Gender, War and Nationalism
Location: AgC234.1 (upper floor).
Programme:
Friday (October 9)
15.00–15.10 Opening (Ilona Kemppainen and Kirsi Mäki, University of Helsinki)
15.10–15.30 (15.30–15.40 questions and discussion) Miia Ijäs (University of Tampere, Finland): Citizenship in the early modern Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
15.40–16.00 (16.00–16.10 questions and discussion) Seija-Leena Nevala-Nurmi (University of Tampere, Finland): “Together as a couple we shall defend the nation” - The gender order of the Lotta Svärd and Civil Guard organisations
16.10–16.30 (16.30–16:40 questions and discussion) Tamara Herath (The London School of Economics and Political Science, UK): Gender equality in suicide bombing
16.40–17.00 (17.00-17.10 questions and discussion) Abdilahi Abdi Mohamud (LNGO-OCCDO, Nairobi, Kenya): Gender and peace-building (Working title)
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Approved participants in alphaphetical order
Abdilahi Abdi Mohamud: Gender and peace-building
I have been working with local NGO called OCCDO for six years which operates in Somalia and I am in charge of Orientation Department Officer. In addition to this my daily work basis include convening and facilitating seminars, handling awareness programs, developing peace and harmony as well as advocating gender equalities. As far as this conference is typically associating on my field of work, I warmly would like to attend this conference and write this abstract to the respectful organizers. Generally, gender is a set of perceived behavioral norms associated especially with male and female in a given social group. Traditionally, only masculine and feminine gender roles existed; however, many different acceptable male and female have emerged. Through society for decades, the problem of inequality for women to participate the formal processes, including peace negotiations, constitution-creation, elections, reconstruction and employment being the most pressing issues today in the world. While each conflict is context-specific. A number of common aspects can nevertheless be identified that represent challenges to the promotion of gender equality and women. Participation in peace processes. The prevailing focus on formal peace processes is one such challenge. While women and women’s groups undertake many informal peace initiatives and have organized to formulate their priorities for peace, these efforts are not well publicized and are rarely integrated or reflected in formal processes. Although there is increasing understanding of the important contribution of women to peace-building, they continue to be largely absent from formal processes preparatory to, and in, peace negotiations. In conclusion, according my perspective, we must come up concrete promotion on women role in our societies and help them to initiate or sustain their work on peace and security issues. Inconsequently, gender inequality will be a significant treat to global peace and security.
Herath, Tamara: Gender equality in suicide bombing
The current heightened political violence in Sri Lanka forms the backdrop for this paper which analyses the role women play as suicide bombers. The most notorious of suicide bombing that involved a woman as a perpetrator was the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Ghandi. It was reported that the woman combatant from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of Sri Lanka was a victim of rape and carried out this act in order to avenge her loss of purity. Militarised sexual violence in conflict zones where the perpetrator is from a different ethno-racial group to that of the victim has made rape a politicised issue. In this paper I discuss the role of the female suicide bomber by analysing the rationale that has become part of their acceptance in the role. Through research conducted amongst women combatants of the LTTE, I explore the gendered dimensions influencing women combatants’ social roles, and the possible motivational forces behind their participation in suicide bombings, including the impact of loss of sexual purity. In this paper I put forward the argument that suicide bombing by LTTE combatant women has to be understood as part of a rational strategy on the part of LTTE, and in the case of the individual woman suicide bomber, as an example of ‘obligatory altruistic suicide’ which also contributes to nurturing qualities of women. I also suggest that suicide bombing contributes to the development of gender equality within the LTTE. In developing this argument, I start with an overview of women’s suicide bombing in the LTTE following through to the creation of the elite Black Tiger suicide squad that recruits both men and women, and propose that this is seen as a further example of gender equality within the movement.
Ijäs, Miia: Citizenship in the early modern Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Who is a citizen? In an early modern state the citizens were a privileged group, who in opposition to inhabitants had rights to take part in decision-making. Citizens were without exception men. However, this doesn’t always mean that the women would be completely powerless, even though their agency was unofficial and often hidden. Therefore, what is the connection of gender and citizenship? My research focuses on the question why citizens were identified as men. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth offers an interesting case-study on history of citizenship. The Commonwealth was known as “noble’s democracy” in which the nobility (szlachta in Polish) had their rights through parliamentary system to participate in decision-making and to elect their king. Thus the noble men held the Commonwealth’s citizenship. Gender had an essential role in early modern citizenship, but it was linked to other requirements such as service in army and land-owning. My research examines the idea of citizenship by studying szlachta’s ideas on individualism, religion, politics and state system. As documentary sources I use writings and speeches by political commentators and members of the Sejm in the 16th century Poland-Lithuania.
Nevala-Nurmi, Seija-Leena: “Together as a couple we shall defend the nation” – The gender order of the Lotta Svärd and the Civil Guard organisations
The military which carries the primary responsibility for the armed defence has been considered as purely masculine area whereas women have been understood to be the weaker sex/gender in need of protection. The most important duties for women in defending the nation have been the maternal ones like giving birth and raising children. In the post-civil war era (after 1918) the winners of the war established the voluntary defence organisations. They had the ambition to build a new kind of Finnish nation. The voluntary defence movement was formed by two separate organisations: the male Civil Guard and female Lotta Svärd. The idea of the Civil Guards was to “promote the will to defend the nation and protect the law and order “.Instead the task of Lotta Svärd was “to second the Civil Guards to protect home and fatherland.” The idea of these two organisations was to defend the nation as a couple. Men and women were educated differently to become proper ‘defenders’ and they were given different tasks. However, the idea was that they would complete each other. My paper examines how this gender order of the defence movement was created, maintained and developed during the period in which the threat of war developed into the real war.
Last update 5.10.2009.
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