Front Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Memory, Body, and Power: Women and the Study of Genocide -- 1. The Gendered Logics of Indigenous Genocide -- 2. Women and the Herero Genocide -- 3. Arshaluys Mardigian/Aurora Mardiganian: Absorption, Stardom, Exploitation, and Empowerment -- 4. "Hyphenated" Identities during the Holodomor: Women and Cannibalism -- 5. Gender: A Crucial Tool in Holocaust Research -- 6. German Women and the Holocaust in the Nazi East -- 7. No Shelter to Cry In: Romani Girls and Responsibility during the Holocaust -- 8. Birangona: Rape Survivors Bearing Witness in War and Peace in Bangladesh -- 9. Very Superstitious: Gendered Punishment in Democratic Kampuchea, 1975-1979 -- 10. Sexual Violence as a Weapon during the Guatemalan Genocide -- 11. Gender and the Military in Post-Genocide Rwanda -- 12. Narratives of Survivors of Srebrenica: How Do They Reconnect to the World? -- 13. The Plight and Fate of Females During and Following the Darfur Genocide -- 14. Grassroots Women's Participation in Addressing Conflict and Genocide: Case Studies from the Middle East North Africa Region and Latin America -- Selected Bibliography: Further Readings -- Index -- Back Cover

Illuminating the unique experiences of women both during and after genocide, JoAnn DiGeorgio-Lutz and Donna Gosbee’s edited collection is a vital addition to genocide scholarship. The contributors revisit genocides of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, from Armenia in 1915 to Gujarat in 2002, examining the roles of women as victims, witnesses, survivors, and rescuers. The text underscores women’s experiences as a central yet often overlooked component to the understanding of genocide. Drawing from narratives, memoirs, testimonies, and literature, this groundbreaking volume brings together women’s stories of victimization, trauma, and survival. Each chapter is framed by a consistent methodology to allow for a comparative analysis, revealing the ways in which women’s experiences across genocides are similar and yet profoundly different. By looking at genocide from a gendered perspective, Women and Genocide constitutes an important contribution to feminist research on war and political violence. Featuring critical thinking questions and concise histories of each genocidal period discussed, this highly accessible text is an ideal resource for both students and instructors in this field and for anyone interested in the study of women’s lives in times of violence and conflict.

This book examines the mobilization, role, and trajectory of women rescuers and perpetrators during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. While much has been written about the victimization of women during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, very little has been said about women who rescued targeted victims or perpetrated crimes against humanity. This book explores and analyzes the role played by women who exercised agency as rescuers and as perpetrators during the genocide in Rwanda. As women, they took actions and decisions within the context of a deeply entrenched patriarchal system that limited their choices. This work examines two diverging paths of women’s agency during this period: to rescue from genocide or to perpetrate genocide. It seeks to answer three questions: First, how were certain Rwandan women mobilized to participate in genocide, and by whom? Second, what were the specific actions of women during this period of violence and upheaval? Finally, what were the trajectories of women rescuers and perpetrators after the genocide? Comparing and contrasting how women rescuers and perpetrators were mobilized, the actions they undertook, and their post-genocide trajectories, and concluding with a broader discussion of the long-term impact of ignoring these women, this book develops a more nuanced and holistic view of women’s agency and the genocide in Rwanda. This book will be of much interest to students of gender studies, genocide studies, African politics and critical security studies. The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.routledge.com/Gender-and-the-Genocide-in-Rwanda-Women-as-Rescuers-and-Perpetrators/Brown/p/book/9780367188092, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

The genocides of modern history–Rwanda, Armenia, Guatemala, the Holocaust, and countless others–and their effects have been well documented, but how do the experiences of female victims and perpetrators differ from those of men? In Women and Genocide, human rights advocates and scholars come together to argue that the memory of trauma is gendered and that women's voices and perspectives are key to our understanding of the dynamics that emerge in the context of genocidal violence. The contributors of this volume examine how women consistently are targets for the sexualized violence that serves as an instrument of ethnic cleansing, how female perpetrators take advantage of the new power structures, and how women are involved in the struggle for justice in post-genocidal contexts. By placing women at center stage, Women and Genocide helps us to better understand the nexus existing between misogyny and violence in societies where genocide erupts.

In the aftermath of the 1994 genocide, Rwandan women faced the impossible—resurrecting their lives amidst unthinkable devastation. Haunted by memories of lost loved ones and of their own experiences of violence, women rebuilt their lives from “less than nothing.” Neither passive victims nor innate peacemakers, they traversed dangerous emotional and political terrain to emerge as leaders in Rwanda today. This clear and engaging ethnography of survival tackles three interrelated phenomena—memory, silence, and justice—and probes the contradictory roles women played in postgenocide reconciliation. Based on more than a decade of intensive fieldwork, Genocide Lives in Us provides a unique grassroots perspective on a postconflict society. Anthropologist Jennie E. Burnet relates with sensitivity the heart-wrenching survival stories of ordinary Rwandan women and uncovers political and historical themes in their personal narratives. She shows that women’s leading role in Rwanda’s renaissance resulted from several factors: the dire postgenocide situation that forced women into new roles; advocacy by the Rwandan women’s movement; and the inclusion of women in the postgenocide government. Honorable Mention, Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize, Women’s Caucus of the African Studies Association

Women war criminals are far more common than we think. From the Holocaust to ethnic cleansing in the Balkans to the Rwandan genocide, women have perpetrated heinous crimes. Few have been punished. These women go unnoticed because their very existence challenges our assumptions about war and about women. Biases about women as peaceful and innocent prevent us from "seeing" women as war criminals—and prevent postconflict justice systems from assigning women blame. Women as War Criminals argues that women are just as capable as men of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. In addition to unsettling assumptions about women as agents of peace and reconciliation, the book highlights the gendered dynamics of law, and demonstrates that women are adept at using gender instrumentally to fight for better conditions and reduced sentences when war ends. The book presents the legal cases of four women: the President (Biljana Plavšic), the Minister (Pauline Nyiramasuhuko), the Soldier (Lynndie England), and the Student (Hoda Muthana). Each woman's complex identity influenced her treatment by legal systems and her ability to mount a gendered defense before the court. Justice, as Steflja and Trisko Darden show, is not blind to gender.

In the spring of 1994, the tiny African nation of Rwanda was ripped apart by a genocide that left nearly a million dead. Neighbors attacked neighbors. Family members turned against their own. After the violence subsided, Rwanda's women—drawn by the necessity of protecting their families—carved out unlikely new roles for themselves as visionary pioneers creating stability and reconciliation in genocide's wake. Today, 64 percent of the seats in Rwanda's elected house of Parliament are held by women, a number unrivaled by any other nation. While news of the Rwandan genocide reached all corners of the globe, the nation's recovery and the key role of women are less well known. In Rwandan Women Rising, Swanee Hunt shares the stories of some seventy women—heralded activists and unsung heroes alike—who overcame unfathomable brutality, unrecoverable loss, and unending challenges to rebuild Rwandan society. Hunt, who has worked with women leaders in sixty countries for over two decades, points out that Rwandan women did not seek the limelight or set out to build a movement; rather, they organized around common problems such as health care, housing, and poverty to serve the greater good. Their victories were usually in groups and wide ranging, addressing issues such as rape, equality in marriage, female entrepreneurship, reproductive rights, education for girls, and mental health. These women's accomplishments provide important lessons for policy makers and activists who are working toward equality elsewhere in Africa and other postconflict societies. Their stories, told in their own words via interviews woven throughout the book, demonstrate that the best way to reduce suffering and to prevent and end conflicts is to elevate the status of women throughout the world.