Thread by @Prof_Henshaw

This #WomensHistoryMonth, I'm going to try and highlight cases of women's active involvement in post-Cold War conflicts. The cases I'm discussing are among those featured in my newly released book Insurgent Women, and my prior book Why Women Rebel (now in paperback).

1a. Starting with the civil conflict in Colombia, which is featured in Insurgent Women. Many people are aware of the extensive participation of women in the FARC, where they were about 1/3 of the demobilizing rebels as of 2017. bbc.com/mundo/noticias…

1b. However, women's engagement in the war is much more complicated. The ELN, with ~2500 rebels per some estimates, has about 25% women in its ranks. Its highest-ranking ♀︎ leader, Comandante Paula, died in 2018 in Havana...

1c. Comandante Paula was working to negotiate a peace deal with the Colombian government at the time of her death. The ELN has had various other spokeswomen and ♀︎ peace delegates.
diariodecuba.com/cuba/151571536…

2a. Here's a case study on women's involvement in the CPN-M during Nepal's civil war. Official statistics indicate that about 30% of CPN-M fighters were women, but some critique this figure as too low. #WomensHistoryMonth wps.unwomen.org/pdf/research/R…

2b. From p. 6: "Women acted as mass mobilizers... and an emphasis was put on developing women's leadership... despite their new roles, women grappled with complex power hierarchies and ingrained gender stereotyping."

2c. Post-conflict, many ♀︎ ex-combatants ended up self-demobilizing for reasons including inadequate/stereotyped job training offerings, stigmatization in their communities, and their experiences of sexual violence.

A great book w/more info on Nepal: routledge.com/Women-Peace-an…

3a. Women were active in the Basque separatist group ETA, which disbanded in 2018. In 1984, R. Clark estimated that under 10% of operatives were women, but by 2008 M. Gonzalez-Perez estimated that every ETA cell had at least one woman.

3b. One well-known woman in the organization was former directorate member Maria Dolores Gonzalez Catarain aka Yoyes, who renounced violence, was pardoned by the government, and was subsequently assassinated by ETA. nytimes.com/1986/09/14/wor…

4a. Day 4 of #WomensHistoryMonth profiles of women in modern civil wars and insurgencies. In our book #InsurgentWomen we discuss Al-Shabaab, the Al Qaeda affiliate in East Africa. amazon.com/Insurgent-Wome…

4b. Some women have been forced into the group, others are lured into assisting Al-Shabaab because of economic vulnerabilities. Many of the roles women involved have played have been support-type positions: cooking, gathering firewood, etc.

4c. Sexual violence against these women has also been widely reported. But there have been some cases (under 5% of the total, according to this report) where women (incl. teen girls) have been deployed as suicide bombers. ctc.usma.edu/app/uploads/20…

4d. Warner and Chapin (link above) suggest that Al-Shabaab has had very low rates of success using ♀︎ suicide bombers. This may be one reason why women and girls are so rarely used, compared to some other militant groups.

5a. Researchers believe that women were about 1/3 of EZLN (Zapatista) combatants in Mexico, and several women held leadership positions in the organization.

5b. In 1994, women drafted the "Women's Revolutionary Laws" adopted by the EZLN, which asserted rights to health care, education, political representation, and the freedom from gender-based violence.
books.google.com/books/about/Wo…

6a. Day 6 profiling women in modern conflicts is an h/t to @triskodarden, who will be hosting a book launch for our book Insurgent Women tonight at @busboysandpoets: busboysandpoets.com/events/th-evt-…

6b. One of the major cases in our book is the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, and we discuss differences in the motivations, roles, and demographic profiles of women in separatist and pro-government militias.

6c. Yesterday @triskodarden shared this update from the conflict:

https://twitter.com/triskodarden/status/1103112994479837184

7a. During the war in Sierra Leone (1991-2002), women and girls were at least 10% of insurgent forces. You can read @MeganhMackenzie's work on the conflict here: wappp.hks.harvard.edu/files/wappp/fi… #WomensHistoryMonth

7b. Some ♀︎ were sexually enslaved, forced to join, were child soldiers. But some were combatants and some held positions of authority.

After the conflict, many of these women self-demobilized for a variety of reasons.

7c. Some ♀︎ were afraid of stigma, some couldn't participate b/c they didn't have a weapon, others were suspicious of the programs or didn't think they were worthwhile. But the tendency to self-demobilize means these women often weren't counted.

7d. As a result, the number of ♀︎ combatants in this conflict is higher than official estimates would suggest.

8a. An exchange with @triskodarden earlier this week brings to light the roles of women in the war in the former Yugoslavia. Sammy Yetisen was stripped of her U.S. citizenship last week. She had pled guilty to war crimes charges in 2012.
oregonlive.com/washingtoncoun…

8b. Her case echoes that of Azra Basic, who was able to obtain U.S. citizenship despite allegations that she tortured and killed prisoners during the war.
nytimes.com/2011/04/04/us/…

8c. These cases suggest the difficulties associated with transitional justice, and perhaps a lack of curiosity about what women did during the war. #WomensHistoryMonth

9a. Another current conflict where women are involved is in Jammu & Kashmir. Though women played a variety of roles over the years, they have often been excluded from decisionmaking.

9b. Several women's groups provide support to militants. There are also occasional reports of women coordinating or carrying out attacks, as in the case of an attempted ♀︎ suicide bomber in 2005. (h/t Bhatia and Knight 2011) journals.sagepub.com/stoken/rbtfl/t…

9c. Gender roles in the region serve to define and constrain women's participation. Even though they are supporting insurgency, they are rendered less visible. Read more in @swatipash's work. #WomensHistoryMonth
tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…

10a. Women were an estimated 30-40% of fighters with the LTTE during Sri Lanka's civil war, ending in 2009. #WomensHistoryMonth

10b. Research suggests that motivating factors include nationalist sentiments, concerns about harassment by security forces including violence against women, concerns for women's rights, and anger over discriminatory policies.
warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/p…

10c. But to ensure continued support for the use of female fighters, the organization needed to make concessions to patriarchal norms. Read more on this case: researchgate.net/publication/25…

11a. Day 11 of profiling women's roles in civil conflicts. #WomensHistoryMonth
In the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front in Myanmar (active since 1988), women have coordinated community outreach, acted as medics, and in some areas were also trained as combatants.

11b. A report from the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies notes tensions and inconsistencies re: gender in the ranks.

centrepeaceconflictstudies.org/wp-content/upl…

11c. Some women report being forced to curtail their roles in the ABSDF after marriage (pp. 112-113), others report being deterred from attending events where leaders in the org were to be selected (p. 88).

11d. The Alliance for Gender Inclusion in the Peace Process reports that a number of women have been engaged in the peace process, including Mi Sue Pwint, an ABSDF leader.
inclusivesecurity.org/wp-content/upl…

12a. In the Mahdi Army in Iraq, women were initially turned away (c. 2003) despite some expressing a willingness to participate.
theglobeandmail.com/news/world/a-n…

12b. But from 2004 on, we see mentions in news reports of women acting on behalf of the org. as escorts for journalists, security guards, and other support-type functions.

13a. Though Peru's civil conflict is considered "dormant" since ~2000 (meaning only that it has not met most conflict data thresholds for civil conflict/civil war), Shining Path continues to be engaged in low-level insurgency.

13b. This movement was founded by Abimael Guzman and wife Augusta La Torre, who by some accounts introduced her husband to Marxist thought. La Torre died in 1988 under unclear circumstances.

13c. Quoting A. Portugal, “women’s participation was crucial to PCP-SL expansion as they commanded squads and were in charge of different military operations and intelligence actions." (19)
r4d.dfid.gov.uk/pdf/outputs/in…

13d. When researching my first book, "Why Women Rebel," I found estimates suggesting that women were anywhere from 18-30% of the ranks. For Spanish-speakers, Robin Kirk's 1993 book is a great place to learn more: repositorio.iep.org.pe/handle/IEP/572 #WomensHistoryMonth

14a. The bulk of Shanti Bahini militants disarmed in 1997 in a negotiated accord with the gov't of Bangladesh. Women were involved in this organization in support roles, through a women's wing, and reports suggest some were also combatants.

14b. The 1997 accord included some gender provisions, incl. reserved seats for women on regional councils: peaceagreements.org/wsearch?WggSea…

15a. In Insurgent Women, we compare the roles of women in Kurdish armed groups across Turkey, Iraq, and Syria. amazon.com/Insurgent-Wome…

15b. Among these, the PUK and KDP in Iraq have placed less priority on the recruitment of women, despite the willingness of women to join. Neither of these groups has articulated ideological commitments on gender equality.

16a. On the other hand, leftist commitments facilitated gender integration among PKK forces, although our interviews in the book show that women have experienced ongoing tensions related to gender dynamics.

16b. In particular, we found tensions between female commanders and male recruits.

17a. In Syria, armed wings of the PYD have actively recruited women. Women have access to leadership positions as well as combatant roles.

17b. A lot of this relates to historical ties between Kurdish forces in Syria and the PKK. Another example of ties b/w armed groups shaping women's roles in them.
nytimes.com/2018/01/25/wor…

18a. The PJAK in Iran is not among the groups profiled in Insurgent Women, but it was included in the data I compiled for my book, Why Women Rebel. routledge.com/Why-Women-Rebe…

18b. Some estimates suggest that up to half of PJAK members are women. The Wood and Thomas WARD data ranks this group as having a "high" prevalence of ♀︎ combatants.

The PJAK also has ties to the PKK, which influenced its policies on gender.
jamestown.org/program/betwee…

18c. Here's an interview with women from the Iranian Kurdish movement. #WomensHistoryMonth
haaretz.com/middle-east-ne…

19a. Return of the @WomenWarPeace series next week is an opportunity to revisit women's roles in conflict in N. Ireland. McEvoy's 2009 work on ♀︎ Loyalist paramilitaries sheds light on complicated engagements: tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108… #WomensHistoryMonth

19b. Her interviewees report being engaged in tasks including arms smuggling, surveillance, cleaning crime scenes, storing weapons, carrying out punishment of others. These stories were rarely told.

19c. Many of these women came away disillusioned or feeling sold out by their leadership after Good Friday Ag't. McEvoy sees them as an overlooked constituency, whose understanding of conflict was shaped by class as well as gender.

20a. Women in the IRA took part in bombings, kidnapping, intelligence gathering, communications, and a variety of support functions. #WomensHistoryMonth

20b. The experiences of these Republican women "post-conflict" are the subject of this excellent new book (which I am still, slowly, reading) by @niall_gilmartin: routledge.com/Female-Combata…

21a. In the Philippines, women took on a variety of roles in the MNLF incl. bombmaking, intelligence, medical & administrative roles. Yet they were excluded from negotiations in 1996: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.111…

21b. Since the 1996 peace agreement, former ♀︎ MNLF combatants have held visible roles in gov't and civil society. Several started or led NGOs devoted to conflict resolution, women's empowerment, and development. #WomensHistoryMonth

22a. Looking at this new data on rebel group emergence makes me think of this story of how rebel groups influence each other related to gender.

https://twitter.com/jessicabraith/status/1108382119288438795

22b. Alice Auma aka Alice Lakwena experienced short-lived success in the late 1980s in Uganda, leading the Holy Spirit Movement. But her leadership had a long-term influence on Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army.
ohioswallow.com/book/Alice+Lak…

22c. Kony emulated her dress, rituals, and claims to possession by Holy Spirits to cultivate his legitimacy early on. Per Behrend, at least two of the spirits who "directed" Kony were female, and one dictated rules about women and sexual relations in the LRA.

22d. Research by Blattman et al. finds that: "Females performed vital combat and support roles in the LRA." This includes logistics, nursing, and radio ops. But abduction, child soldiering, and forced marriage was also widespread. chrisblattman.com/documents/poli…

23a. Liberia is another area where ♀︎ combatants were undercounted because many avoided or were excluded from participation in formal DDR processes: css.ethz.ch/en/services/di… #WomensHistoryMonth

23b. This reporting from 2003 discusses women's roles in LURD, but also illustrates many of the pitfalls in reporting on women and girls in violent groups: csmonitor.com/2003/0826/p07s…

23c. The dismissiveness toward women in "supporting roles" minimizes the importance of those functions. Fixation on the appearance of these women illustrates the "mothers, monsters, whores" framings discussed by Sjoberg/Gentry (2015).

23d. And, as this whole thread illustrates, ♀︎ are not as rare as this author thinks!

24a. A student in my Gender and Conflict course at Duke last year flagged this for me-- the Pakistani Taliban/TTP took a page from ISIS and developed a magazine for ♀︎ supporters: rferl.org/a/pakistani-ta…

24b. The TTP has previously claimed responsibility for bombings carried out by ♀︎ suicide bombers. issi.org.pk/wp-content/upl…

25a. I'm going to sneak in a discussion of the FMLN, even though it's "more of a Cold War phenomenon," at least per reviewers of my 1st book. 🤨

25b. Women's involvement was crucial to the FMLN's fight in El Salvador, and it is a rare pre-UNSCR 1325 example of women participating directly in peace talks. #WomensHistoryMonth

25c. Despite the presence of 3 female FMLN leaders at the negotiations, the 1992 Chapultepec Accords left many issues that women cared about unaddressed.

25d. Kampwirth and others have demonstrated the consequences of this, with the foundation of women-focused civil society groups exploding in the country in the closing years of the war. psupress.org/books/titles/0…

26a. Tonight is night 2 of the new @WomenWarPeace series and I see they are profiling women doing nonviolent resistance.

26b. Of course we have also seen women engaged in violence in these groups. Between 1985 and 2006, one study found that women were responsible for 67 suicide bombings in the region. warontherocks.com/2015/12/femme-…

26c. The first female suicide bomber in the region, Wafa Idris, was not a known activist w/any militant group (her brothers were), but the al-Aqsa Brigades claimed responsibility after seeing the attention her attack gathered.

27a. Got behind on the thread while conferencing, so a few posts today to catch up. I don't believe I've yet covered women's roles in Al Qaida, so I'm reupping this piece by @j_p_eggert google.com/url?sa=t&sourc…

27b. Distinct from ISIS, Al Qaida affiliates have had female suicide bombing teams. Women also active in support and fundraising roles.

28a. In the New People's Army in the Philippines, women have acted in a variety of roles. The participation of women in the NPA prompted this quote from Duterte from last year:
google.com/amp/s/www.nyti…

28b. Images with female NPA fighters in this AFP story from 2017: google.com/amp/s/www.dail…

29a. The UNRG in Guatemala is another of the relatively few cases where we see a rebel woman involved in a peace process. This case study from @InclusvSecurity gives background. Luz Méndez was a representative for the UNRG. inclusivepeace.org/sites/default/… #WomensHistoryMonth

29b. As a Track One participant in the peace negotiations, Méndez facilitated the movement of ideas from women's civil society groups to the negotiating table.

29c. Several provisions were eventually included related to women's rights, though advocates felt the provisions had been weakened from the original ideas put forth by women's groups. There was also a lack of will and, in some cases, resistance to implementing these provisions.

29d. Méndez was one of many women with the UNRG. In this interview she discusses the experience of being mobilized as a student and losing loved ones to state-sponsored violence-- common experiences for women in Latin American rebel groups.
wunrn.com/2015/01/guatem…

30a. Women have also been actively engaged in left-wing extremism in India. Estimates suggest there are at least 8K militants fighting with the armed wing of the CPI-M in India. aljazeera.com/indepth/featur…

30b. Women have been engaged in combat, support, and leadership positions. The S. Asia Terrorism Portal documents some recent incidents involving ♀︎ rebels in fighting with government forces. satp.org/terrorism-asse…

30c. Recruitment of child soldiers, incl. girls, by this org. has been a concern. Similar to the CPN-M (which I discussed earlier in the month), the policy of requiring every household to send one member to fight often means girls are sent to train. tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC-O…

31a. Going to close out my #WomensHistoryMonth thread on women in civil conflicts with this story about female ISIS supporters currently detained in the Al Hol camp in Syria. nytimes.com/2019/03/29/wor…

31b. It is still being treated as a curiosity that these women are out there and that some are still pledging their allegiance to ISIS. But just in this thread, we have 30+ other non-state armed groups in the past ~30 years that also drew visible ♀︎ support.

31c. ISIS may be unique in the scope of the issue--involving female foreign recruits from many countries, many of whom are now caring for children without documentation....

31d. ...But the idea that we are surprised to see women supporting or committing political violence points to a blind spot in our popular conceptions about conflict.

31e. As my books note, the reality of the issue globally is complex w/varied stories abt participation, recruitment, and demobilization. But the presence of women is more normal than most people think and should be engaged with seriously.

https://twitter.com/Prof_Henshaw/status/1085266212785922053

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