Women and Their Human Security in the Post-Conflict Setting of Liberia

Women and their human security in the post-conflict setting of Liberia

Niké Buijze

WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY

Women and their human security in post-conflict Liberia

September 2014

Niké Buijze Studentnumber: 890827152020

Supervisors: Dr. Margreet van der Burg (SCH) Dr. Gemma van der Haar (RDS) Disaster Studies Chair Group Wageningen Univerity

Course code: RDS-80733

Cover photo was taken by the author: Overview of the West Point slum community, seen from the top of the deserted Ducor Hotel in Central Monrovia, Liberia

Abstract When talking about women in conflict and post-conflict situations, they are often referred to as victims instead of agents. This perception of women as the protected instead of the protector denies women any form of agency they have on their own security situation in conflict and post-conflict settings. This research tries to highlight women’s agency over their own physical security by centralising women’s experiences of their own security and that of other women and the strategies they use to organise security. This is done in the setting of post-conflict Liberia by presenting a case study of the West Point slum community in Monrovia. The research is framed within the broader human security debate. It tries to show how the notion of human security from below, a situation where the individuals who are faced with a security dilemma are also the ones who provide security, can contribute to a more holistic view on organising human security. The concept of human security from below is combined with a feminist approach, which highlights the patriarchal character of security thinking. It is argued that men and women experience security and insecurity in very different ways and that the dominant perspectives on security are in fact male perspectives. In order for women’s security to be guaranteed, women’s experiences of and agency over human security needs to be acknowledges and actively incorporated within peace-building and reconstruction processes within the post-conflict setting.

Key words: human security, feminist approach, gender, human security from below, security communities, post-conflict setting, Liberia

The moment that I step outside So many reasons for me to run and hide I can’t do the little things I hold so dear ‘Cause it’s all those little things that I fear

‘Cause I’m just a girl Take a good look at me Just your typical prototype

Oh, I’ve had it up to here Oh, am I making myself clear?

I’m just a girl I’m just a girl in the world That’s all that you let me be

Oh, I’ve had it up to here

No Doubt – I’m just a girl

Acknowledgements

Although I have regularly chosen the path of isolation during the process of writing this thesis, and lived like a hermit from time to time to make sure things got finished on time, there are a lot of people I would like to thank for their love, support and inspiration.

Firstly, I would like to thank Margreet van der Burg and Gemma van der Haar for being my dedicated supervisors. Your guidance has led me from a vague topic of interest to a concrete research proposal and finally to a complete MSc thesis. You have been there with regular comments, critical questions and feedback, without ever losing a positive spirit. I have always found our meetings motivating and inspirational.

I would like to thank the Wageningen University, and specifically the Disaster Studies chair group, for providing me with an academic home. Coming from a different university with a BSc in Political Science, my MSc years at the WUR have provided me with insights on the different discipline of International Development Studies. The time that I spend here has prepared me for this thesis and changed my scientific views.

Doing my fieldwork in Monrovia would not have been possible without the support of ActionAid Liberia. I need to thank Bram and Luckmore for introducing me there, and Korto Williams for expressing interest in my research topic and offering me a research internship with ActionAid. Thank you Teetee, Zakir, Doris, MacArthur, Ben, Adam, Susan, Lakshmi, Romeo, Josie, Josephine and all the other ActionAid staff, for making the time I spend there so enjoyable. I am specifically grateful to the women of the Women’s Rights program. Aisha, Damowa, Elizabeth and Weng, thank you for being there for me, answering all my questions and helping me to shape this research. And finally, I would like to thank Mohammed. I have never felt safe in Liberian traffic, but with you in the car it wasn’t all too bad. Thank you for the endless trips you took with me and for driving me to the airport in the middle of the night.

The two months I spend in Monrovia, working on the topic of women’s security, has proven to be a very intense and emotional time for me. It has been the incredible company of some very special people that has kept me sane during my entire stay in Monrovia. Stefanie, Meagan, Eric, Jo, Evelien, Steven, Thomas, Bram and Mary, thank you for your friendship. I’ve really enjoyed our conversations, trips to the beach, poolside hangs, dinners and nights on the town, accompanied by a Savannah or two. Evelien, thank you for providing me with a roof above my head during my first week in Monrovia. Meagan, you were the first friendly face I saw when I arrived and you have been incredibly sweet to me. You rock! And of course there is Endor, who has provided me with a real sense of security in my home. Thank you all!

Aside from the friends I met abroad, there are the ones back home, who have been with me for a long time and who will hopefully be there for a long time to come. Anneloes, Shiromi, Marlies and Elske you have made a real difference in the process of writing this thesis. Your company prevented me from completely losing sight of the social life lying beyond the process of obtaining a Master’s degree.

I wouldn’t be the capable young women I am today, without the wonderful family I was brought up in. Mum, dad, Rena and Jirre, thank you for being my home. You are the foundation I can always fall back upon. Mum and dad, thank you for teaching, encouraging and sometimes forcing me to exploit my capacities to the fullest. It has brought me where I am now.

Then, there is Martijn. You have been so supportive of me throughout every phase of this thesis. I know it hasn’t necessarily always been fun or easy, but being able to share all of this with someone who knows what it’s like and truly understands, has meant the world to me. You have provided me with all the love and the space that I needed. Thank you, lief!

To conclude, I would like to dedicate this thesis to the women of West Point. I’ve never met stronger and more resilient individuals than the women I have met in West Point. Thank you for taking the time to explain life in West Point to this ignorant stranger. You inspire me.

Niké Buijze

Contents

Chapter 1 – Introduction and context 1.1 Introduction ...... 4 1.2 Gender based violence in conflict situations ...... 5 1.3 Women’s security in post-conflict settings ...... 6 Is there such a thing as ‘post-conflict’? ...... 6 Shifting gender relations ...... 7 Weakened security structures ...... 9 1.4 Conflict in Liberia ...... 10 A fourteen year civil war ...... 10 Post-conflict Liberia ...... 11 Chapter 2 - Theoretical framework 2.1 Human security...... 14 The rise of a discourse ...... 14 A narrow notion of human security ...... 16 2.2 Human security from below ...... 17 2.3 A feminist perspective on human security ...... 18 Questioning the universality of human security ...... 18 Different experiences of human security between men and women ...... 19 Victimising women ...... 20 2.4 Combining human security from below with a feminist perspective ...... 20 Chapter 3 - Methodology 3.1 A qualitative and interpretative research approach ...... 24 3.2 The relationship between case selection and negotiating access ...... 24 3.3 Methods used ...... 27 Participant observation ...... 27 In-depth interviews ...... 28 Focus group discussion ...... 29 Informal conversations and interactions ...... 30 3.4 Language ...... 30 3.5 Security while doing research in West Point ...... 32 3.6 Ethics ...... 34

Chapter 4 - Insecurities in West Point 4.1 Understanding West Point as a slum community ...... 37 Challenging living conditions ...... 37 ‘West Point is a good place for poor people’ ...... 40 4.2 Public violence ...... 41 4.3 Domestic violence ...... 44 4.4 Teenage pregnancies ...... 46 4.5 The impacts of the civil war ...... 49 The situation of West Point during the war ...... 49 Post-conflict West Point and increased insecurities ...... 50 Post-conflict West Point and the empowerment of women ...... 52 Chapter 5 - Organising security in West Point 5.1 Official security institutions ...... 56 5.2 The organisation West Point Women ...... 59 The founding of an organisation ...... 59 Security strategies of West Point Women ...... 62 West Point Women as a security community ...... 66 Other initiatives of West Point Women ...... 67 5.3 Neighbours ...... 68 5.4 The absence of other seucrity communities ...... 70 Chapter 6 - Conclusion Conclusions and discussion ...... 73

List of interviews and focus groups ...... 77 List of abbrivations ...... 78 References ...... 79

Chapter 1

Introduction and context

1.1 Introduction Contemporary conflict is seldom a conflict between two states anymore. Rather than that, it is often a conflict within a state. As a result, many of the victims resulting from a conflict are civilians (Bouta & Frerks, 2002). The civilian population is even increasingly so a deliberate target of fighting parties (Kaldor, 1999). Amongst this civilian population, women form a specific target for armed forces because of their gender. Although not exclusively, sexual gender based violence is a phenomenon that mainly effects women (Thomas & Tiessen, 2010). These kind of insecurities for women do not cease to exist once the conflict is over. The post- conflict setting poses specific insecurities on women. Yet, these insecurities are often left out of the peace building and reconstruction process in the post-conflict setting (Handrahan, 2004; Puechguirbal, 2012). When talking about women and violent conflict, women are often placed in the role of the victim (Puechguirbal, 2012). They are framed as helpless, often categorised together with children, and in need of protection. This victimisation of women in conflict situations denies them any agency over their own security situation and it is this positioning of women that often keeps them out of the peace building and reconstruction process in the post-conflict setting (Handrahan, 2004; Porter, 2013; Puechguirbal, 2012). Gender matters within security thinking. Feminist theory highlights that experiences of security and insecurity are different between men and women, and that the dominant ideas about security are based on the experiences of men. Women have very specific security needs in the post- conflict setting, but these are often overlooked or ignored by men (Handrahan, 2004; Puechguirbal, 2012) For women’s security not to be marginalised, it is important to acknowledge these differences in experiences and also to acknowledge the power imbalance that is in favour of men (Handrahan, 2004; Puechguirbal, 2012). This research tries to highlight women’s security dilemmas and needs in the post-conflict setting, after experiencing a conflict characterised by large-scale gender based violence. At the same time it tries to highlight women’s agency over their own security situation. It looks at how women experience and organise their own security and that of other women. Through qualitative research methods, I have tried to have women’s experiences as the key focus point of this research. The research is a case study of women living in the slum community of West Point in Monrovia, and is placed within the context of post-conflict Liberia. I place this research within the broader security debate. I discuss women’s security in the post-conflict setting in relation to the theoretical framework of human security. Human security, a term first introduced by the UN in 1994, places the individual human being in the centre of the security debate instead of the sovereignty of the nation state (Kerr, 2010). I have chosen to use the

4 specific concept of human security from below; a situation where security is not organised by a governmental institution, but by the individual who is faced with the insecurities (Faber & Dekker, 2014). It is an extremely suitable concept for looking at women’s own initiatives in organising their own security. The notion of human security from below is combined with feminist theory, since a feminist perspective is seriously lacking within the security debate (Handrahan, 2004). This research tries to accomplish two things. Firstly, it tries to draw attention to women’s experiences of security and their agency over their own security agencies. It shows how women are a vital element in the peace-building and reconstruction process in post-conflict situations. Secondly, it tries to contribute to the broader human security debate by combining the notion of human security from below with feminist theory. It encourages the reader to think about organising security from the bottom up, instead of top down, while keeping worldwide gender inequalities in mind.

1.2 Gender based violence in conflict situations The shift from interstate to intrastate conflicts has changed the role of the civilian population in conflict situations. The main victims of violent conflict used to be soldiers. With an increase of intrastate conflicts, this has shifted towards a situation where the main victims of a conflict are civilians (Bouta & Frerks, 2002). It is the paradigm of the ‘New War’, where combaters are not necessarily associated with a national military force and where civilians become deliberate targets instead of unfortunate casualties (Kaldor, 1999). Within this context, sexual gender based violence is a specific form of violence that is increasingly occurring within violent conflict (Denov, 2006; Thomas & Tiessen, 2010). Although men can be faced with the actions of sexual gender based violence, it is a form of violence that mainly effects women. Women form a specific target within armed conflict because of their gender (Thomas & Tiessen, 2010). Sexual gender based violence within conflict situations has long been labelled as the unfortunate behaviour of frustrated soldiers. Nowadays, it is more and more recognised that wartime sexual gender based violence is much more than that. It is often used as part of warfare strategies, using its powerful implications for both women and their societies as a weapon of war (Denov, 2006). First and foremost, there is physical and psychological damage done to women who become victims of sexual gender based violence (Denov, 2006). Rape is an act that is carried out with severe violence. Women end up with damage to their reproductive organs and genitalia. Because of the forced nature of rape, women also end up with other physical injuries, such as cuts and bruises. The risk of sexually transmitted infections, and in particular HIV, is high. There is also the psychological

5 trauma from going through the violent and painful experience of rape (Thomas & Tiessen, 2010). Women often experience a variety of negative emotions such as, anxiety, shame and depression after being a victim of sexual gender based violence. But wartime sexual gender based violence has implications that stretch beyond the individual victim. Aside from the physical damage done to women through gender based violence, there is the symbolic damage of gender based violence. Women are targeted not just as individuals, but as members of their communities (Bouta & Frerks, 2002; Thomas & Tiessen, 2010; Turshen, 2001). There are many societies where women are regarded as being ‘property’ of their communities, whether that is symbolically or literally. More specifically, women are the property of the men of their community. By attacking and violating the integrity of women belonging to their enemies, the perpetrators of gender based violence indirectly attack the men belonging to the enemy group (Thurshen, 2001). Being able to hurt the women of a community shows ones dominance over that community. The community, and specifically the men of this community, were not able to protect their property. It is a means of humiliating and demoralising your enemy (Denov, 2006; Thomas & Tiessen, 2010; Turshen, 2001). Within the context of genocide, rape and gender based violence is a means to rob an ethnic group from their reproductive abilities. The conflicts in Bosnia and Rwanda have become notorious examples of situations where large scale sexual gender based violence became part of ethnic cleansing strategies (Handrahan, 2004). Robbing a woman of her reproductive ability can be done quite literally by impregnating her, forcing her to bear ‘enemy’ children and making it impossible to get pregnant with another child during the full term of the pregnancy. Also, and maybe more importantly so, rape is an act of making the women unavailable for reproduction within their own community, by making them undesirable candidates to marry (Turshen, 2001). The women have become ‘damaged goods’, no longer suitable to bear children for their communities. In many social contexts, women serve their countries in time of war not by becoming a combating soldier, but by preserving their sexual purity for their husbands who have gone to battle. By being raped, women have failed to uphold their men’s honour, making them outcasts of their society (Handrahan, 2004).

1.3 Women’s security in post-conflict settings

Is there such a thing as ‘post-conflict’? Although ‘post-conflict’ is a term frequently used within conflict and security studies, it is a term that is controversial and has received a considerable amount of criticism. Using the term ‘post-conflict’

6 suggests that there is a clear distinction between an active, violent conflict and the period where the conflict is over and peace and security has returned. However, in reality it is a long term process in which the distinction between a conflict setting and a post-conflict setting is not that easy to make. At least, the lines between a conflict and post-conflict situation are fuzzy (McLeod, 2011). The term post-conflict often refers to a situation where the fighting between predominantly male combatants has officially ceased (Handrahan, 2004). Apparently, the threat of violence is over and an acceptable level of security has been restored. In reality, this is often far from true (Cockburn, 2013; Handrahan, 2004; McLeod, 2011). Post-conflict situations are often characterised by political tension, violence and insecurity. The fact that political institutions or fighting militias have come to a peace agreement, does not mean that the civil population does not experience insecurities or that violence has been eliminated from society. This is especially true for women (McLeod, 2011). The term ‘post-conflict’ is a highly politicised one. It is used to set a process of peace building in motion. Feminist scholars point out that women and women’s experiences are barely part of this peace building process (Handrahan, 2004; McKay, 2004a; McLeod, 2011). Looking at Disarming, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) programs, an important tool used in recent peace building efforts, we can see that it almost exclusively targets and involves boys and men. It is meant to demobilise soldiers and remove the often large array of weapons from the post-conflict society. These prominently male soldiers are viewed as the main threat to peace by national and international political actors and are therefore a main priority within the peace building process (McKay, 2004a). This focus on the male part of the population leaves no space for women’s experiences of both the conflict of the past and the post-conflict situation of the present. And women do experience different insecurities than men, or at least to a greater extent, not exclusively but more severely in the post-conflict setting. These are insecurities like domestic violence, human trafficking and prostitution out of economic necessity (Handrahan, 2004). Within DDR programs and other peace building activities, women do not receive proper care for their wartime wounds and their security needs are not taken into account in the process of peace building (Handrahan, 2004; McKay, 2004a).

Shifting gender relations Experiencing violent conflict has a big impact on both men and women, yet, the impact is not the same. Gender identities matter in conflict situations and they are influenced by the conflict. Both masculinities and femininities are severely affected by violent conflict. This has consequences for the dynamics between men and women, and therefore female security, within the post-conflict setting (Handrahan, 2004; Lesie&Boso, 2003; Thomas&Thiessen, 2010). It is important to note that the range

7 of ‘legitimate’ femininities and masculinities are changed through violent conflict and that they thereupon also influence each other. What men and women find appropriate forms and expressions of femininity and masculinity can be very different after experiencing a violent conflict, especially one that is characterised by large-scale gender based violence. War and warfare are concepts with a strong masculine notion to it. Although women can be combatants in armed conflict, the majority of combatants remains male. If women are at all associated with armed forces it is as ‘sex slaves’, ‘wifes’ and ‘camp followers’ (McKay, 2004a). The fighting is done by men and so being a combatant is associated with being masculine. Because of this strong masculine character of warfare, contributing to armed conflict can be a way to ensure ones manhood (Handrahan, 2004; Trushen, 2001). Men who go to battle to defend their country, community or property are considered heroes. Within an army, militia or other group of male combatants, there often is a strong hierarchy where dominance and strength contribute to the masculinity of an individual. Warfare can be a very masculine experience. That being said, not all experiences of men in violent conflict are experiences that strengthen one’s masculinity (Porter, 2013). A lot of men are victims of violence during a conflict or witness their families be victims of violence. The inability to protect themselves or their families is a humiliating experience for men. Their masculinity is damaged through these kind of experiences (Porter, 2013). When speaking of women’s experiences in violent conflict and the effects on their femininities, we often speak of women in the role of victims. Being a victim of sexual violence has a large impact on women’s feelings about their own femininity. Being forced to endure gender based violence can result in a feeling of impurity, disgust, shame and exclusion, especially in societies where the sexual purity and virginity of women is emphasised as a large part of womanhood and femininity (Trushen, 2001). It is a women’s task and responsibility to maintain this sexual purity. By being violated, women have failed in their task to maintain their own honour and that of their husbands and community. This shame and feelings of guilt refrain women form sharing these painful war experiences (Handrahan, 2004). But just like the experiences of men in violent conflict are not all the same, neither are those of women. Women are not just victims of violent conflict, they are also agents within the conflict. When men leave their communities to act as combatants in violent conflict, women are left behind, taking up tasks that used to belong to men. Aside from a sense of insecurity by being without the protection of men, this dynamic can also be a liberating experience for women, giving them a sense of power and control (Puechguirbal, 2012). Women might not be willing to give up this power once men come back home from battle. Going back to the patriarchal pre-war society after a conflict has ended, is not always satisfying for women (Handrahan, 2004).

The ways in which gender dynamics change through violent conflict are complex, because both men and women face experiences that change their sense of masculinity and femininity in different ways. The examples given above of how violent conflict can influence gender relations is everything but exhaustive, but it tries to illustrate how there are many different experiences of both men and women, experiences that can cause for a change within the gender relations. The point is that the gender dynamics are not the same in the post-conflict setting as they were before the conflict started (Handrahan, 2004; Porter, 2013). Women and men voluntarily and involuntarily take on newly defined gender roles during a conflict. This change in gender roles leads to frustration with both men and women when trying to establish order in the post-conflict setting. Simply going back to the old, pre-conflict order is often not an option, since both men and women have changed their notions of acceptable gender roles in a different way during the conflict. This frustration can lead to aggression and violence. It has particular implications for women’s security, more so than it does for men. Women feel more insecure and are more often the victims of gender based violence and domestic violence in a post-conflict situation than men (Porter, 2013). Acknowledging and understanding the changing gender relations is therefore crucial for understanding women’s security.

Weakened security structures In traditional security thinking the state is the main provider of security within its borders. The state exercises a monopoly on violence. In return, the state protects its citizens from any violent threat, whether that threat is internal or external to the state. This situation provides security for both the state as an institution and the citizens as individuals (Faber&Dekker, 2014). The military is responsible for protecting citizens from external aggressions, while the police force protects citizens from aggressions within their own society. In post-conflict states, especially when the conflict was an intrastate conflict, this security providing mechanism of the state is no longer functioning properly (Baker&Scheye, 2007; Faber&Dekker, 2014). It is not to say that the security providing mechanism of the state was working well before the conflict, but in the post-conflict situation it is particularly difficult. The organisation and resources of a post-conflict state are not sufficient to provide a decent amount of security for its citizens. The economy has stagnated during the conflict and human resources are often scarce, since many (highly educated) people have been killed or left the country. On top of that, there is often a struggle for power going on in a post-conflict state, especially when the conflict was an intrastate one (Baker&Scheye, 2007). All these factors make it extremely difficult for a centralised government to provide security for it citizens in the post-conflict situation. Living in a state without a centralised

9 form of authority, poses specific security risks. It means that citizens can no longer rely on the state to provide them with an acceptable level of security. Without the central security provision of the state present, people search for other ways to ensure their security (Baker&Scheye, 2007; Faber&Dekker, 2014). Citizens resort to alternative justice systems, often based on customary laws. It is a way for people to ensure a security system that is easily accessible because it is locally owned, low in costs and culturally appropriate. Even in states where there is a centralised form of security, customary laws can still be part of the security system. However, the weaker the state’s ability to provide security, the more important customary laws become. In some post-conflict and fragile states, 90% of the population relies on customary laws and justice systems (Baker&Scheye, 2007). It is a form of security that is faster and more easily arranged for than security provided by the state. For a post-conflict state to be able to provide an acceptable level of security to its citizens can take years. Customary law can be arranged for much faster than that (Baker&Scheye, 2007). Although customary law at first sight seems like a potentially good solution for the post-conflict security dilemma, especially since it is locally owned, it can be very problematic for women and their security needs. Most customary law relies on patriarchal systems, systems that are dominated by male forces. It is a problem that is not exclusively related to customary law, but the effects of patriarchal systems on customary law are often stronger than with central state laws (Baker&Scheye, 2007; Puechguirbal, 2012; Trushen, 2001). Within customary laws based on patriarchal systems, women are left with rights that are not equal to those of a man and/or their security needs are under prioritised (Puechguirbal, 2012). Where men are the dominant or sole determinants of security and law, women’s security needs can be seriously overlooked. This might be a conscious decision where women’s security needs and rights are framed as less important as those of men, but it might also unconsciously happen as a result of men’s lack of understanding of women’s security needs. When women (are forced to) rely solely on customary laws for their security, their security might be seriously marginalised.

1.4 Conflict in Liberia

A fourteen year civil war In recent history, Liberia has known two civil wars, following each other up with only a two year period of peace in between. The first civil war started in 1989. The National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), under command of Charles Taylor, challenged the administration of sitting president Doe.

They moved into Liberia from neighbouring Ivory Coast. The NPFL was combated by the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL), the national army of Liberia under the command of the president. During the conflict one of the NPFL generals, Prince Johnson, separated from the NPFL to form his own rebel group, the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL). Pretty soon, most of the country was in NPFL hands. The INPFL marched to the capital Monrovia and captured and executed president Doe in 1990. In the following years, Charles Taylor tried to take control of the capital, as well as the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO), a rebel group consisting of former Doe supporters. The fighting finally stopped when a peace agreement was signed in 1995. Heavy fighting broke out in 1996, when Charles Taylor, amongst others took control of the capital in the build up to the 1997 elections, which were won by Charles Taylor, making him president of Liberia. Although there was regular fighting throughout the country after the elections in 1997, the official start of the second civil war was in 1999. This is when the Guinean backed Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) tried to overthrow Charles Taylor. In early 2003, a second rebel group joined the conflict. The Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) emerged into Liberia from Ivory Coast. Mid 2003, the LURD reached Monrovia, where they shelled the city and claimed many civilian lives. The conflict was ended when all warring parties signed the Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Charles Taylor resigned as president of Liberia and went into exile in Nigeria. Both civil wars in Liberia were characterised by brutal violence committed against the civil population of Liberia. Widespread killings, forced labour, torture and the recruiting of child soldiers were all part of warfare tactics of all factions. Sexual gender based violence by armed forces occurred on a massive scale (Liebling-Kalifani et al., 2011). Some research shows that as much as 90 percent of Liberian women experienced some form of sexual gender based violence during the conflict between 1989 and 2003 (Abramowitz & Moran, 2012). By the end of the conflict, some 250,000 people had been killed during the conflict and around a million had become refugees or IDP’s. The fact that many women were fleeing their homes to escape the violence, made them extra vulnerable for sexual gender based violence (Liebling-Kalifani et al., 2011).

Post-conflict Liberia The first elections after the civil war were held in 2005. They were won by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, making her the first democratically elected female president of Africa. The administration of Johnson Sirleaf has officially acknowledged the problem of high gender based violence rates and has declared to make the combating of gender based violence a high priority (Johnson Sirleaf, 2007). In 2009 a special court, named Court E, was established to deal with rape cases and other cases of sexual

11 gender based violence. Rape laws were made stricter, putting higher punishments on gang rape and rape of minors. In 2006 the Ministry of Gender and Development of Liberia established a Gender Based Violence Inter-agency Task Force, to support victims of gender based violence. Despite the intentions of the government of Liberia to tackle the problem of gender based violence, numbers of gender based violence are still very high and conviction rates are low. Poor evidence gathering, the reluctance of witnesses to testify, and deficiencies in the judicial sector, make it very hard to actually convict perpetrators of gender based violence. Court E has seen almost no convictions due to these difficulties (Human Rights Watch, 2014). Even the Ministry of Gender and Development admits that there are serious problems with the implementation of the laws concerning gender based violence. It has recognised gender based violence to be one of the key problems in post-conflict Liberia (MoDG, 2014).

Chapter 2

Theoretical Framework

2.1 Human security

The rise of a discourse For a long time, the security debate has been dominated by a state-centric view (Kerr, 2010). Ever since the Peace of Westphalia, signed in 1648, the sovereignty of the state has become the core idea of international relations and international security thinking (Bellamy, 2010). Contemporary international relations is based on the assumption that all states are sovereign entities and that other states have no right to intervene is the domestic affairs of other states. According to the UN Charter there are only two exceptions to the rule of non-interference. Firstly, the UN Security Council can wave the sovereignty of a state if international peace and security is threatened. Secondly, every state has the right to use military forces against another state that threatens their sovereignty (Bellamy, 2010). This strong believe in the sovereignty of the state comes from the assumption that the state is the best provider of security for individual human beings (Bellamy, 2010). It is the Hobbesian tradition of thinking that the state provides security and stability in an otherwise chaotic situation of ‘a war of all against all’ (Dekker & Faber, 2008). In exchange for loyalty and acceptance of the state’s monopoly on violence, the state provides its civilians with an acceptable level of security. The state has a monopoly on the use of violence and is therefore capable of eliminating violent threats within its society. Ever since the 1990’s a new view on security has become more and more prominent within the security debate, that of human security. The emphasize is no longer on the state as the referent object of security, but the individual human being (Kerr, 2010). Especially since the end of the Cold War, armed conflict is rarely a confrontation between two sovereign states anymore. Instead, we see that most armed conflicts are intrastate conflicts (Frerks, 2008). Often, these intrastate conflicts are characterised by a lot of civilian casualties (Bellamy, 2010). It is what Mary Kaldor (1999) describes as ‘New Wars’; intrastate wars where civilian deaths are not a regrettable side effects of armed conflict, but where civilians are a deliberate target as part of the warfare tactics. Within the security debate, it raises the question whether or not the state is still the appropriate entity to centralise security thinking around. Clearly, there are many cases where the state fails to provide its civilians with an acceptable level of security within its borders. Even worse, there are more and more cases where the state itself is the source of insecurity for its civilians (Bellamy, 2010; Frerks, 2008). The ethnic cleansing that went down in Rwanda and Bosnia during the 1990’s was initiated by the respective governments. The killings in the Sudanese region of Darfur, were backed up by the Sudanese government (Bellamy, 2010). One of the most recent examples is the conflict that is

14 enduring in Syria at the time of this research, where Assad’s government is responsible for many civilian deaths. It is this development that caused an international realisation that the legitimisation of this state-centric view on security might not be as strong as it has been presented up until then. The term ‘human security’ was first introduced in the UNDP Human Development Report of 1994 (Frerks, 2008). The definition of ‘human security’ as provided by the UN is a situation where people are protected from threats that endanger human development. People need protection from chronic threats like hunger and diseases, but also from all disruptions of normal daily life, including situations of armed conflict and natural disaster (Kerr, 2010). What matters is not the well-being of the state, but the well-being and content of individual human lives (Gasper, 2014). Since the introduction of the term by the UN, many different definitions have arisen for the concept of ‘human security’. Although all schools of human security agree that humans are the referent object, they differ in opinion which threats should be taken into account within the concept of human security (Kerr, 2010). What threats should people be protected against? The different views on human security range from a very narrow notion of human security, where only the protection from physical harm is incorporated in the term human security, to a very wide notion of human security where economic, social, and even environmental security are also taken into account. It is clear that the UN has incorporated a rather wide notion of human security, linking the concept directly to the field of international development. An argument for a broad definition of human security is that most deaths and harm to people comes not from direct armed conflict, but from the side effects of conflict situations, such as displacement and increased poverty and instability. Some even disconnect the notion of human security entire from conflict, relating the concept to a lack of all basic human needs and overall development goals (Gasper, 2014). A critique on this broad definition of human security, is that there is a lack of focus for the term, making it an empty shell. If human security includes all forms and causes of human suffering and underdevelopment, the term will be interchangeable with a wide range of other terms dealing with these issues such as ‘human rights’ and ‘human development’. But when one applies a narrow notion of human security, it becomes an extremely useful term within the security debate, that until the introduction of human security has been very state-centric (Kerr, 2010). It is a matter of deciding within which discipline the term of human security is being used and what notion of human security is most useful within this discipline.

A narrow notion of human security This research tries to contribute to the broader security debate and therefore uses a narrow notion of security. Although there are valid arguments to use a broad definition of human security, I agree with critics that by using this broad definition it is no longer distinguishable from the concepts of human development and human rights (Gasper, 2014). Human security is a concept that I find particularly interesting within the context of the security debate. It shifts the focus of the security debate from state-centred to human-centred, which is a huge change within the way we think about security and possibly about the way we think about organising security, something that will be highlighted in the next chapter of this thesis. I find the term of human security of lesser interest for the development debate, where it has a large overlap with concepts like ‘human rights’ and ‘human development’. For this research, the term human security includes security from physical harm, in particular sexual gender based violence. Aside from a better connection with the broader security debate, choosing for a narrow definition of human security also has a practical element to it. This thesis research deal with very strict time constraints. Mapping a broad definition of human security that also includes social, economic, food and even environmental security, would be too time consuming for this study. By focussing on a narrow definition of human security which only includes physical security, human security remains a concept that is easily operationalised within the scope of this research. This is not to say that I deny the existence of other threats to human life than that of physical harm through violence. There is more to human existence than the freedom from fear, conditions that provide protection from threats to the physical integrity of human beings. A range of possible problems exist that threaten the quality of life for a person. There are many problems that can compromise a dignified life where basic human rights and needs are met (Tadjbakhsh, 2014). I also acknowledge that to the individual human being, the protection from physical harm and the ability to live one’s life with quality and dignity might be equally important. It is the difference between ‘survival’ and ‘living’. However, I do relate to the critics of a broad definition of human security, in saying that by securitising every threat that exists in the lives of human beings, the term human security becomes an empty shell. I am in favour of a clear distinction between the concept of ‘human security’ and those of ‘human development’ and ‘human rights’. Freedom from fear and freedom from want are two different thing, with very different specifics and characteristics. Choosing a narrow definition of human security is not a matter of prioritising one threat to human life over the other. It is a matter of labelling and categorising.

2.2 Human security from below With the referent object of security shifting from sovereign states to individual human beings, the ideas about who is supposed to deliver this security also changed. We have seen that within classical security theory, inspired on a Hobbesian tradition, the state is the main provider of security for its citizens. But with a pattern of the state being the biggest threat to the human security of its citizens within a conflict situation, this idea obviously becomes very problematic (Bellamy, 2010). One of the first responses to this dilemma was to place the duty of providing security into the hands of the international community (Bellamy, 2010; Faber & Dekker, 2014). States have an obligation towards their citizens to provide them with an acceptable level of security. If a state fails to provide this security, it loses its right to sovereignty and is the international community allowed, if not obligated, to intervene. The notion that the international community is responsible for the human security of the world’s citizens, has been labelled as the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) (Faber & Dekker, 2014). It is a paradigm that has triggered the discussing, and sometimes implementation, of humanitarian interventions and peace keeping missions; interventions of the international community, in particular the UN, in the sovereignty of a state to prevent human suffering. Although R2P has become a powerful paradigm within security thinking and international relations, the implementation of the concept is still problematic (Bellamy, 2010; Faber & Dekker, 2014). R2P is surrounded with discussion and criticism and raises questions that have proven difficult to answer. Who can legitimately authorise humanitarian interventions? Which situations and what circumstances call for a humanitarian intervention? And is a military intervention the most effective way to prevent human suffering? (Bellamy, 2010). The international community struggles with these sort of questions, and therefore with the implementation of the R2P principle. With this in mind, it is not surprising that many people whose human security is no longer guaranteed by their state, do not automatically turn to the international community for their safety. Help from the international community might not come in time or not at all. Instead, people in marginalised security situations start to organise human security themselves (Baker&Scheye, 2007; Faber&Dekker, 2014). This self-organising mechanism of security is called ‘human security from below’. It is situated on the idea that citizens are not just the ones who need protection, but that they are also agents who can provide protection. Faber and Dekker (2014) formulate how people facing insecurity start to form ‘security communities’. Security communities are communities, based on a common identity, in which the members seek security amongst each other. This common identity can be based on all sorts of similarities between the community members: kinship, gender, religion, ethnicity, political beliefs, geographical vicinity etc. (Faber & Dekker, 2014). The point is that this identity results in a shared concern of the community for the security of its members.

Interestingly enough, the shared identity can be both the source of the insecurity and of the security. When people get attacked because of their identity, it is exactly this identity that becomes important within forming a security community (Faber & Dekker, 2014). For example, when Christian Iraqi get attacked by extremist Muslim groups because they are Christian, one of their responses could be to unite with other Christian Iraqi to look for safety e.g. by starting to live in a Christian neighbourhood or village. Being Christian is the source of the insecurity, the reason why you are being attacked. But being Christian is also the identity on which you align with a group of other Christians to protect one another. One individual can be a member of several security communities at once; membership of a security community does not exclude one from being a member of a different security community.

2.3 A feminist perspective on human security

Questioning the universality of human security One of the characteristics of human security is its universality. Like human rights, the concept of human security is one that should apply to all human beings. No matter what religion, skin colour, sexual preference, political beliefs, gender etc., everyone is entitled to a basic level of security that allows them to live their daily lives in dignity (Sen, 2014). Human security is a concept of equity, making it the same for every human being. It is precisely this universal character of human security that is challenged by feminist scholars. Indeed, human security should be equal for every human being, but what human security looks like is not the same for every human being. Security and insecurity are experienced differently by men and women, and each group defines it differently (Puechguirbal, 2012). Security and insecurity is not an objective entity that can be measured equally for every human being. It is an experience that can vary from person to person and context, like gender, matters in this experience. Feminist theory implies that the male perspective of security is the dominant perspective within the security debate. Therefore, women’s experiences of security and insecurity are neglected (McKay, 2004b; Puechguirbal, 2012). Power relations between men and women have historically been in favour of men. The term ‘gender’ is associated with ‘femininity’ and not with ‘masculinity’. Masculine perspectives are the norm, feminine perspectives are the gender-perspectives (Porter, 2013; Puechguirbal, 2012). A gender-neutral perspective is in practice a masculine perspective. There where gender is not mentioned, women’s experiences are left out, making it a masculine perspective (Puechguirbal, 2012).

Different experiences of human security between men and women Women experience insecurity in a different way than men do. Women are subjected to certain security threats that men are not, or to a lesser extent, subjected to. Sexual gender based violence is a problem that mainly, although not exclusively, affects women and girls. Sexual gender based violence is a phenomenon that is more and more occurring within conflict situations and it has serious consequences for women, also in post-conflict times (Thomas & Tiessen, 2010). As described earlier in this thesis, it leads to both physical problems and social exclusion for women who have been victims of sexual gender based violence. But the difference in security experiences between men and women goes further than just the different types of physical violence they experience. Men and women exposed to the same kind of violent conflict, suffer different consequences from it (Puechguirbal, 2012). The pre-conflict setting is often a patriarchal one, meaning that the dominant form of power is in the hands of males with hegemonic masculinities. The dominant form of power determines the commonly accepted norms and practices. It determines what is normal, important, accepted and valuable (Hoogensen & Stuvoy, 2006). The pre-conflict power relations between men and women, make that women are more vulnerable for the negative consequences of conflict than men. A good example of women’s experiences being marginalised because of pre-existing power relations, is the frequent exclusion of women from the peace-building and reconstruction process in the post-conflict setting. Since men are seen as the aggressors, they are also seen as the key holders to peace (Puechguirbal, 2012). They are invited to participate in the peace-building and reconstruction process, while women are left out of this process. Women are denied any agency over their own security situation and are made voiceless. By excluding women from the peace-building and reconstruction process, women’s trauma’s and negative experiences during the conflict are often neglected (Handrahan, 2004). Assuming that women and men have different security needs, having only men participate in organising security in the post-conflict setting can effect women in a negative way. Men might not recognise or prioritise women’s security needs. If women are dependent on men to organise their human security, this security might not be guaranteed (McKay, 2004b; Puechguirbal, 2012). It is important to note that a return to the ‘normal’ situation as it was before the conflict, something that reconstruction processes are often aiming to do, is probably not enough for women to ensure their human security. Where men often need a war or violent conflict to make insecurity a part of their daily life experiences, insecurity is in many cases a constant factor in women’s lives. To simply return to the status quo as it was before the conflict, is therefore not satisfying for women. Because of the patriarchal nature of the pre-conflict situation, many women do not wish to go back

19 to this situation after the conflict has come to an end. ‘Normal’ is not guaranteeing women’s human security. Denying women access to the peace-building and reconstruction process, is denying them a real chance for human security. This is something that is poorly recognised within the human security debate (Handrahan, 2004).

Victimising women The neglecting of women in the peace-building and reconstruction process is directly related to the victimisation of women in the conflict and post-conflict setting. Women are often categorised as helpless victims of violent conflict, together with children. They are depicted as innocent citizens who need to be protected (Puechguirbal, 2012). It is the men who are associated with being the aggressors, but therefore also with being the ones who can be the protectors. They possess the strength to defend women and children from aggressions imposed on them by other men (Porter, 2013; Puechguirbal, 2012). By being framed as the protected party, women are excluded from being the protector. In other words, women have nothing to contribute to the establishment of security. The fact that the role of both women and men in conflict and post-conflict settings is more complex than this, is often neglected within the security debate. This characterisation of men as the protectors and women as the protected is, aside from empirically incorrect, very harmful for women’s position within the decision-making process in the conflict and post-conflict setting. It denies women any form of agency they might have over their own human security and that of others (Handrahan, 2004; Porter, 2013; Puechguirbal, 2012). Even if their gender specific security threats are taken into account, they are not part of the solutions for these security threats. Like their experiences of insecurity, women’s ideas about the way in which security should be provided and organised can be very different then the ideas of men on this topic, and might be more effective when it comes to eradicating women’s insecurities. It is by this framing of women as specifically vulnerable, that they are made voiceless in the process of enhancing human security.

2.4 Combining human security from below with a feminist perspective Within this thesis, I combine the concept of human security from below with a feminist perspective on human security. In contemporary security studies, security is provided by an institution, whether this is the nation state or the international community. Human security from below looks at the people who face the insecurities as the providers of security. It is a concept that acknowledges the

20 agency of people on their own security situation. It is precisely this characteristic of human security from below, that makes it suitable to be combined with a feminist perspective. What has been lacking within the human security debate, is the acknowledgement that men and women experience security in a different way. Even the concept of human security from below, which is very actor-orientated, often lacks the sensitivity that security does not mean the same for every human being and that the context of gender matters when it comes to experiencing security and insecurity. I acknowledge the fact that the dominant perceptions of human security are in fact masculine perceptions of human security. Adopting a universal, homogenous notion of human security therefore means that women’s experiences of human security are neglected. This research intents to incorporate women’s experiences of human security into the larger security debate, since these are seriously lacking within contemporary security thinking. It also tries to show that women have agency over their own security situation. It focusses on the post-conflict setting, a setting in which women’s experiences of security and their ideas on organising it are often neglected. Specifically, it looks at a post-conflict setting where the conflict was characterised by large-scale gender based violence, since this is an experience that puts extra pressure on women’s human security in the post-conflict setting. To accomplish the goal of this research, I have formulated the following research question:

‘How do women experience and organise their own human security and that of other women, in a post-conflict setting, after experiencing a conflict where large-scale gender based violence occurred?’

To be able to answer this main research question, I have used the following subquestions: - How is the human security of women in post-conflict settings affected by the gender based violence that occurred in the conflict situation? - How do women experience their own human security in the post-conflict setting? - How do women use their agency to organise their human security and how are security communities used in this process?

I use the concept of security communities to see how women organise their human security. Security communities are established by people facing insecurities to increase security. It is a way of looking at organising security through the people who are faced with the insecurity. In other words, it is a form of human security from below. It therefore fits well with the aim of centralising women’s agency when it comes to their own human security. By answering the questions posed above, I hope to increase the knowledge on women’s experiences of security. I also aim to show that women should not be regarded as helpless victims,

21 but rather as active agents who have interesting ideas about organising human security. By using the notion of human security from below to frame women’s experiences of and ideas on organising security, I show how they can be incorporated within the larger security debate.

Chapter 3

Methodology

3.1 A qualitative and interpretative research approach Qualitative research is about generating an in-depth understanding of a certain social phenomenon (Green & Thorogood, 2009). Rather than generating patterns and dealing with quantitative entities like ‘how much’ and ‘how often’ it is about understanding questions of ‘how’ and ‘why’. The goal is not to come to a generalizable conclusion, but to come to a detailed understanding of people’s behaviour in a specific social context. I have chosen for a interpretative approach. I never meant to look for an objective description of the security situation of women living in West Point, assuming that there even is such a positivist notion like an ‘objective social reality’. The goal of this research has been to look at women’s interpretation of their own security situation and that of other women living in West Point. By choosing a qualitative research design, I have been able to get to the experiences and interpretations of women when it comes to security. Through interviews, observations and informal interactions, I have tried to come to a deep understanding of women’s experiences and the social context in which these experiences take place. The research strategies within this research have always been flexible, meaning that they were reflected upon throughout the entire data collection process. Incoming data has been analysed during the data collection process, so that the data itself shaped the rest of the research as it went on. Although I started this research with the concept of ‘security communities’ in mind and a broader theoretical understanding of women’s security in post-conflict setting, I had no concrete idea as to what I would find in the field. This is why data analysis during my fieldwork has been so important. It allowed me to investigate important issues within the field and get more specific on issues as the research progressed. I found this the best strategy to get to those issues that mattered the most for the women of West Point and thus have their experiences and interpretations of security be the core of this research.

3.2 The relationship between case selection and negotiating access In this research, I have found that the case selection for this research and negotiating access to the research field has been interlinked. It is on the one hand the substantive search for a case that is relevant for the research I wanted to conduct, and on the other hand the pragmatic attitude of being able to research the case within the timeframe of this research. My goal has been to find a balance between the two. I wanted to find a suitable, interesting case and at the same time be able to get fast access to the research field.

The case selection of this research has known two stages. First, there was the choice for the post-conflict setting of Liberia. Second, there was the decision of focussing on the West Point slum community in Monrovia. Liberia proved to be an excellent case for this research on women’s security in the post-conflict setting. The civil war in Liberia ended in 2003, at the time of this research eleven years ago. The conflict in Liberia had been characterised by large-scale gender based violence and other forms of violence against the civil population. On top of that, Liberia had elected a female president in the first elections after the war, who was still in office during the time of this research. Having a female president could potentially have very interesting effects on the human security of women in Liberia and women’s experiences of security. For several practical reasons I preferred not to go to Liberia without being hosted by an organisation, whether that would be a governmental, non-governmental or bilateral organisation. Working with a local organisation would have several benefits. It would provide me as a researcher with a stable contact in the research field, who could provide me with background information about the field of research. The organisation can also be an access point into the field (Mercer, 2006). Two months is a limited amount of time to do a thesis research. To increase the chances of a successful research in such a short period of time, I felt I needed the help of a local organisation. I was hosted by ActionAid Liberia, the Liberian branch of the international NGO ActionAid, situated in Monrovia. In their country strategy, they have adopted three key areas they work on in Liberia: women’s and girls’ rights; youth and urban poverty; and governance. For my research, I have worked mostly with the staff working on the women’s and girls’ rights department. They have helped me with identifying women living in slum communities, and women in the West Point slum community in particular, as the focus of my research. Before going to Liberia for my field work, I had deliberately decided to determine the specific focus of the research once I was in the field. Beforehand, I had no way of knowing what I would encounter in Liberia and what would be an interesting and relevant focus for this research. In the first week of my stay in Liberia, I discussed my research design with the ActionAid staff working for the women’s and girls’ rights department. They explained to me that they were working on a ‘Safe Cities Campaign’, which works on making urban spaces safer for women. Within their campaign, and the research they had conducted for their campaign, they had identified three groups of women who face more insecurities than other women living in urban areas in Liberia. These groups of women were university students, women working in the informal sector, and women living in slum communities. ActionAid had already done an extensive research on university students. To me, that made the latter two categories of women more interesting as a focus for my research. The ActionAid staff informed me that for them, women working in the informal sector were hard to reach as a group. Women living in slum communities would be more accessible, since their geographical

25 location was clear. This made women living in slum communities a very interesting group of women to focus my research on. I chose West Point as my case study, since it is one of the most densely populated and poorest slums of Monrovia. Also, West Point had a women’s centre run by women living in West Point, which immediately drew my attention. After having established this focus on West Point, ActionAid helped me to get into contact with the community of West Point. They introduced me to the women’s centre in West Point, called West Point Women. West Point Women is a partner organisation of ActionAid Liberia, although their contact is limited to a minimum. It is a small, community-based organisation that works on educating the women living in West Point on all sorts of topics. One topic they address in particular is women’s security. It was here, at West Point Women, that I got introduced to Wilma. She is one of the women running the organisation and is living in West Point herself. Upon meeting her, we seemed to have a connection with one another. We established a relationship where she was my main contact within West Point. Whenever I wanted to do interviews with women from West Point, I would call her to ask if I could come over. I was always welcome within two days and she would ask me how many women I would want to talk to this time. She made sure that the number of women I wanted to speak with, would be present on the day that I would come over. Sometimes there were even more women to talk to me than I had anticipated to talk to that day. There are always people coming and going at West Point Women, women and girls who would come to see what was going on that day. Some of them wanted to talk to me after seeing me talk to another woman at West Point Women. West Point Women, and in particularly Wilma, have been crucial in getting access to the women living in West Point. As I describe in the section on security issues for me as a researcher, my ability to go to West Point by myself was limited. I would not have been able to simply walk around and approach people to talk about women’s security in West Point. West Point Women provided me with a base, a set location where I could meet with women living in West Point who were already informed on what I was doing in West Point. The fact that the West Point Women office was a stone building, made it one of the few locations in West Point where I could have somewhat private conversations with my respondents, without everyone passing by seeing and hearing us. Another important person providing me with access to the community of West Point was Alex from West Point Youth. He organised a focus group with some of the young inhabitants of West Point (both male and female) and has showed me around the community. He has been a kind guide, who was willing to walk through West Point with me, explaining me what we were seeing and answering my questions about the surroundings. I have chosen to not spend too much time at the West Point Youth organisation. Upon my visit there, I felt that West Point Youth was too male dominated for my research. All the leaders of West Point Youth were male and most of the visitors of

West Point Youth were also male. I found that it was not the right way to meet (young) women from West Point, who were the ultimate subjects of this research. During my research, I have thought often about my relationship with Wilma and the effect it might have on my research outcomes. She basically became my gatekeeper to the women in West Point. She was the one who determined who I would talk to, since she was the one who arranged for the respondents to come to West Point Women and talk with me. The risk of using a gatekeeper is that they could potentially influence the research outcome, by only selecting certain respondents. In the case of an organisation, the risk is that only respondents who are positive about the organisation get selected to speak to the researcher (Mercer, 2006). In the case of West Point Women, I did not find this particularly problematic. First of all, there was a variety in the connection the women I spoke with had with West Point Women and their level of involvement with the organisation. I did not get the feeling that the respondents had been selected particularly to praise West Point Women. Also, I became to view West Point Women as a security community, since it had been established and is still run by women living in West Point themselves to improve the security situation of women living in West Point. This made for the fact that West Point Women became totally incorporated within the research on women’s security in West Point, rather than it being an independent entity that needs to be evaluated. The experiences of the women leading West Point Women, or wanting to portray West Point Women as a good organisation, were just as important and legitimate as those of the women that were less involved with the organisation.

3.3 Methods used

Participant observation Participant observation is a research method often used within qualitative research and is especially linked with ethnography (Green & Thorogood, 2009). It allows the researcher to experience the setting of the research and generate data from observing the social context as it naturally occurs and how people behave within this social context. Although I would not consider this research an ethnography in the classical sense of the word, I have found that participant observation has been a useful research method for this research. Being in West Point, walking around, seeing, feeling, hearing and smelling the place, has helped me to understand the circumstances in which my informants live and have to organise their security. I had never been in a slum community before going to West Point. Obviously I had read materials on slums, I had seen pictures and video footage, but nothing could have prepared me for

27 the situation I encountered upon arriving in West Point. Experiencing West Point by physically being there helped me to relate to my respondents. My understanding of their situation deepened. When speaking of participant observation, especially within ethnography, it is often suggested that the researcher becomes a part of the community (Green & Thorogood, 2009). By living in the community, establishing friendships and experiencing social routines and rituals, the researcher comes to an understanding of how the community works. I will never claim that I have become a member of the West Point community. Because of security, hygiene and logistic reasons, the time I could and also wanted to spend in West Point was limited to a level where I could never become a member of the community. However, I did spend two months living in Monrovia, experiencing the larger context of Liberian society full time. Living in Monrovia, observing my surroundings, has provided me with valuable information about the security situation for women in Liberia, information that I probably would have missed if I had not gone there. A good example is the missing streetlights in the city. That the absence of such a simple piece of infrastructure could have such a large impact on women’s movements during the night never would have occurred to me if had not experienced it first-hand. Another limiting factor in becoming a member of the community of West Point, and the larger context of Monrovia for that matter, was my appearance. Being so tall and white immediately gave me away as being an outsider to the community. People change their behaviour as soon as they notice me. I have frequently been stared at and called upon by strangers. Although I have not blended in with the community, I still believe the term ‘participant observation’ is justified. I have been present within the social context I have been studying. Especially because I did not blend in, I feel that I have had an influence on things I have observed. This calls for reflexivity that is appropriate for every form of participant observation.

In-depth interviews Since the personal experience of the women living in West Point regarding security is the core of this research, in-depth interviews with these women have been the main method of data collection. In total, I have recorded fourteen interviews with women from West Point. Most of these women, besides a few exceptions, were middle aged (between 45 and 55). There are two main reasons for choosing respondents of this particular age group. The first is that this category of women is the most active within West Point Women. They are very well informed about the strategies and history of the organisation. The second reason, is that these women have knowledge of the security situation in West Point before, during and after the civil war, knowledge that younger women lack because they cannot remember the situation as it was before the war. Since the post-

28 conflict setting of Liberia is of importance in this research, this large collective memory was very interesting for me as a researcher. All of the interviews have been conducted at the West Point Women office and often took between thirty and sixty minutes. I have chosen for a semi-structured form of interviewing, meaning that I worked with broader topics instead of specific questions to prepare for the interview. I had a list of topics I knew I wanted to address during the interviews, but let the course of the interview decide which specific questions were asked. Main topics I have talked about with women are violence in West Point, feelings of security, security communities, the influence of the civil war on security in West Point, and feelings of shame toward sexual gender based violence. Aside from these broader topics, a wide range of smaller topics has been discussed in the interviews. It is important to note that the list of main topics discussed has been partly constructed during the research process. Interviews in the early stages of the research have helped to identify the main topics. Not all topics have been addressed during every interview, the course of the interview determined whether or not topics were discussed and in how much detail.

Focus group discussion Two focus group discussion were conducted during this research. One of them was organised at West Point Women, the other was organised at West Point Youth. The focus group discussions were organised during the early stages of the research and have mainly generated general information on the living conditions and security situation in West Point. They were helpful to grasp the context of West Point and provided me with a starting point for the research. It has helped to shape the topics discussed during the individual interviews that I have conducted. Although I had the opportunity to do more focus group discussions, I have specifically chosen not to do so. I found that the focus group discussions did not provide me with in-depth information on the topic of women’s security in West Point. Statements from participants remained somewhat shallow and were general remarks rather than detailed descriptions. I found it extremely difficult to ask follow up questions on statements from participants within the setting of the group, which is partly the reasons why the statements were more general in nature. Within the focus group discussions, the language barrier became more prominent. I had more difficulty understanding what was being said, something I discuss in more detail in the ‘language’ section of this thesis.

Informal conversations and interactions Informal conversations and interactions can be a great source of information within qualitative research. Although women’s security is a sensitive topic that is not often discussed within casual conversation, I have had the chance to talk about this topic outside the settings of a formal interview. Most of them were with my Liberian colleagues and with Wilma from West Point Women, with whom I had established a relationship in which these type of conversations were appropriate. But to a lesser extent I have even been able to get valuable information from drivers, NGO-workers I met during the regular Friday party nights, and the land lady of my first apartment. Since the nature of these conversations is casual and informal, I have not made notes during these interactions. I documented this information once I arrived home or at the office in the form of a notebook.

3.4 Language The official language spoken in Liberia is English. Although English is not my native language, I consider myself to be fluent in English. So before I went into the research field I anticipated no problems in terms of a language barrier. Upon arrival in Liberia, I noticed immediately that I was horribly mistaken. The language that I heard the taxi drivers speak when I left the arrival hall of the airport, sounded nothing like English to me. It turned out that Liberian English, or ‘Colloqui’ as it is called by Liberians, differs a lot from standard British or American English. It took me a few weeks before I got used to the dialect of Liberian English. Words sound different, the latter part of the word is often skipped. The grammar is also simplified in Liberian English. Instead of asking ‘Where are you going’, Liberians would say ‘Where you go?’. Within my research I noticed that this was mainly a problem during the focus groups that I have conducted. Within a group, the Liberian accent of the inhabitants of West Point became more thick. They would speak their normal language, probably because they are used to speaking that way amongst each other. Also, during both focus groups I was accompanied by a Liberian who would be able to translate for me. I feel that the presence of a fellow Liberian functioned as an ‘escape route’ for my research subjects. There was less need to adapt to my level of understanding of the Liberian English, simply because there was someone to translate if I missed out on important information. On top of that, there is the simple fact that people talk in a disorderly way when they are in a group. People start talking, while someone else is finishing their sentence. These dynamics of a group discussion made it even harder for me to understand the language that was spoken.

For the individual in-depth interviews I conducted, I experienced this problem to a lesser extent. I would start the interviews by asking if it was ok to record the interview. The explanation I gave for doing so, was that my Liberian English was still not very good and that I would like to be able to listen to our conversation again to make sure that I understood her response correctly. Aside from breaking the ice with a little joke about my incompetence of understanding Liberian English, it made the women I was talking to aware of the fact that I experienced a language barrier. Most women I talked to were considerate enough to talk slowly and clearly to me, making sure that I understood what they were saying. Aside from the fact that the pronunciation of words and the construction of sentences is different, there is another problem with understanding Liberian English. Words can mean something different for Liberians than they do for people who speak British or American English. I mainly noticed this within the individual in-depth interviews that I conducted with the women of West Point Women. One of the questions I regularly asked was: ‘Do you feel safe in West Point?’ or ‘Do you feel that West Point is a safe place to live?’. In response to that question, women started telling me about the rough living conditions in West Point. They would talk about the way they make money, about the large number of mosquito’s giving people malaria, about the lack of sanitation and so on. After a few interviews I discovered that ‘safe’ for them actually meant ‘good’ and not ‘secure’, the meaning that I gave to the word ‘safe’. While I thought I was given the wrong answer, instead I was asking the wrong question. I experienced a similar thing with the word ‘beaten’. When talking about insecurities women face, the women of West Point Women hardly used the word rape. I knew from various reports from different NGOs and government institution that rape and other SGBV is a prominent problem within Liberian society, and it definitely occurred during the civil war. I thought that it was strange that women were only talking about ‘being beaten by men’. Only rarely did they mention words like ‘rape’ or ‘harassment’. At one point, a women mentioned that her mother was ‘beaten’ by the rebel soldiers during the civil war, because she was a very beautiful women. It was at this point I realised that ‘beaten’ meant a lot more than just the physical act of being hit, it was interchangeably used with terms like ‘rape’ and ‘harassment’. As a researcher, I am aware of the fact that the information I gathered through conversation is influenced by my interpretation of the words used in the conversation, both by me and by my research subjects. I have tried to the best of my capabilities to understand what the women of West Point wanted me to know about their lives and their notions of security and insecurity. Sadly however, I will have to admit that some parts of their stories have probably gone lost in translation.

3.5 Security while doing research in West Point It is not particularly surprising, but doing research on women’s security as a female researcher makes you consider your security in the field. Doing research in a slum community like West Point comes with certain challenges in terms of security. Feeling unsafe has a severe impact on one’s own mental state, something which in itself can have a significant effect on the outcomes of the research (Lecocq, 2002). My own safety, and the safety of my research subjects, has always been the first and foremost priority. To ensure this security, I have taken several precautions and safety measure, all of which have influenced different aspects of this research. For a right interpretation of this research, it is important to understand how issues of security have influenced this research.

Before I had ever been to West Point myself, I relied on the information I got from others. Going to West Point would be my first time going to a slum community and I wanted to know what I was getting myself into. The reputation of West Point is notorious. Both Liberians and foreigners told me that West Point is a dangerous place. There was supposed to be a lot of theft, violence, crime, drug abuse and prostitution. The Lonely Planet that I had bought before my departure to Liberia explicitly stated that one should avoid West Point. And yet this was the place I had chosen to do the most of my fieldwork. The only reason I felt comfortable going to West Point, was because I had a specific location to go to, namely West Point Women. West Point Women became my safe haven in West Point. My first two visits to West Point Women were with an ActionAid colleague, who had offered to accompany me. After those first two visits, I had grown the confidence to go there by myself. I felt welcomed by the women of West Point Women. There were people there who knew who I was, who knew what I was doing there, who wanted to explain the context of West Point to me, and who would look out for me, mainly to help prevent that my own ignorance regarding the context of West Point would get me into trouble. Later on in my research, I got into contact with Alex from West Point Youth. We met through a meeting hosted by ActionAid, which made me trust him enough to go visit him in West Point. Under his guidance, I felt comfortable walking around in West Point. He showed me the parts of the community I was not able to see on my own. He also instructed me about the moments I could take pictures, something I did not want to decide by myself. Flashing a digital camera in one of the poorest parts of Liberia (and therefore of the world), just did not seem like a good idea. Without him, I definitely would have gotten lost in West Point, possibly wondering into areas that are less safe. Fact is that without the help of West Point Women and West Point Youth I would not have been able to do this research. Wondering around on your own in West Point, without knowing where

32 you are or where you are going is unwise. The chances of being robbed, probably accompanied with violence, are high. The fact that I am female and the fact that I am white are of much influence on that. I have never felt more white than I have felt in West Point. In all the times I have been there, I have not once seen another white person in West Point, let alone a young, white woman like myself. The colour of my skin made me stand out from the crowd, it prevented me from blending in and pretending that I belonged in West Point. It made me feel like a target. I have chosen to only go to West Point using an ActionAid vehicle. Going to West Point with a car would prevent me from walking long distances within West Point by myself. But there was a specific reason that I only used an ActionAid vehicle. It would ensure that I was picked up from West Point before sunset by a reliable driver. Making appointments with taxi drivers, even if you have used them before and had their phone number, can prove difficult. Taxi drivers being an hour late to pick you up is not necessarily an exception in Liberia. By all means, I wanted to prevent being stuck in West Point, especially after sunset. This meant, however, that I was never able to visit West Point during the weekends. Going to West Point by night is a definite no-go. All the people from West Point that I have talked to, without exception, have confirmed that West Point is not safe during the night time. Most of the women I talked to would not leave their house during the night. This was a limitation that was set in stone for me. Aside from the security risks caused by people in West Point, there are the health hazards that I have taken into account. Being in West Point and spending time with the local population, especially within a closed area, puts you at risk of contracting certain serious infectious diseases. In general, I have accepted that being in West Point would possibly make me sick. There were, however, some basic measures that I took to try to prevent this from happening. I would limit my consumption of food and drinks and I would never go to the bathroom in West Point. This last measure also had to do with privacy, since sanitary facilities in West Point are poor and far from comfortable or private. This meant that I could never stay in West Point for longer than a few hours. After that, I would either need to go to the bathroom or start to feel unwell from hunger and dehydration. I know that most Liberians would consider me to be completely crazy for taking these health precautions, but I did not feel that my body had been given enough time to acclimatise to the poor hygiene conditions of West Point. Getting a severe case of cholera, typhoid or dysentery would have had a huge negative effect on my research considering the limited amount of time that I already had. Obviously, this lack of movement in West Point due to security issues, has had a huge effect on which people I have talked to for my research and when I talked to them. I had to rely on organisations within West Point for contact with my informants, which without a doubt has

33 influenced the type of information I was able to get through my interviews. I have never been able to observe West Point during the weekend or during the night time, which limits my understanding of West Point and has had an effect on the type of people I was able to speak to. This research is certainly compromised to some extend by the safety measures I had to take in West Point and it is important to acknowledge that. In every research situation where security plays an issue, it is important to be creative and be able to work around the security threats (Barakat et al., 2002). I negotiated access into the research field through local organisations, instead of going there by myself. Also, I tried to make as much use of the time I was able to spend in West Point, by conducting multiple interviews on one day.

3.6 Ethics The starting point and core of almost every ethics code within social science is the principle of ‘do no harm’ (Black, 2003). It is the principle that research subject should not in any way experience negative effects of being a part of the study. In the context of this research, the principle of ‘do no harm’ has been very important. Doing research on personal experiences of security means talking to people about sensitive topics like fears, feelings of insecurity and possible negative experiences they have had in terms of their own physical security in the past. These can be very difficult topics for people to talk about, especially when there are unresolved traumas involved. The context of Liberia puts particular stress on the ‘do no harm’ principle for two main reasons. Firstly, Liberia has experienced a brutal civil war not long ago. The last battles in Monrovia took place in 2003, at the time of the research a little over ten years ago. As Black (2003) puts it, the conflict was characterised by ‘the systematic pillage and terrorisation of local populations’. This means that it is likely that many of my respondents would have seen, done and undergone things that I could never even imagine. Being insensitive to these war traumas would be one of the biggest mistakes one can make when it comes to research ethics. Secondly, there are specific characteristics of female security that are hard to talk about and overloaded with disgust and shame in any culture, but that are specifically sensitive to talk about in Liberian society. A lot of shame exists around the topic of sexual gender based violence. It is not uncommon within Liberian society to blame the victim of rape and other sexual gender based violence for what happened. Women experience a wide range of negative emotions when it comes to sexual gender based violence and would naturally be reluctant to talk about it. The context of the Liberian culture, where sexual gender based violence can still be considered a taboo topic, amplifies these negative emotions and reluctance to talk about it. However, sexual gender based violence is a

34 huge aspect of this research and not talking about it or ignoring the issue would not do justice to women’s experiences of security. I tried to introduce the topic into the interview with care and never at the beginning of the interview. Throughout this research, I have always tried to honour the ‘no harm principle’. Talking to me and being interviewed by me should not cause any harm to the respondent. Using semi- structured interviews as a research method, leaves room for a conversation to take a somewhat natural course and for the researcher to be more responsive to sensitivities and topics that the respondent is reluctant to talk about. I would start the interview with somewhat ‘neutral’ questions on perceptions of security and as the interview went along, I decided per individual interview how personal the questions would get. In many cases, I have decided to not ask direct questions about personal traumas or negative experiences. I much more preferred to ask about social narratives and hypothetical scenarios. I would ask questions like ‘What would you do if someone would try to break into your house during the night?’ instead of ‘Has anyone ever tried to break into your house during the night?’ or ‘What would you like to tell a girl that has been raped to do?’ rather than ‘Have you ever been raped and what did you do when it happened?’. These types of questions on hypothetical scenarios and the broader social context create a distance between the topic of female insecurities and the respondent. I have experienced that it made both me and the respondent feel more comfortable during the interview. I have never felt that it was appropriate for me to ask women about personal traumas, unless they brought it up themselves. Also, it was not required for the type of information that I was looking for in terms of the research. Aside from being potentially harmful to my respondents, asking about personal traumas was also unnecessary for this research. Aside from following the ‘do no harm’ principle, I have gotten prior informed consent from all my respondents with which I have done recorded interviews. I have always been transparent about the subject and objectives of my research before starting the interview. Every respondent has been asked for her consent to record the interview and was made aware of the possibility to stop the recording at any given time during the interview. It is my choice as a researcher to use pseudonyms for all my respondents, making their identities anonymous and avoiding that any of my informants would experience negative responses on the information that they provided me with. An exception are the so called expert interview, where people have chosen to speak with me through an organisation in there official positions, with the knowledge that they might feature in this thesis. These people are mentioned with their full names.

Chapter 4

Insecurities in West Point

4.1 Understanding West Point as a slum community

Challenging living conditions As stated earlier, this research is about the physical security of women living in West Point. I have chosen a narrow notion of human security, one that puts the central focus on the physical security of women and not their social or economic security. That being said, it does not mean that the social and economic conditions these women live in can be discarded as not important. Understanding the daily lives of the women and the conditions they live in, is crucial for understanding their notions of and experiences with security. Some of the insecurities these women face, are impossible to understand if one does not understand what life in West Point looks like. This chapter will give a description of the living conditions in West Point. The description is based on both the stories of people living in West Point as well as my own observations while being in West Point. West Point is defined as a slum community, one of the biggest of Monrovia. It is located on a peninsula, enclosed by the Atlantic Ocean on the one side and the Mesurado and Saint Paul river on the other side. There are no official records on the amount of inhabitants of West Point, but its population is estimated to be around 75,000 people. It is the most densely populated slum of Monrovia and that is noticeable as soon as you set foot in West Point. There are people everywhere. Houses and other buildings are built very closely together. Some houses are made out of stone and concrete, others are solely made out of metal corrugated sheets. There are no plants or trees growing in West Point, which means that there are few sources of shade. Monrovia is a city with a very unreliable power network. The Liberia Electric Corporation (LEC) that should provide power to the entire city can be off for weeks in a row, leaving the city without electricity. The only reliable source of power in Monrovia are generators. West Point is no different. There are some houses that are connected to LEC, but most power comes from generators that run on diesel oil or petrol, which makes electricity ridiculously expensive. Because of the lack of power and the lack of space, there are no streetlights in West Point (or in the rest of Monrovia for that matter). One of the biggest issues in West Point is the lack of hygiene within the community. It is one of the main problems that women from West Point would talk about with me. There is no central garbage collection in West Point. Even if such a service would be provided, it would almost be physically impossible for a garbage truck to enter West Point. There is only one road leading into West Point that is paved and it is very narrow. Trucks can go in and out via this road, but are not able to leave the road, except for one turn onto a small football field that is used as a central turning point for cars. It seems that there is a consensus amongst the inhabitants of West Point to dispose of their

37 waste onto a few dumping sights. The biggest one is at the entrance of West Point, where the paved road leads into West Point. A huge pile of garbage can be found there. The government is supposed to come and collect the garbage there on a regular basis, but this is not always the case. When it rains, it becomes a lake of garbage, a floating dump site. And it rains a lot in Monrovia, which is officially the wettest capital in the world with more than 5,000 mm of rain annually. Being in Monrovia for the beginning of the rainy season, I have never seen more water coming out of the sky then during the tropical showers I experienced while being there. All the garbage lying around creates the most horrible smell, especially when the sun is out and it gets warmer.

Pile of garbage near the beach in West Point. Photo: Niké Buijze

Garbage is not the only problem that contributes to the poor situation of hygiene in West Point. Being a slum community founded by squatters, there is no sewage system in place. I have not heard of anyone living in West Point who had indoor plumbing. There are public bathrooms in West Point, seven from what my sources told me. Some of them are free to access, but for most you have to pay a small entrance fee, something around 5 or 10 LD (the equivalent of 0.07 USD). There are places to defecate and places to bath yourself. However, there are not enough facilities for everyone in West Point; seven public bathrooms on a population of 75,000 is very tight. Also, a large number of the population in West Point cannot effort to go to a paid facility every time they have to defecate. It is for these two reasons that a lot of people relieve themselves in public, either in a small alley near their house or at the beach, the most popular location for this purpose. When I was walking down the beach with Alex, a guy from West Point who had offered me to show me around the community, I noticed an adult man defecating on the beach. I had seen children relief themselves in public

38 before, not only in West Point but also in other areas in Monrovia where people live in places without indoor plumbing, but this was the first time I saw an adult do this. He was a grown man, late thirties as I estimate, and he was squatting there with his pants on his knees to relief himself, in front of everyone to see. It is exactly this lack of privacy that the women I talked to described as a problem. Having to undress yourself and exposing yourself for everyone to see every time you have to go to the bathroom. Even when you use the public bathrooms, your privacy is not guaranteed, since not all of them have doors. One woman explained to me how she uses a bucket in her house to relief herself and then empties it in the river.

Best looking public bathrooms in West Point, without doors. Photo: Niké Buijze

Aside from the total lack of privacy when people have to defecate in public, there is obviously a huge health hazard in place when there is no adequate sewage system in place. The faeces laying around everywhere contaminate the groundwater, which is used for drinking water in West Point. The wells in West Point do not run deep enough to filter the water properly. Typhoid, cholera and dysentery are a serious problem. Walking around on the beach in West Point, looking at all the human faeces laying there, it is clear that not a lot of inhabitants of West Point enjoy healthy bowel movements. The faeces are runny and often contain blood, a sign that people are sick. But contaminated drinking water is not the only source of illness in West Point. It is known that tuberculosis is prominently present in West Point and malaria occurs on a massive scale. Although malaria is a serious problem in all of Monrovia, and in the rest of Liberia for that matter, there being a lot of still standing fresh water, both from the rain and from the bordering river, makes West Point an excellent breeding spot for mosquitos. There is one small medical clinic in West Point,

39 but from what inhabitants have told me it is poorly equipped. It is also not a free clinic, meaning that not everyone living in West Point can effort to go there when they are sick.

‘West Point is a good place for poor people’ When I was conducting my interviews with women in West Point, I would often start with a broad opening question. One of the questions I frequently used was: ‘Is West Point a safe place to live?’ Upon this question, several women told me that ‘West Point is a good place for poor people’. They explained to me how West Point offers the opportunity to earn enough money to make ends meet. Rachel tells me that ‘West Point is a good place to live for a poor women. Because here in West Point you can get money [earn money, red.] for you and your children to survive’.1 Although people in West Point are poor, they have found a place where they can make a living. With minimal investments, they can contribute to the economic process and make a little money to support themselves and their families. Most of the women I talked to work in the informal sector. They sell things like donuts or charcoal on the local market in West Point. One of the women was a seamstress. While I was walking around West Point, I noticed that there is a lot of economic activity. There is a market where women sell smoked fish, donuts, chillies and charcoal. Across from the police station is a little bar where Alex and I set down to have a soda. There are shops where adolescents come to play videogames and whole families can come to watch movies and television. Around the time that I was there, most of these shops were airing the 2014 FIFA World Cup, where people would gather to cheer for the African football teams that were competing.2 Alex told me about the brothels located in West Point, which open at night and are very busy.3 It may be a less glorious example, but it remains economic activity. From the stories that the women told me, I concluded that most of them do not leave West Point often, since they both live and work in West Point. I asked Wilma about this and she confirmed that most women in West Point do not leave West Point often. She called herself an exception for leaving West Point as often as she does. 4 For women who do need or want to leave West Point, it is not difficult to leave. Miriam explains to me how she feels West Point is a good place to live, because it is easy to leave.5 Transport is not an issue for her, since West Point is so centrally located. It is directly connected to central Monrovia, and although I consider it quite a walk to get from West

1 Rachel, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 2 Liberia did not qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Still, football was extremely popular and most Liberians were supporting other competing African teams, such as Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast. 3 Alex, personal communication, West Point, 16 June 2014 4 Wilma, interview, West Point Women, 3 June 2014 5 Miriam, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 40

Point to the heart of central Monrovia, she finds it close by.6 She is not limited by the costs of transport when she wants to leave West Point, simply because she does not need it. 7 Although human security for this research is operationalised as physical security, these statements of women from West Point show how economic security is a big part of ‘feeling safe’. West Point is a good place for poor people, because living in West Point provides you with opportunities to survive. Somewhere halfway through my research project, it hit me that some of the women I had interviews with, did not have anything to eat all day, even though the interviews were held in the afternoon and some of the women had already worked on the market for that day. They live in West Point because they are left with enough money not to starve, for their children not to starve. Obviously in West Point, as in any society, there is a variety in income. Some women have more money to spend than others. But all women are part (or heads) of low income households, it is inherent to living in West Point. Whether or not it is incorporated within the concept of ‘human security’, threats like hunger, poverty and disease can have an equally devastating effect on people’s lives, and therefore on someone’s notion of the term ‘safe’, as violence does (Tadjbakhsh, 2014). For many women living in West Point, economic security is as important for their notion of ‘safety’ as physical security is. Although the focus of this research is on women’s physical security, the focus is also on women’s experiences. Almost all of the women I have interviewed mentioned economic security as a part of feeling ‘safe’ in West Point. Ignoring this important perception on and experience of safety of women in West Point simply because it originally did not fit within the scope of this research, would not do justice to women’s experiences. There are still people coming to West Point to start a life there; West Point is still growing. Living conditions are tough, but living in West Point is better than living in a place where you cannot support yourself. Aside from challenges, West Point provides opportunities for some people. It took me a while to realise, but West Point is not just a place where people live. For 75,000 people, West Point is home. Many women I have spoken to, do not want to leave West Point. They do not consider it a realistic option. What they consider to be a realistic option, is making West Point, their homes, their community better.

4.2 Public violence West Point has the reputation of being a very violent community, amongst both Liberians and foreigners living in Monrovia. Stories about violent high jacking, rape, drug abuse and prostitution

6 To get from the centre of West Point to the centre of Central Monrovia would, roughly estimated, take you 45 minutes by foot. 7 Miriam, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 41 are notorious. Judging by this reputation, you would expect that women constantly feel insecure when they manoeuvre in public space. This is, however, not the case. During the day, most women feel safe to go outside and walk around West Point. When I asked if West Point was safe during the day, Alicia replied with the question if I was robbed on my way over to West Point Women, which I had to deny. 8 It was her way of pointing out to me that West Point is safe place to walk around during the day, just like any other part of Monrovia. She told me that West Point is safe during the day, because there will be people around who come to help you when someone tries to harm you. Many women that I have spoken to, confirm this feeling of security because they expect people out on the streets to help them in case something bad happens to them. Some women mentioned that specific areas, like the Waterside market and the area behind Johnsonstreet, are not safe during the day. From the window of the West Point Women office, Wilma shows me the areas of West Point that she considers unsafe during the day.9 She tells me that she would only go to that area if she absolutely has to and that she would never carry anything of value, like a purse with money or her mobile phone, when she goes there.10 Tamara tells me the story of her son being robbed in the area around the Waterside marker:11

My son was walking around an area of West Point near the Waterside market. It was between 7 and 8 pm and he was high jacked. They forced him to give away his phone and his money. They took everything from him.12

Where most women expressed general feelings of safety during the day, a very different narrative exists about the night time in West Point. Without exception, every woman told me that West Point is not safe during the night, although the level of insecurity they describe can vary. Most of the women do not go outside the house later than the early evenings. Tamara tells me that she considers West Point to still be safe during the early evening, as long as you do not walk long distances by yourself and you stay out of the areas that are not safe even during the day.13 Late at night she would not go outside. There is nothing to do and it exposes you to unnecessary risks. Hannah explains to me that she does not even feel comfortable enough to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. If she really needs to go, she uses a bucket inside her house and empties it the next morning.14

8 Alicia, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 9 The West Point Women office is situated on the second floor of a two story building. It overlooks most of West Point, since it is taller than most other buildings in West Point. 10 Wilma, interview, West Point Women, 3 June 2014 11 Tamara, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 12 Tamara, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 13 Tamara, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 14 Hannah, interview, West Point Women, 26 May 2014 42

Women who go to move around outside during the night, run the risk of being raped or robbed or both. During the night, there is also the fear of burglars, people who sneak into your house to steal your belongings or to harass you. Naomi states that all the burglars she knows of are men.15 Because they are men, they might have an ulterior motive then just coming to steal things from the house. The woman herself might be the target of the intruder. Hanna tells me that she only feels safe at night when she stays inside her house and locks the door.16 It is a ‘luxury’ that not every woman in West Point can afford, since not all houses in West Point have doors that lock. Her own safety is not the only reason that Hanna does not leave the house during the night. She is also concerned about her children’s safety when she would leave the house during the night time.17 With this statement, she touches upon a security dilemma that especially applies to single mothers in West Point, who do not have another adult living in the house with them. Leaving the house during the night means leaving your children in the house unguarded. Intruders are then free to enter your house and hurt your children. During our conversation on security during the night, Anna points this out to me:18

Or sometimes, you the woman will not be inside the house, another man can come to you children and do anything to the children.19

It is one of the issues that West Point Women addresses, telling single mothers not to leave their children home alone during the evening. Wilma states that it is an issue that is especially important for mothers with teenage daughters to recognise, since these girls are a favourable target of sexual gender based violence.20 But even young children have been known to be assaulted. Rose tells me that she has heard of children who get raped in their house while their mother is not home, and who have been bribed with money or food to not tell their mother about the assault.21 Most women expressed to feel relatively safe in West Point during the day. However, at West Point Youth I spoke with two girls, Angel and Shasha, who both stated that they did not feel safe in West Point, even during the day.22 They were both 18 years old. They both lived with their families and expressed that the only place they really felt safe, was at home. Princess explains to me that she never feels safe in public in West Point, because she is a girl and girls are weaker than guys. If a guy

15 Naomi, interview, West Point Women, 26 May 2014 16 Hannah, interview, West Point Women, 26 May 2014 17 Hannah, interview, West Point Women, 26 May 2014 18 Anna, interview, West Point Women, 24 June 2014 19 Anna, interview, West Point Women, 24 June 2014 20 Wilma, interview, West Point Women, 3 June 2014 21 Rose, interview, West Point Women, 24 June 2014 22 Angel & Sasha, short informal interview, West Point Youth, 9 June 2014 43 wants to force himself upon her, she does not have the physical strength to resist him and protect herself. Unfortunately, I have not had the chance to speak with many of the young girls in West Point. Most of the women I talked to at West Point Women, which I used as my main access point into the West Point community, were middle-aged women. However, I was intrigued by the very different experience of security during the day that Angel and Sasha seemed to have then the women I had been talking to at West Point Women. I wondered if it had something to do with their age. I decided to ask the women at West Point Women about their ideas of the security of young girls in West Point. Although they were not young girls themselves, they must have ideas about the safety of young girls in their society. Especially the mothers of teenage girls seemed to think that West Point was less safe for young girls than for adult women. In my interview with Amber, she made the following remark about the subject:23

Amber: Look, I’m an older woman. Look at my face, I’m old now! When I’m outside during the day, why would they take me? [laughing] Niké: Is it different for young girls? Amber: Yes, it’s different for young girls. It’s less safe.

Amber’s only daughter is now a ‘grown women’, as she calls it, of 22 with a son of four years old. She does not worry too much about her daughters safety anymore, since her daughter has a boyfriend, but she really used to worry about her when she was younger. This example fits in the overall narrative that I got from women, both middle aged and younger, that young girls are more of a target of public sexual gender-based violence than older women are, mainly because they are found more sexually attractive by predators.

4.3 Domestic violence Although public violence is characterised as a problem by many women from West Point, domestic violence seems to be an even bigger issue. With the reputation of West Point as a violent community in mind, I had the assumption that having a husband would provide a certain level of security, since he would be able to provide a certain level of physical protection. Wilma was the first one to point out to me that this is not necessarily the case.24 She explained how having a man in the house does

23 Amber, interview, West Point Women, 24 June 2014 24 Wilma, interview, West Point Women, 3 June 2014 44 provide a certain amount of security in the house. The chances of being assaulted by an intruder in your own house during the night time are decreased by having a man in the house. A husband or boyfriend can also function as an escort when a women wants to go somewhere during the night, increasing her mobility. But having a husband or boyfriend can also be a source of insecurity.25 According to Wilma, and many of the other women I spoke to at West Point Women, domestic violence is a large problem within West Point.26 Many women get beaten, raped or in other ways physically harmed by their husbands or boyfriends. Interestingly enough, all of the women I talked to who lived with a husband or boyfriend, seemed to have found the ‘exception’ of a West Point man who treats his wife kindly and with respect. Whether or not this is true, or that women just did not feel comfortable enough to talk with me about their personal experiences with domestic violence, is hard for me to judge. Although personal experiences with domestic violence were not brought up, many women talked about the phenomenon of domestic violence, labelling it as a problem for women’s security in West Point. Anna tells me about her niece who got stabbed by her husband one night when he was upset with her. 27 This type of domestic violence seems socially acceptable within the West Point community, something that West Point Women acknowledges and tries to combat.28 I have spoken a lot about gender relations in Liberia with Liberian women. All of them agreed upon the fact that Liberia is a patriarchal society, where men are superior to women. Korto Williams explained to me how women are not seen as equal partners of men.29 She states that women in Liberia are mainly seen as sexual objects and mothers. There is no respect for the integrity of the female body, it is for the man to take. This seems to be especially true within a marriage. Within the Liberian law, there is no such thing as rape within marriages. It is a sign that the body of the woman belongs to her husband and not to herself. Many women in West Point feel that there is a lack of respect of men towards women. Wilma feels that most men in West Point see women as their property. They have no respect for their wives as equal partners.30 In the conversations I had with the women in West Point, there are differences in opinion between married and single women, about whether or not having a husband is more safe. Single women tended to agree that having a husband would be more safe. Especially during the night, having a man in the house would provide security. Now, they are worried that someone can come inside their houses and harass them or their children or steal their belongings. Having a husband or a

25 Wilma, interview, West Point Women, 3 June 2014 26 Wilma, interview, West Point Women, 3 June 2014 27 Anna, interview, West Point Women, 24 June 2014 28 More elaborate description of West Point Women’s objectives and strategies can be found in the chapter ‘Security strategies of West Point Women’ 29 Korto Williams, interview, ActionAid Liberia, 7 July 2014 30 Wilma, interview, West Point Women, 3 June 2014 45 boyfriend would in their minds eliminate that risk. Married women seemed to be more aware that having a male partner in the house can also be a source of insecurity. Although nobody said they experienced domestic violence themselves, they were more conscious of those kind of risks. This does not mean however, that all single women would like to have a husband. Bettina, who is a women with five adult children, does not really want a husband. According to her, having a relationship with a man is more of a burden than a benefit. They are too lazy and controlling, and are just looking to take a woman’s hard earned money. Also, most West Point men do not treat women with respect. She would rather just be on her own.31 Bettina is very aware of the fact that there is a trade-off between the potential physical security a husband would provide and the problems having a husband causes. Apparently, her feelings of insecurity during the night are not big enough for her to accept the downsides of having a husband. Sarah’s feeling towards having a husband are similar. Although she expresses the wish of having a good husband, she admits that it is very hard to find a good man that treats you kindly. Men in West Point just don’t have enough respect for women.32

4.4 Teenage pregnancies Most of the women I have talked to in West Point were middle aged women, so the topic of teenage pregnancy does not concern most of my respondents directly. However, it is a topic that was regularly discussed within the conversation I had with the women at West Point. Some of them were generally concerned about the topic, others specifically because they have teenage daughters. At West Point Youth, the young girls, often under the age of twenty, expressed their fears about getting pregnant.33 According to many women, teenage pregnancies are one of the biggest problems in West Point. Walking around there, I saw a lot of very young girls (13, 14, 15 years old) carrying babies on their backs. All of a sudden it hit me that maybe those babies were not their younger brother or sister, but their own child. From what I was told by the women in West Point, most teenage pregnancies in West Point do not result from rape, if one could argue that there even is such a thing as consensual sex with girls as young as 12 years old. But even though the teenage pregnancies do not result from forced sexual intercourse, I still consider teenage pregnancies in West Point a human security issue. Most girls have sex with guys a few years older than they are, guys they call their boyfriends. The guys often buy the girls things, like soft drinks. In exchange for gifts or money, the girls have sex with the guys. There is not always a transaction of money or goods involved, some girls just want the attention of a

31 Bettina, interview, West Point Women, 24 June 2014 32 Sarah, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 33 Focus group discussion at West Point Youth, West Point, 9 June 2014 46 boyfriend, but it is likely the case. Liberian law states that sexual intercourse with a minor (under the age of 18) is always rape. Sex with young girls, and them getting pregnant from it, is a violation of their physical integrity. It is therefore that I label teenage pregnancies a security issue, especially since it is of big concern for many of the women and girls that I interviewed in West Point. The implications of teenage pregnancy are immense for these young girls. If they even went to school in the first place, they most likely drop out when they get pregnant. The father of the baby is hardly ever in the picture. As soon as the girls gets pregnant, the guy leaves her. Young men are not particularly interested in raising a child or financially supporting one. Even the young men at West Point Youth acknowledged that young men often leave a girl when they get her pregnant, because they do not want the responsibility.34 They expressed their concerns about the issue, most of them because they felt that a child needs a father to grow up with. However, their reactions were not as strong as those of the girls that were present at the focus group discussion. They all seemed generally afraid of getting Awareness poster hanging in the West Point 35 Women office. Source: pregnant at a young age. http://healthadministration.biz The girl becomes a single parent. Upon my question if there were many men who were single parents in West Point, Alice starts to laugh, as if I asked the most ridiculous question possible. She never met any man who was a single parent in West Point. Whether or not the girl is supported by her family varies a lot from family to family. At West Point Youth, most girls claimed they would be on their own if they would become pregnant, which explains a lot of their fear of becoming pregnant.36 At West Point Women, some women claimed that they would kick their daughters out of the house if she would come home pregnant. Hannah tells me that if her daughter is old and stupid enough to let a boy ‘fool’ her into getting her pregnant, she should also bear the consequences of the pregnancy and take care of the child by herself.37 Other women claim that they would take care of their pregnant teenage daughter and her baby. Miriam has eight children and takes care of some of her grandchildren, who live with her.38 Around ten percent of the women in Liberia use birth control. As in the rest of Liberia, the use of birth control is low in West Point, as Wilma tells me.39 Since women can get free contraceptive

34 Focus group discussion at West Point Youth, West Point, 9 June 2014 35 Focus group discussion at West Point Youth, West Point, 9 June 2014 36 Focus group discussion at West Point Youth, West Point, 9 June 2014 37 Hannah, interview, West Point Women, 26 May 2014 38 Miriam, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 39 Wilma, informal conversation, West Point Women, 3 June 2014 47 injections in the West Point Family Planning Clinic, the low use of birth control surprised me. If teenage pregnancy is experienced as a big problem by women and girls, why then is the use of birth control still so low? The use of birth control is something that is advocated by West Point Women. If young girls have sex, at least they will not get pregnant, with all the social consequences this will have for the girl. However, some mothers are still reluctant to send their teenage daughters to the clinic. Tamara admits that she is very afraid that her teenage daughter becomes pregnant: ‘I bag her, please my child, don’t let a boy fool you.’40 Upon my question if her daughter is using birth control, she responds as follows:

Here [West Point Women, red.], they tell me to go with my girl to the family clinic. But my fear is, if take her there, she will be going out [to have sex, red.]. She will be giving herself to somebody. So I don’t want to carry her there, to the clinic.41

Tamara is Catholic, and sexual integrity seems very important to her. She tells me how she, as a single mother, should give the right example to her children, especially to her daughters42:

For a single mother it's important that you take care of yourself. You have to respect yourself. Don't bring in a lot of different men in the house. If you do, your children will not respect you, your community will not respect you and your children will follow in your footsteps.43

Tamara views sexual promiscuity as a sin and she is not the only one. Sarah states that she would never live with a man if she was not married.44 She is also Catholic and to have sexual relations with a man outside of a marriage would be living in sin. For part of the women in West Point, religion and believes about appropriate sexual behaviour, is a reason not to use birth control, or to send their daughters to go and get birth control.

40 Tamara, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 41 Tamara, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 42 Tamara, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 43 Tamara, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 44 Sarah, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 48

4.5 The impacts of the civil war

The situation of West Point during the war During the civil war in Liberia, Monrovia was a relatively safe place. Many people fled the country side during the years of civil war, and often ended up looking for safety in Liberia’s capital. During those years of conflict, West Point’s population grew due to the flow of migrants seeking refuge. Although the capital was relatively safe, Monrovia has known three periods of major fighting, respectively in 1990, 1996 and 2003. The fighting of 2003 is referred to by the people of West Point as ‘World War 3’, since it was the third time that heavy fighting broke out in Monrovia and the amount of violence was the worst in this last battle. Since West Point is a peninsula, with only one way in and one way out, it was not as badly targeted by the rebel groups as many other parts of the city. Militias were not coming through West Point to get to another part of the city. It was mainly in 2003, when rockets were launched by LURD to attack the Charles Taylor administration, that West Point experienced a lot of casualties directly related to war violence. Women from West Point explained that there was a much bigger problem in West Point during the periods of violence, which was the food scarcity within the community. West Point knows no agriculture inside the community. There is no space for it and the ground is not suitable for most agricultural crops because of the location right next to the ocean. Aside from fresh fish being caught by fishermen from West Point, all the food in West Point comes from outside. Sarah describes how there was no food in West Point during the periods of fighting:45

Food is important in human being life. Like me now, if I tell you I don't have money to eat for a whole week, I cannot feel bad. Even if I stay inside for a whole week, I can feel good. ‘Cause somebody will feel sorry for me and give me something I can eat. During the war, there was no food for a whole month and everybody who cares was gone.46

People in West Point were starving during the conflict in Monrovia. The only way to get something to eat, was to go outside of West Point to see if there was food available. According to the women, the

45 Sarah, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 46 Sarah, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 49 men of West Point were too afraid to go outside to look for food. Rachel tells me how the men in West Point were hiding underneath the beds during the civil war.47 They did not dare to go outside. The minute they would step foot out of West Point, they would be shot. Women were not always immediately shot, since they were not mistaken for rebels or AFL soldiers. Some women did get killed when they went outside of West Point, other women got beaten up or raped. Liberia is notorious for the high levels of gender based violence during the conflict. When I confronted Rachel with this fact, she replied to me:48

Yes, it was dangerous for women to go outside. But what are you gonna do? When you don't get food for your children, your children will die.49

According to the women in West Point, it was the women of West Point who took over the role of care taker. They were the ones who provided for their families, it was no longer the men of West Point. Despite the fact that they were at high risk of rape and other physical harm, women felt responsible to go outside and find food for their children. According to Wilma, it was the women who kept West Point from starving during the war.50 Some of the women I interviewed, blamed the men for not taking responsibility to provide for the women and children in West Point during the war. Tamara, who was pregnant during the conflict in 2003, wishes that men had taken better care of the women during the war.51 Others are more forgiving towards the passive attitude of men during the conflict. Rachel feels that men had no choice then to hide inside their houses in order to survive. There would have been no point for men to go outside of West Point to look for food, they would not make it back home alive.52

Post-conflict West Point and increased insecurities After the war, violence against women in West Point increased massively, both publicly and domestically. Women could get raped on the streets in the middle of the day. Young children were targeted as well. As Hannah puts it, West Point was ‘out of control’.53 This high level of violence against women in West Point in post-conflict times, is not exceptional. It fits into a pattern that can be seen globally, where violence against women remains a problem, or even escalates during the

47 Rachel, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 48 Rachel, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 49 Rachel, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 50 Wilma, interview, West Point Women, 3 June 2014 51 Tamara, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 52 Rachel, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 53 Hanna, interview, West Point Women, 26 May 2014 50 post-conflict setting (Handrahan, 2004; Thomas & Tiessen, 2010). As Aisha, a colleague from ActionAid phrased it: ‘We have the silence of the guns, but we are still not safe.’54 It is clear that the end of the conflict did not bring human security for the women in West Point. According to Elizabeth Dato Gbah from ActionAid, the years of civil war have caused a normalisation of violence within Liberian society.55 People have become used to a certain level of violence within society and to certain violent behaviour, and they are adopting this violent behaviour. Although I could see where she is coming from, I had the feeling that there was more to the increased violence against women. Both the men and women in West Point had undergone traumatic experiences during the time of conflict. There had also been a shift in the roles that men and women ordinarily take upon themselves. Before the war, it was mostly the men who were the breadwinners of the family. During the war, it was the women who literally became the breadwinners, by going outside of West Point to look for food. After the war, the situation stayed this way; the women remained the breadwinners. Wilma described this shift in detail to me:56

Wilma: Before the war came, women were just dependent on the men. But when the war came, women took matters into their own hands. They became the breadwinner. Up ‘till now, the women are the breadwinner. Niké: Is it because the men were gone during the war? Wilma: Many of the men died. Apart from dying, men were hiding under their beds. They were trapped, to be recruited or be killed [by soldiers, red.]. They would be recruited by the rebel army or, you know, they were afraid that if they would go out [of West Point, red.] they would be killed. So the women would go out to get food for the family. So now, many of the women have remained in the breadwinning position. And most of the men are relaxed. They do not want to find jobs. They play checker games, they watch the football game, you know. Niké: So most of the breadwinners are the women? Wilma: The majority of the women here are breadwinners. Not only in West Point, but Liberia in general.57

From Wilma’s story, it is clear that gender relations changed a lot within West Point during the conflict. The position of the breadwinner shifted from men to women. A severe shift in gender roles like this, can lead to serious frustration with both men and women (Handrahan, 2004; Lesie & Boso,

54 Aisha Kolubah, interview, ActionAid Liberia office, 22 May 2014 55 Elizabeth Dato Gbah, interview, ActionAid Liberia office, 6 June 2014 56 Wilma, interview, West Point Women, 3 June 2014 57 Wilma, interview, West Point Women, 3 June 2014 51

2003; Thomas & Tiessen, 2010). This frustration can lead to violent behaviour, which is of influence on the security of women, more so than it is for men. Women are more often victims of aggressions such as gender based violence or domestic violence (Handrahan, 2004; Porter, 2013). Within West Point, I sensed a lot of frustration with both men and women, about the living situations in West Point in general, but also about the gender relations in West Point. During the focus group discussion at West Point Youth, the key emotion that came for the young men was frustration, anger even.58 The focus group discussion seemed to be one big rage about all the ways in which living in West Point was terrible. One guy even expressed that men in West Point were all seriously depressed. I was aware of the fact that they framing their lives in West Point as terrible, had something to do with the fact that they thought I was able to change something about their living conditions. I was a white woman with connections to an NGO. As I was introduced by Alex (the guy who led the focus group, red.) to people who were coming and going, I seemed to become a much more important person by the minute. Although I felt like their connection to the world outside of West Point, and maybe even to Liberian politics, I did not interpret their frustration as insincere. Especially their frustrations about being without a job, having nothing to do all day, struck me. At the same time, some of the women that I interviewed at West Point seemed to be frustrated about men’s lack of initiative when it comes to earning money. Wilma called men in West Point ‘lazy’, not willing to work for a living.59 The way in which Bettina described how she does not want a husband because they are lazy and controlling, illustrates the same frustration.60 Seeing this frustration with both men and women, it seems to me that the shifted gender relations during and after the conflict, might have contributed to the escalation of violence against women after the conflict ended.

Post-conflict West Point and the empowerment of women The conflict and post-conflict situation in West Point have been characterised by increased insecurities. However, at the same time, the conflict also had an empowering effect on women in Liberia. During the war, it was the women that kept the Liberian society running, while men were either fighting each other or seeking refuge from the fighting. Women were actively involved in pressuring the warring factions in 2003 to undertake peace negotiations.61 The conflict set in motion an increase of the amount of women’s rights organisations throughout Liberia. Korto Williams

58 Focus group discussion at West Point Youth, West Point, 9 June 2014 59 Wilma, interview, West Point Women, 3 June 2014 60 Bettina, interview, West Point Women, 24 June 2014 61 Over 3,000 Christian and Muslim women mobilized into the ‘Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace’, demanding peace negotiations through silent protests. 52 explains how having President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf elected after the war as the first female president of West Africa, has been a huge symbol for Liberian women. Ellen is a role model, proving that women are qualified and able to be leaders. 62 Wilma agrees with the fact that the conflict had a positive effect on women’s empowerment in West Point.63 During the conflict, it was the women who kept their families from starving, by going outside of West Point to look for food. It was due to the conflict that women experienced that they were capable to survive without men, that they could accomplish something for themselves.64 It is no coincidence that West Point Women was established right after the civil war had ended. The establishment of West Point Women will be discussed in more detail in the next chapter, but deserves to be mentioned in the context of the empowerment of women due to the conflict. Obviously there was a real demand for security for women, but it is not as if pre-conflict West Point was without gender based violence against women. The experiences from the conflict empowered women in West Point to unite themselves into an organisation like West Point Women. They had found the strength to stand up for themselves. The conflict in Liberia has had an empowering effect on women in Liberia, also in West Point, and it is important to note this agency that women have during a post-conflict situation. That being said, we must also remember that the conflict also had devastating effects on its survivors and that certainly not every women is left with a sense of empowerment. The fact that almost none of the women in West Point wanted to share their personal experiences of the civil war with me in detail, shows me that women carry painful memories around with them about that period in their lives. One of the few women who told me more about her personal story of the war, was Sarah.65 Sarah used to live in central Monrovia with her mother, in an area near the American embassy. Her mother got raped and killed by rebel soldiers and Sarah fled to West Point for safety. After the war, Sarah returned to her house in central Monrovia, only to discover that it was taken and sold by her late mother’s brother. With nowhere else to go and no money, she returned to West Point to settle there. She lives alone, since she has no husband and no children. The only son she ever had died after seven months. While telling her story, Sarah started crying. She tells me that she is lonely and unhappy in West Point. She works as a seamstress to earn a little money. When she has no work, she spends most of her days inside her house. 66 I believe that if I would ask Sarah if the war has had an empowering effect on her, she would not agree with that statement. Her story illustrates how the empowerment of women in Liberia, and specifically in West Point, depends on personal

62 Korto Williams, interview, ActionAid Liberia office, 7 July 2014 63 Wilma, interview, West Point Women, 3 June 2014 64 Wilma, interview, West Point Women, 3 June 2014 65 Sarah, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 66 Sarah, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 53 circumstances and is not equal for every woman. It is a trade-off between what was gained and what was lost during the war.

Chapter 5 Organising security in West Point

5.1 Official security institutions Post-conflict states often struggle with weakened security structures, the inability to provide a basic level of security to its citizens. Both police forces and the justice system are compromised during the war and it can take many years before both are functioning at an acceptable level (Baker & Scheye, 2007). When a police force and a justice system are not operating well, it is hard for civilians to let their security depend on them. This seems to be the case in West Point. Almost all the women I interviewed stated that they did not have faith in the police to provide them with security. West Point has one police station, a small stone building, situated along the main road leading through West Point. It is barely more than four concrete walls. I have not heard many women say that they would go to the police when they become the victim of a crime. There are some women that would go to the police to report a crime, but most of the women I interviewed avoid the police all together. Miriam tells me that she would go to the police for simple crimes. If something would get stolen she would go to the police to report it. In more serious cases like rape or domestic violence, she would never go to the police by herself, she would come to West Point Women first. Then they can go to the police station together. 67 One major reason for women not to go to the police is the corruption within the police force. Alice tells me how you have to pay for police services: ‘If you come during the day, the police will tell you, you should pay. If you don't have money they will send you away.’ 68 Corruption is a huge issue throughout all of Liberia. In 2013, Liberia ranked 83 out of a 177 countries in the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index, sharing a place with Burkina Faso, El Salvador, Jamaica, Mongolia, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and Zambia (Transparency International, 2013). To obtain a drivers licence you can simply go to the ministry concerned and pay 35 USD, even though you should first pass a mandatory driving test. Although I had received a three month visa from the embassy of Liberia in Brussels before going to Liberia, I only got a thirty day stamp in my passport upon arrival. To receive the remaining two months of the visa I had already paid for, I had to go to the Bureau of Immigration in Monrovia and pay an additional 25 USD. One of my Liberian colleagues ended up going to the Bureau of Immigration for me, because I probably would have to pay more than he would. Corruption in Liberia is not occasionally, it is institutionalised. The police in West Point is no exception to this situation. Especially for people as poor as the inhabitants of West Point, this is a serious problem. If you struggle to earn enough money every day to feed your family, to be able to take a bath at one of the public bathrooms, to take your children to the hospital when they are sick

67 Miriam, interview, West Point Women, West Point, 12 June 2014 68 Alice, interview, West Point Women, West Point, 12 June 2014 56 with malaria, it is no wonder you are reluctant to pay for police services. As one of my ActionAid colleagues put it strikingly once: ‘You can’t eat justice’. Another reason for women not to go to the police, is there doubts about their capability as a police force. Upon my question what she thought about the police in West Point, Anna started laughing and said: ‘Aahh, the police in West Point is trying their best.’69 It was clear that she did not think much of them and she confirmed that she is reluctant to go there, since she does not believe they are able to help her if she would need it. Within the focus group discussion at West Point Women, the women explain that the police in West Point do not bear arms and are therefore reluctant to come to the rescue of civilians.70 Supposedly, this is part of the civil war legacy, where the government wants to limit the amount of fire arms within Liberian society. The police is too scared that they themselves get hurt when they arrest a criminal. Especially during the night, the police will not come to take care of a dangerous situation. Alice explains this in our interview when we are talking about who she would call for help during the night if she would need it:71

Niké: So, when something bad happens, you don’t go to the police? Alice: Oh no! When it is night the police will not restore order. They will just not come. Niké: Why not? Alice: Because they don’t have arms. Niké: So they are afraid? Alice: Yes, they are afraid. They are afraid of the criminals.72

Aside from not being able to help, some of the women claim that the police would actually make situations worse. The women in West Point were reluctant to explain how the police would make things worse, but from my colleague Aisha I know that violence of police forces towards victims of gender based violence is common throughout Liberia. 73 Women who come to the police station to report a rape, run the risk of being raped again by policemen. Despite special training units set up to make police officers more gender sensitive and programs to install more female police officers, this is a problem that is still unresolved within Liberia.74 Although I do not have confirmation from women in West Point, it is likely that the situation with the West Point police is no different than the rest of

69 Anna, interview, West Point Women, West Point, 24 June 2014 70 Focus group discussion at West Point Women, West Point 26 May 2014 71 Alice, interview, West Point Women, West Point, 12 June 2014 72 Alice, interview, West Point Women, West Point, 12 June 2014 73 Aisha Kolubah, interview, ActionAid Liberia, 22 May 2014 74 Aisha Kolubah, interview, ActionAid Liberia, 22 May 2014 57

Liberia. Even if it is not true, this reputation alone can have a repelling effect on women reporting a case of gender based violence. But the lack of trust in formal institution amongst women in West Point, seems to run deeper than just the police force. While being in West Point, I noticed an overall distrust of and disappointment with the national government. In both the focus group discussions I held at West Point Women75 and West Point Youth76 it became clear that most inhabitants of West Point have little faith in their government. West Point is a squatters community, meaning that the government never officially approved of people settling in West Point. At one point in history, people decided to settle at the area that is now West Point and many people since then have followed this example. The government never planned for the area of West Point to become inhabited, they simply condoned it. Being a member of a squatters community, means not owning any documented land titles. Legally speaking, people living in West Point have no right to be living there. Many people I spoke with in West Point feel that the government uses this legal status as an excuse to neglect people’s needs in West Point. In the focus group discussion at West Point Women, the women talked about their fear of West Point being reallocated by the government for new investment purposes.77 West Point is directly linked with the international harbour of Monrovia. Some women are afraid that the government wants to use the land of West Point to expand the harbour. If this would happen, they feel powerless to do something about it, since they own no official land titles for the land they inhabit. Sarah talked about this issue with me in our individual interview:78

Sarah: To get everybody to go, that will be hard. Niké: So you’re afraid that the government will clear West Point? Sarah: Yes, ‘cause they’re saying they want to make this place the port. The government wants to extend the port. It will not happen today, but it will happen.79

Aside from not being able to provide them with a descent level of security, the government is actually posing a threat to women’s lives in West Point. Although it does not fall within the scope of human security as it is defined for this research, that only imparts physical security, this is a situation

75 Focus group discussion at West Point Women, West Point 26 May 2014 76 Focus group discussion at West Point Youth, West Point, 9 June 2014 77 Focus group discussion at West Point Women, West Point, 26 May 2014 78 Sarah, interview, West Point Women, West Point, 12 June 2014 79 Sarah, interview, West Point Women, West Point, 12 June 2014 58 that women experience as a threat to their ability to live their daily lives. It is an issue that most women in West Point are generally concerned about. Amongst the young people of West Point, the negative feelings towards the government seem to be even stronger. They have the feeling that the government has abandoned them. Within the focus group discussion, almost all the participants mention that the government is ignoring the problems in West Point and that it does not bother to do something for West Point. 80 While I am sitting and having a soft drink with Alex, one of the guys running West Point Youth, he tells me how the government used to hire people to clean the beach in West Point from faeces. After a while, the government stopped paying people for the work they were doing. Alex used to do this work, but stopped doing it after a few months of no pay. The government still owes him six months of payment for his services.81 These negative emotions of people in West Point towards their government can have a negative effect on their trust in the ability of formal institutions to provide them with security. Why would you trust a government to provide you with security, if at the same time this exact government poses a threat to the your daily life?

5.2 The organisation West Point Women

The founding of an organisation West Point Women is an organisation that was founded and is still run by women living in West Point. Reconstructing the process of how the organisation came to be, was rather difficult. I have heard different stories about the establishment of West Point Women, especially the dates of certain events that were mentioned were different. What is clear, is that West Point Women was established somewhere around the end of the civil war in 2003.The reason for founding West Point Women was also pretty clear, and described similarly by different women, including some of the women who started West Point Women. The large scale violence against women in West Point, was the key reason for founding West Point Women. Right after the war, the security situation for women got worse, as described in more detail in previous chapters of this thesis. There was a lot of sexual gender based violence in West Point. Even during the day, women could get raped in the streets. It was not just violence against adult women that was increasing, young girls also got harassed and

80 Focus group discussion at West Point Youth, West Point, 9 June 2014 81 Alex, personal communication, West Point, 16 June 2014 59 raped. Hannah tells me about a particular case of sexual gender based violence that had a lot of influence on the founding of West Point Women:82

One time, what happened here: There was this one girl [young women, red.], she had three children and she had a boyfriend. She went to go out, to go with a friend. Then, that night, her friend left her and she went home. On her way, four men used [raped, red.] her. Four! They tore off all her clothes. They left her without any clothes, naked. She went home to her boyfriend. He took her inside and raped her again. Then he left her (…) There was no evidence to go to court.83 She could not do anything.84

Hannah knew the woman this happened to personally. From what she told me, I concluded that the woman who got raped was living in the same neighbourhood as she was.85 It was this type of sexual gender based violence that encouraged a few women from West Point to unite. Hannah refers to the women who she founded West Point Women with as ‘friends’. She knew these women before the founding of West Point Women as a movement. These women wanted to do something about the terrible security situation for women in West Point, since they could not count on the police for their security. In our interview, Alice tells me how she and other women in West Point were tired of feeling powerless and were sick of the violence.86 She also ended up being one of the founders of West Point Women.

It's because of the rape. They used to rape people and children. So we [women who founded West Point Women, red.] said to our self: we will not be sitting here and let this happen in our community. This is bad.87

If I would have to define West Point Women in these early stages, I would call it a kind of support group for female victims of sexual gender based violence. The women I interviewed about these early days in the existence of West Point Women, described how important it was to create a safe haven, where women could come together and share their experiences with sexual gender based violence without shame. It is exactly this shame that the women characterised as being problematic.

82 Hannah, interview, West Point Women, 26 May 2014 83 To get a conviction in a rape case in Liberia, extensive evidence of DNA and witnesses is necessary. 84 Hannah, interview, West Point Women, 26 May 2014 85 Hannah, interview, West Point Women, 26 May 2014 86 Alice, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 87 Alice, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 60

Naomi, a member of West Point Women since the early days, tells me how important it is for women to know that it is not ok for a man to beat or rape a women, even (or maybe especially) if this man is your husband.88 The women who founded West Point Women, or at least the ones that I spoke with, felt that women who became victims of gender based violence in West Point, had no safe place to go to for help. They wanted to create a space where women could share their experiences with gender based violence without shame. At the same time the women wanted to let the West Point community know that they thought this kind of violence against women was unacceptable and tried to find ways to decrease this violence. The next chapter will discuss in more detail which strategies West Point Women uses to achieve these goals.

Upstairs at the West Point Women office. Photo: Niké Buijze

From these early stages onwards, West Point Women started to grow into a real organisation. They started awareness raising campaigns about violence against women. More and more women joined the organisation. The precise process of how this happened, is again not clear. West Point Women does not keep any official records about this stage of the process. However, it is clear that their efforts did not go unnoticed. At one point, the initiative was picked up by the (I)NGO community. Funds started to come from different directions, i.e. the UN and the Swedish organisation Kvinna till Kvinna. When I spoke with Kvinna till Kvinna staff members about their motives to engage in a partnership with West Point Women, they told me that their interest was based upon the fact that

88 Naomi, interview, West Point Women, 26 May 2014 61

West Point Women was a local initiative and the fact that the initiative focussed on violence against women.89 The growing financial funds gave West Point Women the opportunity to create an office within West Point. The office is a two story, stone building located in the centre of West Point. Both floors consist of one room. On the first floor, you can find a table and some chairs, but it is mainly the place where the generator is situated.90 Upstairs is the ‘real’ office. It is where all the meetings of West Point Women are held and where the director of West Point Women receives guests from other organisations. I spend all my visits to West Point Women upstairs. The financial contributions from other organisations also made it possible for West Point Women to hire some paid staff. Before that, the organisation was fully running on the efforts of volunteers, which it still largely does up until today. Through our interviews, I found two important reasons why women volunteer with West Point Women. Firstly, I believe these women find the work of West Point Women important. Anna explains to me how she saw examples of how West Point Women has helped women in West Point, both in terms of security as with other activities.91 These other activities will be discussed in more detail in the chapter ‘Other initiatives of West Point Women’. Because Anna was impressed with the work of West Point Women and regarded it as being important, she wanted to participate in it.92 But beside a belief in the goals of West Point Women, I found that there is another important reason why women would want to volunteer with West Point Women. It is a place where they meet their friends. I have spoken to several women who kept referring to the women at the organisation as their friends. Sarah tells me that she comes to West Point Women every day, because they are the only friends she has in West Point.93

Security strategies of West Point Women Combating violence against women in West Point is still the main objective of West Point Women. Whenever I talked with women about the organisation and the work it does, combating violence against women would often be the first thing women started to talk about. Their main strategy to accomplish this goal, is through awareness raising campaigns. A lot of the members of West Point Women participate in these campaigns. The members go from door to door, mostly on Saturdays, to talk to both men and women about gender based violence and domestic violence. West Point gets

89 Three female Kvinna till Kvinna staff members, Kvinna till Kvinna office, Monrovia, 2 July 2014 90 A running generator makes a lot of noise and creates an unpleasant smell. Whenever the generator is running, the first floor cannot really be used for any other activities. 91 Anna, interview, West Point Women, 24 June 2014 92 Anna, interview, West Point Women, 24 June 2014 93 Sarah, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 62 split up into different areas and the members go and speak with the people of the area that they live in. Their main message to men, is to not be violent towards women and to respect the integrity of the female body. Sarah explained to me that she goes around West Point every Saturday to raise awareness on violence against women:94

Every Saturday we go around and tell people that your woman is not your slave. Men should not beat on their woman. (…)Your wife is not your beating drum. Your wife is your wife.95

I asked women at West Point Women what they are telling the men in their community during these awareness campaigns. It seems that they have two main messages towards men, which are interlinked. There is the rather direct message on ending violence against women; raping and beating women is bad and unacceptable, especially if she is your wife. Then there is the deeper underlying message that men need to have more respect for women. According to Wilma, men in West Point (or in the rest of Liberia, red.) do not see women as their equals. Women are seen by men as subordinate, and wives are the property of their husbands.96 While talking to several different women about the awareness campaign, it becomes clear to me that they are serious about the awareness raising and that it really is a coordinated effort. Women have been coordinating their awareness raising strategies with each other and have been trying to come up with the best way of delivering the message. It became very clear by the fact that different women use the same catch phrases, such as ‘Your wife is your partner, not your slave’ and ‘Men need to respect women’. They use rhetoric language, just like any other campaign would. The awareness raising does not stop with the men. West Point Women also targets women. For a long time, gender based violence has been a taboo topic. Women who become a victim of gender based violence often choose to keep it a secret because they are ashamed of what happened to her. In my interview with Wilma, I tried to ask her why this shame exists, and what kind of negative reaction rape victims are confronted with.97 She tells me how women often get blamed for their own rape. Almost everyone acknowledges that children can be raped. But when you are an adult woman, you are old enough to have sex. And if you are old enough to have sex, you cannot get raped. If you claim that you were raped as an adult women, you must have been asking for it. You must have done something to provoke the man to have sex with you. This is especially true for women who get raped by their husbands or their boyfriend, nobody sees that as rape. Because of

94 Sarah, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 95 Sarah, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 96 Wilma, interview, West Point Women, 3 June 2014 97 Wilma, interview, West Point Women, 3 June 2014 63 this culture of blaming the victim, women who are rape victims get stigmatised. They are the subject of gossip in the entire neighbourhood. Some women find it very hard to find a boyfriend or a husband after their rape, or are left by the man they were already with.98 A young girl named Leah, stated that girls often get blamed for being raped because of the way they dress. Dressing up to sexy would provoke men to rape you, making it your own fault. 99 I was not surprised to hear this culture of ‘blaming the victim’, since it is one that exists in many different parts of the world. The aspect for shame makes clear why the women at West Point Women find it important to also target women in their awareness raising campaigns. West Point Women tries to convince women of the fact that they should not be ashamed about being a victim of gender based violence. Women should come forward about the abuse, instead of keeping it a secret. In our interview together, Hannah expresses her concerns about women keeping rape to themselves. She feels that it is very important that women seek medical treatment (as well as psychological support) when they are raped:100

Hannah: It is a problem. Women do not want to talk about it [rape, red.], because they feel ashamed. They will keep it to themselves. But if you keep it to yourself, it will damage you. Niké: So you encourage women to report it [to West Point Women, red.]? Hannah: Yes! Because as I said, if you keep it a secret it will do damage to yourself. If you go to the hospital, you can take the drugs. Everything is there for you, you see? But if you keep it to yourself, it will hurt you.

West Point Women tries to provide a safe environment for women to go to when they get raped. They support women to talk about the abuse, to be able to share the traumatic experience. They take her to the hospital and help her to press charges at the police station in case they want to take that step. At first, I was surprised that West Point Women would take a victim of sexual gender based violence to the police, since so many of them had stated earlier that the police was a rather useless institution. Upon my question if it is useful to go to the police, if they are really of any help to the victim, the women confirmed that the police will do something if they go to the police together. Sometimes they will even arrest the man who did it and hold him in a cell. How long his arrest would then take, never really became clear to me. I have never heard a woman mention a time-frame of more than a few days. According to Alice, the police is more active on arresting perpetrators of

98 Wilma, interview, West Point Women, 3 June 2014 99 Leah, interview, West Point Women, 24 June 2014 100 Hannah, interview, West Point Women, 26 May 2014 64 domestic violence then public violence, because of the simple fact that perpetrators of domestic violence are known to the victim and those committing public violence are not. Alice states that the police will not actively investigate a case of public violence.101 West Point Women tries to make gender based violence a topic appropriate for conversation. Only when gender based violence is no longer seen as a taboo topic, women can really be helped. As Tamara put it quite strikingly: ‘It doesn't help to pity the woman. You need to talk to her to help her.’102 I must admit that I was certainly surprised about the openness with which women talked about a sensitive topic like gender based violence with a stranger like me. Certainly, they were reluctant to talk about personal experiences with gender based violence, just like I felt uncomfortable asking direct questions about their personal experiences. I always felt that it was inappropriate. However, they were very open about the problems that exist around gender based violence within West Point and what their feelings were about those problems. In that sense, I got the impression that West Point Women has succeeded, at least to some extent, in making gender based violence less of a taboo to talk about. The goal of West Point women seems to be awareness raising and bring about attitude and behaviour changes within the relationship between men and women in the West Point community, rather than law enforcement. It is more about creating a harmonious environment where the relationship between men and women is peaceful, than about getting retaliation towards perpetrators of gender based violence. I have talked to many women about the lack of respect they feel men in West Point have towards women. Gaining respect from men seems key, and West Point Women has chosen awareness raising campaigns as the most appropriate tool to achieve that. Several women have used the word ‘dialogue’ to characterise the strategy of West Point Women. They feel that it is important to keep the dialogue between men in women in West Point going. This importance of the open dialogue between men and women shows from the fact that West Point Women provides some form of couples counselling. Couples who have problems with the interactions between one another, can come to West Point Women to talk about their issues and to try to come to an understanding. Especially for young couples, this seems to be an agreeable service. Gail, a young women of 29, tells me that she and her boyfriend come to West Point Women when they have unresolved issues. Although she loves him very much, they have problems from time to time. At West Point Women, they have someone to talk to who can advise them on how to handle their problems. 103 Anna admits that some men are reluctant to come to West Point Women with their wives for counselling, because they believe that West Point Women will automatically side with

101 Alice, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 102 Tamara, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 103 Gail, interview, West Point Women, 24 June 2014 65 the woman on every issue. She says that West Point Women tries very hard to spread the message that they are there to make the couple happy, not just the woman.104

West Point Women as a security community Nowadays, West Point Women could be labelled as an local NGO, with funding coming from the (I)NGO community in Monrovia. It is also an excellent example of a security community. Their common identity seems to revolve around two things: being a woman and living in West Point. Wilma says in our interview that she would like to leave West Point, but that one of the things (besides the lack of financial means) holding her back to do so, is her work with West Point Women.105 Apparently, living in West Point is a key element on which this security community is build, since living outside of West Point and working for West Point Women is mutually exclusive. Women I spoke with at West Point Women constantly spoke about ‘we the women’. Their solidarity seems the revolve around their gender. ‘Women’ are constantly associated with ‘we’. The word ‘men’ is in its turn constantly associated with ‘them’. Anna’s story about men being reluctant to come to West Point Women, because they believe that West Point Women will automatically side with the woman when there is an argument between spouses, illustrates how to outsiders of the security community, gender is a large part of the identity of the security community.106 This shared identity is, in the case of West Point Women, both a source of insecurity as it is of security, something that is commonly seen with security communities (Faber & Dekker, 2014). Their gender makes them vulnerable to gender based violence, but being female also made them feel safe amongst each other. West Point Women is a classic example of a bottom up initiative. Right after the civil war ended, women in West Point were faced with a situation in which their physical security was seriously marginalised. Outside the scope of formal security providing institutions, women decided to find a way to organise their own security. The formal security providing institutions, like the police, were (and still are) not functioning to women’s satisfaction, which created the need for a different source of security. West Point Women has been established by the same people who faced the security threat. It has always been a locally owned initiative. The example of West Point Women shows how women in a post-conflict situation have agency over their own security situation.

104 Anna, interview, West Point Women, 24 June 2014 105 Wilma, interview, West Point Women, 3 June 2014 106 Anna, interview, West Point Women, 24 June 2014 66

Other initiatives of West Point Women West Point Women has, over the years, become much more than a safe haven for victims of gender based violence. They arrange all sorts of meetings and workshops. During the late afternoons, adult women come in to learn how to read and write. Since 62,8% of the female population in Liberia is illiterate, there is a real demand for adult literacy classes (UNICEF, 2014). There are workshops where women can learn how to weave fabrics or learn ty-and-dye techniques. These are all skills women can use in their daily lives. There are educational meetings on hygiene and family planning. Women are informed on how to get safe drinking water or how to use contraceptives. Regular meetings are held to provide young girls with sexual education, informing them about teenage pregnancies and STI’s. This wide range of activities that West Point Women provides for women in West Point, shows that there are issues in the lives of these women that are important, besides physical security. These issues have not been the focus of this research and I have deliberately chosen not to label these issues as ‘human security’ for varies reasons that are more elaborately discussed in the theoretical framework of this thesis. However, this does not mean that I prioritise physical security over other problems and struggles women experience in daily life. I acknowledge that these problems can be equally important to women as physical security. By offering a wide range of activities for women, West Point Women reaches a lot of women in the West Point community. This also means that they can get a wide range of messages across. For example, women might come to West Point Women in the first place to learn how to read. Their first interest might not be to learn about hygiene or domestic violence, but by physically coming to West Point Women they can get exposed to information that they were not actively looking for. According to most women I talked to, almost all women in West Point know about West Point Women and what they do. Aside from their pro-active attitude, their convenient location across from the medical clinic probably helps with generating awareness about their existence. When I talked to girls at West Point Youth, outside of the West Point Women setting, they knew about West Point Women and some girls confirmed that they have visited the office.107 The fact that West Point Women can be labelled as a security community, does not mean that they only deal with security issues. Security communities can be more complex than that and can serve a wide range of purposes, not just the provision of physical security. West Point Women means more to women living in West Point than just the provision of security and it certainly does not mean the same for all women coming there. West Point Women is also a place where women can increase their skills, can come to enjoy themselves and establish friendships. As Rachel puts it:

107 Focus group discussion at West Point Youth, West Point, 9 June 2014 67

‘West Point Women can empower you to do good things for yourself.’108 It also shows the dynamic character of a security community. A security community is constructed by its members, in this case the women living in West Point. What started out as a group of women trying to organise physical security for women in West Point, has grown into an organisation with many different purposes and which is offering a wide range of activities. The important characteristics of a security community like West Point Women are not static, but are constantly renewed by its members.

5.3 Neighbours A major source of security mentioned by almost all the women I have spoken to in West Point are their direct neighbours. Especially during the night, neighbours provide security for women. If someone tries to break into your house in the middle of the night, to steal your belongings or to hurt you or your family, you start screaming for help. Your neighbours will then come to see what is happening. In return you would do the same for your neighbours. The same accounts for domestic violence. Whenever you need immediate assistance, you call on your neighbours for help. Naomi explains to me that she would check on her neighbours and vice versa:109

When something happens, I go there [to her neighbours house red.]. Or the neighbours come here to bring peace or to find out what really happened. (…) You do that for everybody. If something would happen over there, I will reach out to find out what happened.110

According to Naomi, it does not matter if your neighbours are male or female. They will come to your assistance if you call for help. Alice tells me a similar story:111

If nobody else is around, my neighbours would come to check on me. I would scream and my neighbours would come saying: ‘Alice, you're screaming! You're yelling. What's going on?’112

108 Rachel, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 109 Naomi, interview, West Point Women, 26 May 2014 110 Naomi, interview, West Point Women, 26 May 2014 111 Alice, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 112 Alice, interview, West Point Women, 12 June 2014 68

Without a police force able to assist in emergency situations, neighbours are the source of direct emergency response for women in West Point. Obviously, it has a lot to do with the physical presence of neighbours. Although women find a lot of comfort with an organisation like West Point Women, and some members of West Point Women are willing to reach out to women who need their help, this gets complicated during the night time. The mobility of women is limited when it is dark, since it is simply not safe for women to be out on their own during the night. Wilma is one of the women who would go to a woman’s house to assist women who become victims of gender based violence or domestic violence. She states that she would not go to a women’s house to help her when she gets called during the night. The next day, it would be the first thing she does, but during the night she would not go outside. Her own safety comes first.113 A close relationship with the neighbours is important for women to guarantee their human security. Although West Point has a population of 75.000 people, most women do not feel alone in West Point. They maintain close relationships with their neighbours. They are willing to invest in the relationship. There is no one, clear, distinctive way in which women try to maintain a good relationship with their neighbours. It is a set of complicated social behaviours, that would deserve a thesis research of its own. Important for this study is to note that women prioritise a good relationship with their neighbours and that they link this relationship directly to security. In terms of security, women do not only expect the benefits of the relationship, i.e. that neighbours check up on them in case of an emergency. They will also return this service if their neighbours are in need of assistance. It is a case of positive reciprocal behaviour. Hannah even puts the importance and tightness of her relationship with her neighbours in biblical term: ‘I love my neighbours like I love myself. My neighbours are my family.’114 Having a close relationship with the direct neighbours seems a priority for all women in West Point. However, it seems slightly more important to single women. Women headed households often do not have an adult male present in their house during the night.115 It makes them more vulnerable to violence from strangers. Burglars and assaulters are more likely to attack single women than women whose husband or boyfriend is present. When I ask Rose, a married women herself, if having her husband present during the night makes her feel more safe, she answers conformingly:116

113 Wilma, interview, West Point Women, 3 June 2014 114 Hannah, interview, West Point Women, 3 June 2014 115 The exception being those women who have an adult son living with them. 116 Anna, interview, West Point Women, 24 June 2014 69

Say I am a man and you are a lady and you're at home and you don't have a husband. I can creep up to you in the night time. But if you have someone inside the house I will not be able to do it.117

Direct neighbours can be seen as a security community vital for the human security of women in West Point. The common identity on which this security community is based, could be considered as quite basic, namely living in the same block of houses. This identity is lost quite easily when a woman moves to another area. She then ceases to be a part of that specific security community. It is likely however, that she would become a member of a new security community of neighbours. The security community of neighbours is relatively small. The physical presence of the neighbours, is an important feature of this security community. Members cannot be out of hearing reach from one another.

5.4 The absence of other seucrity communities Within this research, I have been able to identify two security communities that are important for women’s human security in West Point. One is the organisation West Point Women, the other is the direct neighbours. It was to my surprise that I was not able to identify more security communities that contribute to women’s human security in West Point, since I had anticipated to find more. One security community that I had expected to find, was one that resolves around the church. Around 85% of the Liberian society is a practicing Christian. In my experience, the church seems omnipresent in Liberian society. On every street corner you can find a different church building and they are, without exception, the best looking buildings in the neighbourhood. Many women I interviewed were practising Christians who go to church. Raised Christian myself, I could recognise that some women even spoke in Biblical phrases like ‘love your neighbours like you love yourself’ and ‘living in sin’ to describe a man and a woman living together without being married. However, none of the women I interviewed mentioned the church in relation to organising security. Even when I asked them about it directly and in broad terms, they did not confirm that the church had anything to do with their human security. I formulated questions as broad as ‘would people from your church be able to help you if something bad happens to you?’, where ‘something bad’ could mean a number of things and not just experiencing physical violence. However, I got no confirmation in this area. The fact that I was not able to identify other security communities, does not necessarily mean they do not exist. It could be that I did not ask the right questions to get to other security

117 Anna, interview, West Point Women, 24 June 2014 70 communities or that there are other particular groups of women living in West Point that I was not able to speak to, who use very different security communities for enhancing their human security. For example, I have not spoken to women in West Point who engage in prostitution, a particular group of women living in West Point who are likely to have a very different social network than the women I have talked to at West Point Women. They might be part of very different security communities than the ones I have been able to identify. Finally, there have been hints of the existence of other security communities that are important for women’s human security in West Point, but where I have not been able to gather more information on than just a few sentences. Leah, who is nineteen years old, told me that she would go to her parents for help if something bad would happen to her.118 Also Angel, who I met at West Point Youth, tells me that she relies on her parents for protection from harm.119 These remarks made me wonder if parents, or the larger family, could be an important security community for adolescent girls in West Point. This security community would be based on the shared identity of kinship. However, I have not spoken to enough young women and girls, to get in-depth information on this possible security community. But this does not mean that the security community does not exist. The point of this chapter is to highlight that the two security communities I have been able to identify through this research are important for women in organising their own human security, but that they do not necessarily provide a complete picture of the ways in which women in West Point organise security.

118 Leah, interview, West Point Women, 24 June 2014 119 Angel, short informal interview, West Point Youth, 9 June 2014 71

Chapter 6

Conclusion

Conclusions and discussion Women in West Point face serious insecurities in their daily lives, both in the domestic sphere as in the public domain. Gender based violence and domestic violence is a prominent problem within the West Point community and the issue is surrounded by shame. Many girls engage in under aged sex and teenage pregnancies have been framed as a big problem within West Point, due to the severe social consequences such a pregnancy has on the girl. Especially during the night, women find West Point an unsafe place and many of them prefer to not go outside during the night time. All women living in West Point expressed feelings of insecurity about living in West Point, the level of insecurity varies between women. Aside from physical insecurities, women in West Point also face other problems that affect their daily lives, that they felt were important to highlight. Although, these insecurities were not the focus of this research and were not incorporated within the definition of ‘human security’ as used for this study, it is important to note that these problems are still real to the women living in West Point and not necessarily inferior to the issue of physical security. These different problems would deserve to be studied in further detail. However, I would suggest not to incorporate them within the security debate, but within a different academic debate such as the human development debate. In the case of West Point, official security authorities have not been able to provide a satisfying solution to women’s security dilemmas. Instead of waiting on others to provide security for them, women decided that their security situation was unacceptable and that they needed to organise their own security. Women have used their social relations to create a safety network of different security communities, of which the organisation of West Point Women and the direct neighbours were the ones that could be identified within this study. Because this research had to deal with very strict time constraints, it would be interesting to see if a longer and broader study could identify more security communities and strategies used by women to organise their own human security. West Point Women is a security community that not only deals with the direct security dilemma of women and provides immediate solutions to the insecurities that women experience, but that tries to establish permanent changes in the gender relationships within the West Point community. They put the emphasis on awareness raising and a more harmonious relationship between men and women in West Point, rather than on law enforcement towards perpetrators of sexual gender based violence. This strategy differs a lot from top-down approaches of enhancing security, since those are mainly about law enforcement. The institutionalised view within security thinking, causes to think about enhancing security within the patterns of the formal security providing institutions, like the military, police force and justice system. All these institutions are

73 focussed on eliminating security threats by the use of force. Although this is a vital strategy for providing security, this research has shown that it is certainly not the only one. It would be very interesting to see what happens if a top-down approach to delivering security is combined with a bottom approach and how they could complement each other. Especially for policy makers, who are implementing a top-down approach of providing security for civilians, it could be interesting to see how human security from below is organised and what complementary strategies are used by the people who are faced with the insecurities that need to be minimalized. The point of this research is not to show how human security from below can eliminate a top-down approach towards security. It is about showing how human security from below can complement the now dominant top-down approach within security thinking. A combination of a top-down approach and the concept of human security from below, will make for a holistic view on organising security. Aside from providing security for women living in West Point, West Point Women is involved in many other activities, such as literacy classes for women or distributing information on hygiene and clean drinking water. This shows how a security community is a complex entity, with more characteristics than providing security. It is the members who define what these characteristics of the security community are, and they define them over and over again. Security communities are not static, but constantly changing. This research has focussed on the security providing element of security communities, but it would be very interesting to see research that goes deeper into the social complexity of security communities. What exactly makes for the feeling of being part of a community and how is that community constantly redefined? Looking at the multi-layered character of a security community, could tell us more about how it is able to effectively provide security to its members. By focussing on security communities, this research has been able to identify how women use their social relations to enhance their human security. However, this view on security as a ‘joined effort’ might have caused me to miss other, more individualised, strategies on enhancing human security. Security communities are a very interesting concept in which to look at social processes and for constructing a broader social narrative of security, which was the goal of this research. If the goal would be to map in detail how a woman organises human security on an individual level, only using the concept of security communities would be too limiting. The case study of West Point shows how women can have agency over their own security situation. Women are most aware of female security needs, since they are different than those of men. Women are also capable of creating clear security strategies for improving and organising the human security of women. These strategies are not necessarily the same as those imposed by men. This research has tried to break through the dominant perspective of women in conflict and post- conflict settings as victims. Although women are more vulnerable to certain security threats,

74 particularly gender based violence, it would not do justice to women in conflict and post-conflict settings to label them exclusively as victims. In West Point, women were able to break with patriarchal patterns in society to some extend due to the effects of civil war, but it is not always easy to remain this newly established power of women within the post-conflict setting. In order for women to be able to use the full potentials of their agency on their own human security, a feminist perspective within security thinking is crucial. Only by acknowledging the existence of patriarchal systems and actively involving women within the peace-building and reconstruction process, are women able to actively contribute to the enhancement of human security. Within classic security thinking, the state is both the referent object of security and the main provider of security (Bellamy, 2010). The concept of human security identifies the individual human being as the legitimate receiver of security. However it still sees the state or, if the state fails, the international community as the providers of security. Human security from below looks at the individual human being as being both the referent object of security as the provider of this security (Faber & Dekker, 2014). It is a concept that can change the face of the security debate, that is now dominated by institutionalised thinking. This is exactly why I have chosen to frame this research within the security debate (and therefore chosen for a narrow definition of security), and not the human development or human rights debate. The goal of introducing the concept of human security, was to enhance the security of the individual human being as opposed to the sovereign nation state. If we truly want to achieve this goal, we must also critically look at the way in which we organise security. This research has shown that the individuals who experience the insecurities have ideas about how to enhance their security, ideas that might be very different than the ones that exist within top-down security thinking. Acknowledging this fact within the broader security debate will bring the goal of enhancing human security a step closer. What this research argues, is that the concept of human security from below needs to be combined with a feminist perspective in order to truly be of value to understanding and improving women’s security in the post-conflict setting. Even if security is locally owned, as is the case with human security from below, women are still faced with patriarchal systems that exist in most societies. The male perspective on security remains the dominant perspective of security (Puechguirbal, 2012). As long as this difference in power between men and women is not acknowledged within security thinking, women’s security will continue to be marginalised. This study shows that the combination of the concept of human security from below with a feminist perspective could be a very interesting and promising way of looking at women’s human security and enhancing this security.

List of interviews and focus groups

West Point Women All interviews were recorded in the West Point Women office. All the used names are pseudonyms. All respondents are female.

 Naomi 26 May 2014  Hannah 26 May 2014  Wilma 3 June 2014  Miriam age 59, 12 June 2014  Rachel age 50, 12 June 2014  Tamara age 46, 12 June 2014  Alice age 50, 12 June 2014  Sarah age 50, 12 June 2014  Anna age 44, 24 June 2014  Bettina age 53, 24 June 2014  Amber age 50, 24 June 2014  Gail age 29, 24 June 2014  Leah age 19, 24 June 2014  Eva age 56, 24 June 2014

Expert Interviews  Aisha Kolubah (f) Program officer Women’s Rights program, ActionAid Liberia 22 May 2014  Elizabeth Dato Gbah (f) Coördinator Women’s Rights program, ActionAid Liberia 6 June 2014  Korto Williams (f) Country Director, ActionAid Liberia 7 July 2014

Focus groups  West Point Women office 12 participants (f) 26 May 2014  West Point Youth centre Around 30 participants, participants were coming and going during focus group (m/f) 9 June 2014  Kvinna Till Kvinna office Christine Carol Dowie (f), Anne-Marie Lukowski (f), Musu Dikenah (f) Kvinna Till Kvinna office 2 July 2014

List of abbrivations

AFL Armed Forces of Liberia DDR Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration IDP Internally Displaced Persons INPFL Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia LEC Liberia Electricity Corporation LURD Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy MODEL Movement for Democracy in Liberia NPFL National Patriotic Front of Liberia R2P Responsibility to Protect ULIMO United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy UN United Nations UNDP United Nations Development Program

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