Linking Arms: Women and war in Post-Yugoslav states

Violence against women in war has been a prominent news story as this series of case studies developed. The systematic rape of women in Bosnia-Herzegovina, direct attacks upon women as part of the genocide in Rwanda, and the recently revealed stories of Korean and Filipino “comfort women” during the Second World War assaulted us with the vulnerability and dangers which women face in war-generated violence. However, such violence, although often in the news, is sadly only a fraction of the violent experiences of women and, as well, ignores the different and creative responses of women to resist gendered oppression.
Violence is, in the end, deeply personal. It is individual human beings who suffer, it is individuals who act in violent ways. The monographs in this series describe and analyze the international and the local, war-related violence, the social-structural violence, and the visible and the more hidden experiences of violence which women and girls experience. These analyses show clearly that violence against women is part of societal-wide violence, developed and supported through the devaluation and oppression of some people and groups. Violence against women is, in the end, violence against us all.

Citation:
Korac, M. (1998) Linking Arms: Women and war in Post-Yugoslav states, Uppsala: Life and Peace Institute.