Militarization and Violence against Women in Conflict Zones in the Middle East
A Palestinian Case-Study

An examination of the violence perpetrated against women in politically conflicted or militarized areas.

Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian (Author)

9780521708791, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 7 May 2009

246 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 1 cm, 0.4 kg

"Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian reconfigures standard assumptions about the nature of power, resistance and oppression, opening up new interdisciplinary areas of research and potential lines of investigation for translation scholars."
- Sue Ann Harding The Translator

This book examines and discusses the ordeals that women face as violence is perpetrated against them in politically conflicted and militarized areas. In conflict zones, every act is affected by, dependent on and mobilised by militaristic values. The militarization of both the private and public space and the use of the gendered bodies increases the vulnerability of both men and women, and further masculinises the patriarchal hegemonic powers. Through the stories and ordeals of women in politically conflicted areas and war zones, and by sharing voices of Palestinian women from the Occupied Territories, it is shown that claims such as 'security reasoning', fear from 'terrorism', nationalism, preservation of 'cultural authenticity' and preservation of the land can turn women's bodies and lives into boundary markers and thus sites of violence, contestation and resistance.

1. Introduction
2. Violent translations: women, war, and narrative in conflict zones
3. Veiled powers: conceptualizing woman and/as the 'nation'
4. Women frontliners in conflict zones: a genealogy of weaponization
5. Speaking truth to power: voices of Palestinian women facing the wall
6. Ruminations and final thoughts: women in-between.

Subject Areas: International humanitarian law [LBBS], Human rights [JPVH], Politics & government [JP], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1]