Essays

Author: Jason Sizya Sipulwa (Nairobi, Kenya)

“Some people ask: “Why the word feminist? Why not just say you are a believer in human rights or something like that?” Because that would be dishonest. Feminism is, of course, part of human rights in general—but to choose to use the vague expression of human rights is to deny the specific and particular problem of gender. It would be a way of pretending that it was not women who have, for centuries, been excluded. It would be a way of denying that the problem of gender targets women.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, We Should All Be Feminists¹

What is feminism? Why is feminism imperative? The answers to these questions elicit controversies in the contemporary world.

Author: Ana Gvozdić (Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina)

None of us who started this course had a simplistic understanding of Bosnia and Herzegovina that I encounter far too often: the idea that we are a country with irreconcilable ethnic groups that have been fighting for longer than any of us can remember. Not only that the course immediately distinguished its approach from such superficial understandings, but it offered unique perspectives for interpreting the last 25 years in Bosnia and Herzegovina grounded in local-first, feminist, and workers’ acts of resistance to the dominant ethno-nationalist politics in the country. Having engaged with these different grassroots voices, I share the new concepts and ways of thinking that I acquired as part of the course and reflect on how they shaped my understanding of Bosnia and Herzegovina as its citizen, but also as a student of Peace and Conflict Studies with an emphasis on the Southeast European region and as future practitioner.

Course participant: Sabine Piccard (Pristina, Kosovo)

Masculinities and Gender-Based Violence in Conflict and Post-Conflict Settings: Addressing the Gap in Violence Against Men

1. Introduction

The concept of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) generally refers to “violence that occurs as a result of the normative role expectations associated with each gender, along with the unequal power relationships between the two genders, within the context of a specific society” 1. Although the term is subject to different interpretations, GBV targets women and girls, but also men and boys, and includes different types of sexual violence. 2 As Bloom underlines, men and boys can experience violence and suffer from discrimination if “they are deviating from expectations around masculinity” 3. This leads us to the concept of masculinity, developed and theorized by Connell as “a place in gender relations, the practices through which men and women engage that place in gender, and the effects of these practices in bodily experience, personality and cultures” 4.