the absence of food, planning and design that build on the base of these changes for shelter, basic services, education and means of livelihood for more effective development. Areas of armed conflict may present sustenance" [ADB 2004]. Women's care giving role impacts on the most ideal opportunities of addressing gender concretely, their capacity to protect themselves and makes mobility difficult, since programmessuch as relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation producing the phenomenon of the "internally stuck" as observed could represent a new beginning. in Nepal [Martinez 2002]. It is the women who grow food and The post-conflict situations highlighted here - Afghanistan, produce "taxes" for the guerrillas in Nepal's Maoist-controlled Sri Lanka and Nepal - are located in a region marked by severe areas. gender inequalities or as in the case of Sri Lanka, gender The social impact of conflict is most visible in the emergence disempowerment. At first glance, Sri Lanka appearsan exception. of woman-headed households, widows or half widows abruptly Its social policy package of free education, primary health thrustinto a position of responsibility for the welfare of the family centres and food subsidy has produced GDI indicators that are in a context of deprivation and instability, in societies where the above the developing country average at 0.73 but its gender widow is culturally regarded with prejudice and a woman alone empowerment measure (GEM) trails behind the average at 0.27 invites predatory behaviour. The Taliban's decrees excluding (average 39). Also there is a difficulty of factoring in data from women from working outside the home forced widows to beg the conflict-affected north and east. The war has left in the for family survival or go into prostitution. In Jaffna in Sri Lanka, north and east 30,000 women-headed families and 40,000 there were 19,000 registered widows and 2,100 children living widows and a trend towards "feminisation" of poverty, migration in the government welfare centres. In the south, widows of and trafficking. soldiers and wives of disabled soldiers have been thrust into What Sri Lanka and Afghanistan have in common for purposes becoming female heads of households vulnerable to exploitation of our analysis is the central role-of the international community as they claim compensation and pension entitlements. and the diaspora in brokering a ceasefire and in supporting relief The UN secretary general in his reporton Afghanistan for 2001 and reconstruction. The international community's involvement noted that, "high levels of food insecurity have a particularimpact provides an opportunity and involves a responsibility to pay on women and children .... the need to prioritise expenditure attention to the possibilities for social transformation. and lack of rights means that women and girls suffer dispropor- Paying attention to women's needs and tapping women as a tionately. Women tend to reduce their own intake in favour of resource in peace building and reconstruction (and consolidating men because they are 'workers' and children. The amount of the paradoxical "gains" from conflict) will not happen without money available for women's medical costs and transportto the mainstreaming gender at every stage of the peace process and nearest health centre will decrease, increasing the risk of maternal reconstruction. However, internationally supported national mortality. Further, women and children are the main water plans largely add on gender as an afterthought and rarely give collectors and increasing scarcity of potable water in drought- the gendered causes and consequences of conflict due attention, affected areas means they have to walk kms to fetch water..." especially the implications of the increase of women in poverty, (www.womenwarpeace.org; file://A:\Afghanistan-country beyond the obvious category of "female-headed households". page.htm) Certainly, a universal interpretation of agency across cultures In Sri Lanka, two decades of civil war have resulted in cutbacks cannot be assumed. The diversities of geographies, religions, in health and educational sector as government spending on the ethnicities, class and caste impact on how local identities of military has jumped from 4 per cent in 1981 to 22 per cent in women and men are socially constructed and affect women's 1997. In the north and east, the school dropout rate is four times experiences and agency [Cockburn 2001]. Nonetheless, there is above the average 4 per cent. Some 65,000 children do not attend the universality of the structural inequality between women and school there. Meanwhile, the LTTE continues its policy of men as a dominant ordering principle of society. It differentially recruitment of child soldiers. The Human Rights Watch has positions women and men whether in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka pointed to the particular vulnerability of girls to re-recruitment or Nepal to respond to the gendered activity of war and peace. because their short hair made them identifiable as former LTTE The paper maps the complex and variegated picture of civilian (November 2004). and militarised women's agency in moments of violent In Afghanistan, three decades of civil war have laid it waste social transformation and the particularities of their languages and'reinforced culturally sanctioned notions of restriction and of resistance and empowerment. Ideologies of nationhood are exclusion as women became the site for contesting ideologies inescapably gendered and the question of women's agency has of modernity versus tradition. Maternal mortality rate is 1,600, to push against the intractability of the networks of violence that per 1,00,000 live births. Only 12 per cent of women have access constitute the political economy of state and nation in south Asia to basic health care and female illiteracy rate is 78 per cent. There
4738 Economic and Political Weekly October 29, 2005
This content downloaded from 140.232.1.111 on Tue, 1 Oct 2013 16:05:46 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions are 50,000 widows in Kabul and two million in the country assessmentin the UNIFEMstudy of the impactof conflict in [Azarbaijan-Moghaddam2002]. the Women War and Peace (2002) is openly sceptical of its In ethno-nationalistdiscourses, the productiveand reproduc- sustainability."Women may acquiremore mobility,resources tive assetsof womenare appropriated and ideologies of "purity" and opportunitiesfor leadership.But the traditionalresponsi- provide social sanction for "honour"killings. Post-conflict bility comes without any diminutionin the demandsof their patriarchalbias in processesof state consolidationare manifest traditionalroles. Thus the momentaryspace in which women in state-sponsoredprojects as the forcible recoveryof women takeon non-traditionalroles andtypically assume much greater abductedduring the Indo-PakPartition [Menon and Bhasin responsibilities- withinthe householdand public arenas - does 1998];the compulsorymass abortionsand adoptionsof babies not necessarilyadvance gender equality." I argue that there is of the "birangonas",rape survivorsof the 1971 B,angladesh a need to have more nuancedassessment of the implications liberationwar [D'Costa 2002]. The post-conflictstate appro- of women's multipleroles in south Asia's intrastateconflicts. priatespurity discourses of belongingand in the processviolates That is - women's roles as survivorsand the intendedand women's claims to equal citizens. unintendedsocio-structural changes wrought by conflictin their lives; women's roles in conflict preventionand peace building; and women's in the ranks: Political Economy of Violence participation fighting emancipatory politics in a militaristand authoritarianculture. Women'ssocially subordinaterole places them at the risk of gender-basedviolence. The extremeviolence that women suffer Women as Survivors: Ambivalent Empowerment duringconflict is directlyrelated to the violence(physical, struc- turaland cultural) that exists in women'severyday life in "peace- Agency here is located in what ordinarycivilian women did time". The violence against women in conditions of conflict in wartime - the survivalstrategies forged for theirfamilies and stands in a continuumalongside the violence experiencedby communitiesand their language of everydayresistance. Indeed, womenin 'normal'conditions. Caroline Moser interjects the axis thepolitical action of ordinarywomen arises from their everyday of anothercontinuum, adding to social violence, political and reality,from the concern they affirmfor the safetyof theirfamily economic aspects [Moser 2001]. The feminist analysis of the and the.sustenance they give to their community. politicaleconomy of raperelates violence againstwomen with Domesticactivism rests on the "stretchedroles" of women's sexualcontrol and the allocation of resources,that is, as an aspect everydaylives as caregiversand nurturersand is often belittled of politicaland economic violence [Meintjeset al 2001] Patri- as accidentalactivism. In Kashmir,managing survival demanded archalsocieties regardwomen as their propertyand therefore, thatordinary women develop the habitof listeningto the news value resides in women's productiveand reproductivelabour. and staying connected to the informalgrapevine. As Mishra Abductionand rape become strategiesfor strippingwomen of Basheer,a governmentschool teacher explained, "We had to find theirpersonal assets and of theirpolitical assets - honouror more out aboutstrikes and curfews, we needed to know when there preciselycommunity honour. was a crackdownor wherethere was an explosionor cross fire. Women'sassets also reside in theirmaterial possessions and Ourchildren our men were out there.We hadto be alertto what accessto landand livestock (2001). UrvashiButalia, in a feminist themilitants were saying about wearing burquas or who was being analysisof the violenceof 1947 Partition,draws attention to the accused of being an informer"[Manchanda 2001]. phenomenonof womenin their50s and60s who were abducted The housewivesstepped outside the culturalframework of the by men of the same village. "Accordingto social workersthis family to make rounds of detentioncentres and torturecells was not uncommonbecause abductors knew the circumstances looking for the disappearedand negotiatedwith institutional of the women they were picking up. They would take older powerstructures of the enemy,the army,administration and the women, widows or those whose husbandshad been killed for courts.This spontaneousaction eventuallyled to the founding their property.They would then ask to become their 'sons', a of the "Associationof the Parentsof the Disappeared"(APDP). short cut to acquisitionof property"[Butalia 1998]. ParveenaAhangar, a semi-illiteratehousewife's untiring search for hermissing son propelledher to formAPDP which continues to Women's Agency in Conflict be a powerfulvoice for justice and humanrights. In Nepal, the Maoistinspired peasant-based struggle and the In - war,the dominantimage of women as losers as victims, consequentcivil war, denudedwhole villages of men. In the has graveconsequences for a trueawareness of the differential displacementdiscourse in Nepal, women constitutethe pheno- impactof conflicton women's and men's lives andthe creative menonof the "internallystuck" left behindwith small children, strategiesthat women forge for the survivalof theirfamilies and theelderly and disabled. Women traditionally form the backbone communities.That is, the hardshipsand compulsionsthat push of the subsistenceagrarian economy, but now have crossedthe themto takeon decision-makingroles, entering into negotiations gendereddivision of labourto take on taboo areas- ploughing with conflict in the public sphere,becoming peace activistsor andthatching of roofs. The absenceof men openednew oppor- participatingin the militarisedstruggle. The challengeis to shore tunitiesfor women to step into public life as evinced in the all the up "gains"wrought by conflict in the experiencesof both womenwards of Mirulevillage council,Rolpa district [Gautam civilian and combatantwomen; to strengthenwomen as agents et al 2001]. of social transformation. The Sri Lankancivil war transformedthe northand east of The fromconflict "gains" discourseis a problematicone rooted the islandinto war ravagedzones undershifting control of the in loss, painand extreme hardship. It is a paradoxthat war offers governmentand the LTTE. It thrust non-combatant Tamil women women opportunitiesto transformtheir lives in termsof self- into the public arena,pushing them to acquirenew technical, image as well as their social relationships.Rehn and Sirleaf's commercialand professional skills. Gendered roles in agriculture
Economic and Political Weekly October 29, 2005 4739
This content downloaded from 140.232.1.111 on Tue, 1 Oct 2013 16:05:46 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions and fishing underwentsubtle and significantchanges. Women at weddingsand birthdays" [Rehn and Sirleaf: Unifem 2002] The took up lagoon fishing, food processingand marketingbeyond radicalRevolutionary Afghan Women's Association(RAWA) theirtraditional roles as evidentin comparisonwith their partici- ranclandestine schools and internationalised the plight of Afghan pationin areasunder government control [Meena Dharmaretnam women using hidden videos, and its bi-lingualmagazine. andTamilchelvi 2003 cited in Kelkarand Nathan2004]. In the Widowsand female-headed households are often portrayed as LTTE-controlledarea, women emerged as entrepreneurs,owning one of the most vulnerablegroups. The 'perceptionbeing as many fishing boats, employing scores of men and managing Azarbaijan-Moghaddam(2002) observedthat women can barely marketnetworks. survivewithout male family members. She arguesthat we should Empiricalstudies of women-headedhouseholds - Sinhalaand move away from looking at the vulnerabilityof women-headed Tamil - particularlyin situationsof long-termdisplacement, families to looking at how they have coped and how they can showed their demonstratingcapacity for greaterpersonal and cope even betterby addressingways in which Afghan society group autonomy and experiments with identity. Darini disempowersthem. The projectsdealing with widows should Rajasingham'sstudy (2001) reveals the erosion of caste hie- addressnot only their welfare,but strategicgender needs. She rarchiesand social practicesthat had restrictedthe mobilityof remindsus thatsome widows are powerfuland shouldbe given Tamilwomen. Women without men were compelled to challenge an opportunityto lobby on behalf of others (2002). the traditionalseclusion of unmarriedTamil women and the Similarly,Mosarrat Qadeem in a studyof Afghandevelopment constructionof the Tamilwidows as inauspiciousand polluting. programmes,reveals the complex adjustments dislocated women This empowermentis ambivalent,for the womencarry a burden have madeto rebuildcommunity for survivalof women-headed of guilt about the "gains"their loss has opened up. (andmale disabled) displaced families in Kabulcity. According to UNICEF,about 3,00,000-4,00,000 families were displaced by the conflict in 2000. describesthe forms of Cultural-Specific Argument Qadeem complex kinrelated women households that emerged. "So many men died In Afghanistan,"liberating" Afghan women was centralto the in the conflictthat it was not uncommonto find compoundsrun anti-Talibandiscourse that ideologically drove the US-ledattack by charismaticmatriarchs responsible for 8-10 married,widowed on Afghanistan.The Afghanwoman became an importantobject daughtersand daughters-in-law"[Mosarrat 2003]. of Afghan politics. Did the conflict open up the possibilityof The developmentagencies have failed to respondto women's theAfghan woman becoming a subjectof Afghanpolitics? Some prioritiesas evident in de-miningactivities. Accordingto an arguethat the abjectvictimhood of Afghan women undersuc- articlein Foreign Policy in Focus Afghan women have taken cessivemisogynist regimes over three decades of conflict,defeats upon themselves the task of de-miningtheir villages littered the possibility of Afghan women emancipatingthemselves? with 1,200 clusterbombs dropped by the US militaryof which Pakistanifeminist researchers Khattak and Saigol challengethis 10-22per cent remain unexploded on topof 10 millionlandmines and criticise the internationalcommunity's policies of non- fromprevious wars (www.womenwarpeace.org/afghanistan). De- interferencein the misogynist culturalpolitics that for years mining prioritiesfor women privilege clearingof agricultural enabledthe jihad. They question humanitarianprotection and land ratherthan militarybases. A gender-sensitiveapproach aid discoursesthat emphasise"going throughthe men",i e, to wouldfactor in thedifferent relationship that women and children first ensure the supportof male leaders in the refugee camps have with land use as gatherersof food, water, firewood and (2004; 2001). being farmers.Also, being disabledhas differentsocial conse- For instance,a UNHCR income generationproject for the quences for women. refugeeareas (IGPRA), did not providea single Afghanrefugee woman, constitutinga majorityof the refugees, any employ- Agency for Peace-Building ment,fearing the men would object. In contrast,when inter- nationalagencies have insistedon includingwomen in decision- Contemporaryfeminist researchhas many insightson what making committees, for example, UNHCR in selecting the motivates women towardspeace activism and what prompts locationof wells, it was carriedthrough. In anotherinstance, women to supportmilitarisation and war. I wish to emphasis*e, UNHCR specifically included women's names in shelters in the need to go beyondseeing women as victims, i e, the worst rebuildinghomes and in providinghomes for widows. Had the sufferersin a conflict and, thereforeadvocates of peace. Such fundbeen merelyprovided to local Afghaninstitutions, women a perspective accommodateswomen organising to stop the would not have been included?UNHCR's recentemphasis on violence,but as Coomaraswamyand Fonsekapoint out, it does field staff comprising25 per cent womenhas madea difference notembrace other images of agency- thewomen peace negotiator in the repatriationof Afghan refugees, the majorityof whom andthe politicalleader (2004). This is criticalif "post-conflict", are women. women are to find a place at the peace table. SabaGul Khattak draws an attentionto the significanceof "the Women'speace activism tends to get obscuredby the fact that discontinuitiesand ruptureswithin the Taliban discourse on women's languageof supportand resistanceflows from their women"pointing to the agency of Afghan women as well as culturalexperience of being disempowered- that is protest the negotiationadvantages of some aid agencies. Under the strategiesthat use symbols of motherhood,mourning or ritual Taliban.Suhaila Sidiq, a surgeoncontinued to workin a hospital cursing.However, by takingthem into the publicarena, women treatingfemale and male patients.The WorldFood Programme politicise and transformthem. (WFP) persuadedthe Taliban to let women run "tandoors" In the midst of conflict, whetherit is in nationalistidentity producingsubsidised food. Similarly,"women developed maps conflicts in India's north-east;Sri Lanka's ethnic and ultra- of streetsand neighbourhoods where underground home schools nationalistconflicts; in Nepal's Maoist civil war or across the for girls or medicalhelp orjobs could be foundand shared them borderbetween India and Pakistan,women have been in the
4740 Economic and Political Weekly October 29, 2005
This content downloaded from 140.232.1.111 on Tue, 1 Oct 2013 16:05:46 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions forefrontof a politicsto preventthe outbreakof violentconflict Indo-SriLanka peace accordsaw Women'sAction Committee or its recurrenceand to mitigatethe violence when war breaks and Women for Peace targeted.The WAC split and although, out and then to build an inclusivejust peace. Women's agency Mothersand Daughters of Lankacontinued to providea bridging is visiblein spontaneousand sporadic interventions to protect their forum,the mountingdifficulties of workingacross ethnic lines familiesfrom immediate violence, in campaignsagainst human broke up united fronts such as Women for Peace in 1997. rightsabuse and for justice; in buildingtrust and reconciliation The MothersFronts in the northand south that emergedas across the conflict divide. powerful voices for human rights and justice were unable to Whenextreme violence and terrorhas renderedpublic space sustainmutually empowering cross linkages.de Mel notes that barrenand destroyedthe possibility of politics, of dialogue - there was "no effective networkingbetween these two groups womenlike theNaga mothers have stepped forward to campaign underthe broadumbrella of a united Mothers'Front"(2001). for "StopAll Bloodshed".In Dailekhdistrict in Nepal, mothers Eventually,the JaffnaMother's Front disbanded under LTTE andgrandmothers led a spontaneousprotest against Maoist forcible pressureand the Mother'sFront in the south, was co-optedby recruitmentof onechild per family. Powerful mothers fronts have a political party: emergedin Kashmirand in Sri Lankato demandjustice andstop More recent, is the emergence of the Association of War disappearances.Indian and Pakistaniwomen have mobilised Affected Women (AWAW). It was the personalquest for her togetherfor peace-building.In slum and pavementsettlements son "missing in action" that led Visaka Dhamadasa to form wrackedbyHindu-Muslim communal violence in Mumbai, women AWAW to focus attention on the welfare needs of young who in peace time had been organisedin savings and credit widows of soldiers. Building on motherhood politics she scheme were the first to come out of theirhouses and together brought together mothers of the "missing" across the divide, call for peace [Sharma2002]. through rituals of pilgrimages to temples (Hindu-Buddhist- Women have forged powerful strategiesagainst militarism. Christian) in LTTE held territory. The AWAW was among the The most dramaticwas the naked protestin July 2004 of the first civil society groups to open a channel of communication Meira paibis3in Manipuri,India. In front of the camp of the with the LTTE. Assam Rifles, paramilitaryforce,. the women protestedagainst Women's groups like Suriya and Women and Media Collective the rape and custody death of ManormaDevi. It galvaniseda are continuing to do important work to build bridges across statewidecampaign against the Armed Forces Special Power ethnic-religious lines. However, in the absence of a sustained Act. groundswell of grassroot backing for a common front in support- In the narrativesof women'speace activism in Kashmir,Naga ing and democratising the peace process, civil society conflict, Nepal and Sri Lanka- there is a patternof women remain divided by ethnic (and communal) polarities as well as unthinkingly,rushing forward to shield the men, blockingthe personalities. roadsto prevent"sons" from being takenaway, standingsurety forarrested boys, gettinghostages released, defusing tension and Women in Militaries reachingacross fault lines and stoppingfactional violence. In Sri Lanka,in 1986, Tamil women spontaneouslycame out Insouth Asia's revolutionary, nationalist, ethnic and communal to agitateoutside the LTTE camp at Ariyalaion the death of conflicts,women have been mobilisedin the militariesof state Edwardin Pasaiyoor.The village women in the east came out andnon-state actors. They are highly visible in the fightingranks withrice pounders to stopinternecine fighting between the LTTE of LTTE where they make up almost 40 per cent of the armed and TELOfactions. When LTTE took on the EPRLF,village cadres and have their own political wing; in Nepal's civil war, women defied the LTTE by sitting on the roads armed with women in the Maoist "base" areas comprise a third of the kitchenknives and chilly powder.Three mothers went on a fast guerrillas and are area commanders and district party committee onto deathto pressurisethe Indianpeace keepingforce (IPKF) secretaries;in India'snorth-east identity conflicts, women fight and the LTTEto declare a ceasefire. Annai Poopathydied in alongside men in the Naga nationaliststruggle, in the ULFA rhatprotest action. In commemoratingher "martyrdom",LTTE armedgroup in Assamand in the Naxalite(Maoist) movements appropriates'motherhood' for the nationalistcause valorising in India. The Maoists and the LTTE in their mobilising ideology the sacrificeof mothers,sons/daughters. have cast women's enlistment in the armed struggle as empow- ering. Has it opened up the opportunity for poor rural peasant Sri Lanka: Hostile Ethno-Nationalisms women to participate in politics? It is a problematic narrative for feminist politics because it In Sri Lanka,the conflictproduced a rich outcropof women's posits the possibility cf an emancipatory politics through parti- groups,ad hoc coalitionsand broader civil societymobilisations. cipation in authoritarianand violently destructive struggles. There In the 1980s, the Women's Action Committee(WAC) linked is the agentive moment produced by women transcending tra- feministdemands with the humanrights peace agenda.After the ditional social roles and joining the fighting ranks. But what kind 1983 ethnic riots, Women for Peace emerged.In Jaffna,there of a rights-based vision of the women's question is possible when was the Women'sStudy Circle that adopted a feministanalysis embedded in ideologies of militarism and militarised politics? linking peace issues with broadersocial transformationpro- The feminist scholarship has established the linkages between In cesses. 1984the Mother's Front in the northemerged to protest militarism, masculinities and patriarchy [Chenoy 2002]. the against arbitraryarrests and detentionof over 200 Tamil Radhika Coomaraswamy, the former UN Special Rapporteur youth.At thetime, there were many connections between women on Women, emphasises the instrumental role of the women in mobilisingin the northand in the south. the LTTE. "I do not believe that inducting women into a fighting However, the rise of ultra Sinhala nationalist forces of force is a step towardsempowerment and equality(it) signals theJanatha Vimukti Perumanaand the backlashof the 1987 the militarisationof civil society- a militarisationwhich in itself
Economic and Political Weekly October 29, 2005 4741
This content downloaded from 140.232.1.111 on Tue, 1 Oct 2013 16:05:46 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions is inimical to anyone who believes in human rights" committee. Comrade Pravati has openly criticised of the party's [Coomaraswamy 1997; Manchanda 2001]. Niloufer de Mel failure to take up issues raised by women and to implement consolidates that denial of agency arguing that, whatever the programmes developed by women's mass fronts [Parvati 2003]. short-term gains produced by the temporary agentive moment, Nonetheless the party's mass women's organisation All Nepal "the structure and ideology of the LTTE leave little room for Revolutionary Women's Association, was able to pursue the anti- the freedom of women to determine their own destiny". Darini alcohol campaign even when peace talks were afoot. However, Rajasingham-Senanayake warns that this denial of agency po- the litmus test was the party's failure to include women in the sitions women militants within a victim complex. Taking a long two Maoist peace teams in 2001 and 2004. Similarly, in 2001 view of the shifts and consolidations over two decades, she when the party set up some 21 district peoples' governments, argues, "Women have acquired positions of power in the insti- not one was headed by a woman. The people's government of tutional structure of the LTTE" (2001). the Magar Autonomous Region has no women at all. Has then, the ethnic war in Sri Lanka or the Maoist insurgency The nationalist struggle agendas tend to postpone the women's for revolutionary restructuringof Nepal, provided more empow- question and socialist struggles to subsume gender oppression ering cultural identities for women both within and outside the as part of a social transformationthat will take place when more party'?Has it radicalised the social agenda? Has the presence of radical commitments are made. Nonetheless, the massive pres- women alerted the character,culture and hierarchy of the military ence of women has produced a social radicalisation as evinced organisation? What is the leverage of the women's question in in ground level actions. shaping the programmatic agenda of the movement? What is the leadership profile of women in the movement? Role of Tamilini In the case of the LTTE, the exigency of mobilising women to make up for the decline in manpower resources, saw a recasting In case of LTTE, as it began to develop a parallel governance of the socially oppressed Tamil women bound up in religiously structure in the areas that came under its control in the sanctified rituals of taboo and seclusion. Adele Balasingham, the north and east - building a criminal justice system with its own spokesperson for the women's wing, extolled a romantic vision police, judiciary and prisons - the women began to play an of the LTTE women as "Birds of Freedom", asserting themselves important role. By 1993 the women's wing of the LTTE had as autonomous actors in deciding to join without parents expanded into a somewhat autonomous agency with political, consent. The LTTE woman combatant is transformed from a military and intelligence sections. Post-2002 ceasefire, as per the conservative feminised ideal to a public figure engaged in mas- LTTE political wing head, Tamilini, is a conspicuous part of culine activities, repudiating patriarchal norms of womanhood the LTTE's transforming political face. The attitudinal shift on [de Mel 2001]. women's decision-making capacity is reflected in the LTTE In Nepal, as the top Maoist woman leader Hisila Yami pointed supported political party, Tamil National Alliance, nominating out "there can be no agrarian revolution in Nepal without four women for the parliamentary elections. Two are now in mobilising the women". The Maoist ideology promised equality Parliament. with dignity. The 40-point Maoist memorandum cites, On the social agenda, the LTTE duringits years of "governance" "Patriarchalexploitation and discrimination against women took up a strong position against dowry, domestic violence, should be stopped. The daughter should be allowed access to consumption of liquor and marital rape. The "Tamil Eelam property". For poor peasant "janjati" women, participation in Thesavallamai" law revised discriminatory provisions in Jaffna the Peoples War, promised an opportunity of being included matrilineal law. In 1995 the LTTE promulgated a law banning in the politics of shaping their own destiny, i e, from invisibility dowry [CPA 2005]. to protagonism. Li Onesto, in her romantic chronicles for the The LTTE women's androgynous style of dress and short hair The Workerdraws attention to the opportunity of education for made a powerful cultural statement in a social environment where peasant girls denied schooling (2000). She quotes Prachanda the "sumangal" (auspicious) Tamil women are weighed down describing a brave cultural transformation in questions of by ritually defined dress, jewels and flowers. But how culturally marriage, family and social relations. "Comrade Parvati", the stable are these new identities? Tensions in reintegrating the head of the women's department,consolidates this in her writings "new" identities of Tamil women are emerging as evident in the in The Workerwhere she claims "women own land for the first "belt" incidents in 2003 when LTTE girl cadres resisted discard- time ...arranged marriages, polygamy, wife beating and other ing their trademarkbelt. It symbolised the "gains" of the LTTE feudal traditions oppressive to women are no longer practised. women cadres of authority and independence. Furthermore, Wife beating and rape are severely punished by the Peoples demobilised LTTE women are finding themselves being steered Court" [Parvati 2003]. towards vocational training that emphasises care giving and Has participation in the "Peoples' War" produced more welfare. empowering culturalidentities? Nepali writerManjushreeThapa's Young girls demobilised under UNICEF-LTTE programme a Maoist woman quotes guerrilla saying, "You see, there used agreement, face parents who are unwilling to accept these girls to be only sickles and grass in the hands of girls like us. Now back into their home and families. The cultural prejudice on the there ale automatic rifles" [Thapa 2005]. Anthropologist part of communities and schools to welcome these girls back Shneiderman to the breakdown of points caste and gender roles has reinforced rejection by their families and pressure to marry in the Maoist army [Pettigrew and Shneiderman 2004]. them off (Abeysekera 2004; www.womenwarpeace.org/sri_lanka: However, in the movement's institutional hierarchy, i e, the 2005). United Revolutionary Peoples Council, there are only four women The ambivalence of feminists and researchers towards women out of 37 members. Seven years after the "Peoples' War" was in armed groups, the tendency to view them as without agency, launched, a women's department was set up in the central further undermines their identity and capacity to negotiate a
4742 Economic and Political Weekly October 29, 2005
This content downloaded from 140.232.1.111 on Tue, 1 Oct 2013 16:05:46 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions gender sensitive disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration According to a UNIFEM study, where women have succee- (DDR) process. ded in making it to the peace table, it is through a com- bination of women organising and support from the international Post Conflict Transition and the Aftermath community- International assistance is important to support women's organisations, in capacity-building, in acquiring the "Why do women regress post conflict?" As the peace table language of "conflict resolution - peace-building" and in deve- is set, women who had been so visible - at the community level loping regional and international solidarities. Both in the case managing survival, building peace and reconciliation - are of Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, the international community has marginalised. Violence is a majorvariable thatdetermines whether played a crucial role in enabling women's voices to reach the women will be able consolidate wartime gains. MeredithTurshen, peace table. in a study of the aftermathexperience of African conflicts draws In Sri Lanka, women have made it to the 'side" peace table. attention to the social, political and economic violence that is This is all the more significant because despite its impressive used against women to reassert control (2001). social indicators, and a woman as executive president, Sri Lanka Men escalate social violence both at home and public space. has a poor record of women in public life - only 4.4 per cent State and customary (personal law) regimes collude to condone in the 2004 national legislature and less than 2 per cent at the abuse. Further, they reassert control through political violence local government level. -devaluing women's peace work as "accidental activism"; cul- In the peace process following the 2002 ceasefire agreement tural frameworks like "motherhood"are used to exclude women between the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE, women's from public life. Importantly, through economic violence - the complete exclusion from the process prompted women's groups, aftermath of war shows deterioration in the material status of largely in the south, to lobby the government and the LTTE for women and demographic changes such as more widows, female the inclusion of women. They were supported by the international head of households, polygamous marriages, rising birth rates - donor community. Mandated by a quasi national consultation, all of which have deleterious economic consequences for women. representatives of women's organisations presented a memoran- Despite this evidence, the state does not compensate women for dum at the Oslo June 2002 peace talks. Calling attention to their losses; it fails to compensate, demobilise and reunite girl Resolution 1325, it urged "women's issues and concerns form soldiers with their families, like boy soldiers. Yhr DDR processes an integral part of the peace agenda and that human rights be have to pay attention to the particular needs of woman/girl protected at every stage of the peace process". To keep up the soldiers in the process of demobilising and culturally reintegrat- pressure, a high profile international women's mission visited them. ing the northand east in October 2002. It charted a road map to gender the recovery process. Peace Table A fortuitous conjunction of factors - pressure from the inter- national donors, mobilisation of women's groups and their The mainstreaming gender at every level of policy and action privileged access to particular leaders in power, led to the in and peace-building reconstruction is enshrined in the UN government and the LTTE agreeing in December 2002 to set up Security Council Resolution 1325. The reality is, the political, a gender subcommittee. While the government chose its five social and economic exclusion of women and their concerns in nominees on the basis of a list compiled by national women's post-conflict aftermath.According to the UN secretary-general's organisations, LTTE chose from its own cadres in the north and 2004 on Resolution report 1325, "women remain seriously under- east. Norway appointed a facilitator for the two meetings held represented especially at senior levels with women constituting in LTTE-controlled Killinochhi. However, before the 'TOR' cent of 1 per military personnel, 5 per cent civilian police could be approved by the formal negotiators, the peace talks were personnel and 12 per cent of senior civilian staff serving in suspended. The work of the gender subcommittee was frozen, peacekeeping operations. The gender advisors in peacekeeping though informal contacts continue. missions have increased to 10 from two in 2000. Generally, they The experiment of the gender subcommittee at the "side table" are under-resourcedand lack the to seniority effectively leverage as a possible model for south Asia has been further hedged by bureaucracies. fears of entrapment in a ghetto like existence. Indeed, the sub- women should be at the Understanding why peace table is a sequent change of government in 2004 saw a withering away What the table were beginning. preceded conflict mitigation of commitment. The ability to transcend ghettoism will depend in which women demonstrated their processes resourcefulness. upon the capacity to transcend multi-ethnic divides and competi- Now they want to participatein shaping new legislative structures tive personality politics. Also, there is a need to nurture bi- of and social government institutions. Post conflict peace ar- partisan alliances with decision-makers in political institutions. have rangements different consequences for women. Women's The donor community support is essential, but not sufficient. voices have to be heard when the Constitution is being drafted, not only to ensure equal rights, but to safeguard against discrimi- 'Liberating' Afghan Women natory personal law regimes that take away these rights in the name of the Without a women's community. voice, concerns will In the peace and security discourse, the burqua clad woman not be or prioritised resourced. of Afghanistanbecame a metaphorfor the nexus between women's The of conflict has seen the of women of period emergence rights and peace and security. "Liberating" Afghanistan got in the informal of these skills authority sphere politics, need to twined with enabling the Afghan woman to participate in her be consolidated and the women enabled to become leaders in own emancipation. A coalition of western NGOs, diaspora the groups formal sphere of politics. Quota systems may be necessary and support from UNIFEM enabled an Afghan women's summit to enable women to find a place in the political system. for democracy to feed into the planning process of the UN
Economic and Political Weekly October 29, 2005 4743
This content downloaded from 140.232.1.111 on Tue, 1 Oct 2013 16:05:46 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Transitional Programme for Afghan Assistance 2002. In Decem- genderaudit of the policy document(2004) pointedto gender ber 2001, "Equality Now", "V Day", "The Feminist Majority", as the missing component. Centre for Strategic Initiatives of Women in collaboration with RRRframeworks for ministerialrepresentation at the national, gender advisor to the United Nations secretary general, convened provincial,district, division and village levels do not includethe a two-day round table. Forty Afghan women framed the Brussels governmentagency mandatedto ensuregender equality, that is Action Plan for gendering the UN Transitional Programme for the ministryof women's empowermentand social welfare. A Afghanistan assistance. Commonwealthcase study on "Developmentof RRRProgramme UNIFEM in its gender audit of the Afghan 2000 Needs Framework,Sri Lanka"found that the genderanalysis does not Assessment, noted that the programme did not include women go beyond woman-headedhouseholds and war widows. "The or gender issues as a specific sector.4 Only 0.7 per cent of funds proposedaction is welfareoriented with zero level consideration were requested for women-specific projects in the $ 1.7bn UN- forwomen's empowerment" [Commonwealth Foundation 2005]. sponsored Immediate Transitional Assistance Programme, 2002. "Whatis significant,because it is minimal,is the lackof involve- Internationalpressure ensured that in the emergency meeting of ment of women and women's organisationsincluding the min- Afghanistan's traditionalassembly, the Loi Jirga, women accoun- istry of women's affairsand provincialministries dealing with ted for 12 per cent of representation. When the Loi Jirga ratified genderin these exercises". the country's post conflict-draft constitution in 2004, 19 per cent In aneffort to redressthe gendergap, the gendersubcommittee of the delegates were women. The 2004 constitution guarantees was formed.The NationalPeace Secretariat,set up to promote men and women equal rights under the law and 25 per cent thepeace process, has a genderadvisor and it's NationalAdvisory reservation for women [UNIFEM 'Afghanistan Update 2003']. Councilon Peace and Reconciliationincludes gender-sensitive Afghanistan had a woman presidential candidate, and there are women. National and internationalpractices of planningand women in the cabinet and a woman governor in Bamiyan prov- policy formulationcontinue, however, to betraygender insen- ince. The Afghan Human Rights Commission, Judicial Commis- sitivity.The UN-World Bank Rapid Needs Assessment of March sion and Constitutional Commission, have women members. A 2003 added gender only in its final draft. ministry of women's affairs has been set up, but crucially, it has The"peace table" is a metaphorfor re-envisaging a new society no legal jurisdiction or implementing power. andwomen need to participatein all decision-makingstructures In Afghanistan security concerns, continue to inhibit partici- to ensurethat their interests are protected in the (re) constitution pation especially as the Loi Jirga is controlled by war lords. of the state and the articulationof personallaws in the name Malalai Joya received death threats after she criticised the of communityrights. mujahideen in the Loi Jirga and had to seek UN protection. The The dynamicsof today's wars involve internationalagencies former minister for women's affairs Sima Samar was summoned in peace-makingand providean opportunityfor consolidating to a Kabul court to face blasphemy charges. theempowering spaces that may open up for womenin the midst The United Nations secretary general's report of 2004 warns of loss. However,few internationallysupported reconstruction that violence threatens to reverse the initial gains made especially programmesseriously take on board gender considerations. the 30 per cent increase in number of girls in schools. In February Betweenthe lofty commitmentsof 1325 andthe MDGsand the and March 2004, some 30 schools were attacked (www. realityof the situationof women in the post-conflict,there is womenwarpeace.org/afghanistan). Girls are afraid to go out to a huge gap. It will not be bridgedjust by addinggender. [l3 schools for fear of being abducted or raped. Poor families are "marrying" off girls to bring money into households or settle Email: [email protected] disputes thus subject young girls to sexual abuse and sustained poverty. Its direct consequence has been a spurt in suicides. Notes 1 Nepal has had two interregnumsof ceasefire - peace processes in 2001 Mainstreaming Gender in Reconstruction and again in 2004. 2 Fora discussionthat problematises notions of 'postconflict transformation', The UNIFEM 2004 assessment maintains that while women's 'war-tornsocieties' and 'The Aftermath' see introductoryessay in The role in peace building is recognised, there is little recognition Aftermathedited by Sheila Meintjes, Anu Pilay and MeredithTurshen, of women as a resource for reconstruction. Women's familial Zed Books, London 2001. 3 of survival demonstrate their skills and but Manipurin north-eastIndia multiple conflict lines aroundself-determination strategies capacities, the women of the Metei ethnic themselves the reconstruction fail to one of the struggles communityorganised processes tap greatest untapped as 'Meira paibis'- women torch bearers who patrol the street at night resources for stabilising and rebuilding community life. againstdrug abuse and to protectthe men fromthe 'Indian'security forces. The RRR frameworks largely configure women as victims and 4 An insight into deficiencies in multilateralplanning for reconstruction welfarebeneficiaries. Rarely have policies andprogrammes of inter- and, in particularthe principleof "genderconditionality" is providedby the of theUnited Nations GenderMission to national agencies, national governments or NGOs report Inter-agency Afghanistan development November 12-24,1997. The mission found were not how relief and reconstruction aid from king gender rights explored might recovery integratedholistically in reliefand rehabilitation. Women were not included individual trauma and social suffering in ways that consolidate in programmesto increasecommunity access to water and excluded from the gains wrought in conflict and aid women's empowerment. participatingin decision-makingdespite their centralrole in management Sri Lanka, for example, has seen a succession of multilateral of community water resources. needs assessments, the latest of which was the UN-World Bank- ADB Needs Assessment 2003 which represents a bill for peace References in the island. The national framework for RRR is animated by Abeysekara,Sunila (2004): of on Women:The Sri successive visions the latest - 'Implications Insurgency government policy being "Creating Lankan Experience', Paper for RCSS, Colombo. our Future - Building our the Nation" (2004). The ADB, in a Anderlini, Sanam (2000): 'The A-B-C to the UNSC Resolution 1325 on
4744 Economic and Political Weekly October 29, 2005
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Rajasingham-Senanayake,Darini (2001): 'Ambivalent Empowerment:The Cultural Dynamics (2004): (spl issue) Gendered Violence in South Asia: Tragedy of the Tamil Woman' in Rita Manchanda(ed), Women War Nation and Community in the Post-colonial present, guest editors and Peace, Sage, New Delhi. AnganaChatrejee and LubnaN Chaudhury,Vol 6, No 2/3 Sage, London. Rehn, Elizabethand Ellen JohnsonSirleaf (2002): Women,War and Peace, D'Costa, Bina (2002): (Dis) 'AppearingWomen in Nationalist Narratives: The IndependentExperts Assessment, UNIFEM, New York. Interviewwith Geoffrey Davis by Bina D'Costa', the AustralianNational Saigol, Rubina(2001): 'At Home or in the Grave: Afghan Women and the University in South Asia Citizens Web (SACW) June 1, 2002, Reproductionof Patriarchy',unpublished paper, Islamabad. [email protected]. 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SPECIALISSUE ASPECTS OF HEALTHINSURANCE September 17, 2005 Social HealthInsurance Redefined: Health for All throughCoverage for All - IndraniGupta, Mayur Trivedi HealthCare Financingfor the Poor:Community-based Health InsuranceSchemes in Gujarat. - Akash Acharya,M KentRanson in EmergingTrends HealthInsurance for Low-IncomeGroups - RajeevAhuja, Alka Narang For copies writeto: CirculationManager Economic and Political Weekly, HitkariHouse, 6th Floor,284, Shahid BhagatsinghRoad, Mumbai400 001. email:[email protected]
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