Preliminary Programme

This paper examines mass rape in the wars of the Nineties of the Twentieth century in Bosnia1 and Rwanda – conflicts which are usually known as ‘ethnic wars’. The aim of this work is firstly to show how the ethnic definition is not adequate and hides a deeper construction of nationalism. This construction is implemented e.g. by using the female body as symbol of the nation, and by the focusing of violence in Bosnia and Rwanda (which is not only sexual and physical but also psychological and symbolic) on women's body with the aim of affecting the future of the enemy group, and thereby interconnecting nationalism, gender, gendered body and sexuality. Secondly, it will be described that in the aftermath of these wars recovery programmes are not sufficient and leave out many women, while rape survivors in the programmes are marginalized and stigmatized. Finally the chapter will analyze how women try to find their answer to the problems in the post-war period through their own organizations and associations.
This approach questions the post-feminist focus on women's inferiority and on the psychology of rape victims, and instead agrees with a feminist approach on gender and sexual violence which calls in question the excessive victimization of raped women. Here the focus is still the victim, but the term “victim” itself should be rethought in relation to women's lived experience in the rape situation and afterwards, taking into account the political, social and psychological aspects of rape, survival and recovery. Women themselves may describe their strategy to react and their experience with other words and categories than “victim” and “survivor”. My study follows this interpretation and use the intersection of gender, sexuality, ethnicity/nationalism and identity/memory to scrutinize the processes developed by those women who survived mass rape and rethought their engagement in post-war societies as citizens more than as victims. (Show less)

The nineteenth century witnessed the emergence of the social reform movement in India. However, the so-called egalitarian movement initiated largely by the western-educated men aimed at change within the patriarchal structure and not structural change. The old indigenous patriarchal traditions were replaced by the creation of a new patriarchy. ‘Modern Indian woman’ was constructed through a peculiar amalgam of the Brahmanical ideal of the chaste and self-sacrificing ‘pativrata’ woman and the Victorian model of the housewife and companionate spouse.
Vibhavari Shirurkar’s (1905-2001) writings proved seminal both as a social force and a social product in creating consciousness about the women’s issues in India and giving a new identity to Indian womanhood. Vibhavari is one of the significant feminist writers in the galaxy of the Indian literature. Feminine constructions in her writings appear all the more subversive when compared with the formation of the nationalist iconography in fiction and the depiction of Indian womanhood done in stereotypical fashion therein. She unearthed the nascent friction and power-struggle between the workingwoman and the patriarchal family. She brought out scathing criticism of the relationship within the family, which was then considered as a very sacrosanct kind of an institution based on love, sacrifice and emotions. Woman in Vibhavari’s literature emerged as an independent social entity capable of shaping her own life. Her literature brought out a totally new world of the aspirations, feelings, thinking and experiences of the new woman- quite unknown to the readers. It deciphered the yearnings of young girls, touching upon their sexuality and their journey towards inchoate selfhood. Her writings discussed significant issues pertaining to the struggle of the women for higher education, jobs, economic independence, friendship with men, selection of the life partner, sexual freedom etc. Vibhavari’s Writings showed many concerns of the second wave feminist thought especially the critique of the patriarchal family and marriage system, sexual division of labour, women’s economic independence and experience of women as the other.
It would not be inappropriate to cast the limitations of Vibhavari’s feminist thought. Vibhavari’s women-characters felt homes as cages. Nonetheless they were not fully liberated from the indoctrination of the value-system created by the patriarchy. Though they showed dissatisfaction for the stereotypical constructions of femininity and masculinity, they didn’t expect their men to take care and share the responsibility of the household/ domestic activities.
With few exceptions the primary focus of Vibhavari’s literature was the middle class woman. It is noteworthy that it showed both the sensitivity and understanding of the fact that there existed diversity of patriarchies in terms of castes in India with varying degree of exploitation of women therein.
The lineage of the feminist writings in Maharashtra/ India can be traced back to Vibhavari who made the foundation upon which much more crucial issues were taken up by the radical feminist writers of the next generation. such as Priya Tendulkar, Gauri Deshpande and Meghana Pethe. (Show less)