Defying Victimhood: Women and Post-conflict Peacebuilding ed. by Albrecht Schnabel, Anara Tabyshalieva (review)

Defying Victimhood is an important contribution to the study of modern war-torn societies, concentrating on the effect of conflict on women. The main theme of the book is to look beyond women solely as victims of war while at the same time recognizing that they continue to bear the brunt of its violence, both during active conflict and afterward, as peace building is undertaken. Some, but not all, of the cases provide examples of women actively engaged in efforts to build a lasting peace, whether at the grassroots level in their own communities, on a larger scale in their national governments, or internationally in the global justice community.

Defying Victimhood both presents and evaluates a number of case studies of women in postconflict societies spanning roughly the decade between 1995 and 2005. These case studies review the effects of conflict involving women in the Balkans, Burundi, Cambodia, Macedonia, Palestine, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tajikistan, and Timor-Leste. They focus not only on the violent effects of war as they relate to women but also on how women proactively engage in ending conflict and participate in rebuilding a stable peace in their communities. The studies are drawn from conflict areas of the world usually described as postcolonial, developing, early industrial, or some combination of these. Often these conflict areas endure years of warfare, and adversaries can come from a variety of places. Sometimes the enemy is an outside invader, while other times it can be a member of other communities or rogue elements within society. Attacks can come from one’s comrades in war or hostile elements within one’s own government.

Not limited to case studies of individual women, the volume has chapters on women as security personnel and also covers the effects of United Nations peacekeepers on women under postconflict conditions. A major theme throughout many of the chapters is the emphasis on cross-cultural analysis as exemplified in chapter 9, “Gender and Transitional Justice: Experiences from South Africa, Rwanda and Sierra Leone,” by Lynn S. Graybill, and chapter 2, “Frameworks for Understanding Women as Victims and Peacebuilders,” by Lisa Schirch.

These conflict or postconflict societies are recognized by the authors as sharing a long legacy of patriarchal control, which they acknowledge is also mirrored within the world community at large. The authors note that women throughout the world have suffered from a shared legacy of societal subordination and diminished political power, a situation that was certainly in place before their societies were torn apart by war. How this reduced level of female power shifts or expands during and after conflict ceases is therefore an important theme of the book.

As the title, Defying Victimhood, indicates, the primary objective of the book is to move beyond the view of women as victims in a world where men hold the power and make the rules. This book is a testimonial to the fact that seemingly powerless women—especially during life’s worst circumstances—are integrally involved in keeping themselves, their children, and loved ones not just alive but able to work toward a better future. Ignored or hindered by patriarchal norms, they not only actively struggle to make their communities safer for their children but they also enter the larger political fray to moderate the aggressive global environment created when men dominate society. This determination by women to have a place at the table when their societies are striving to create a stable peace is also a central theme of this book.

One important conclusion shared by the contributors is the recognition that a sector of the international community comprising the UN and nongovernmental organizations has a huge influence on the peace-building outcomes of the societies studied. Many of the contributors discuss the positive and negative roles of UN peacekeepers, agencies, and resolutions. This focus on the UN includes a number of robust discussions. For example, chapter...