This research takes a multi-faceted approach by both analysing traditional gender narratives that have discredited the presence of women’s participation in political violence and, women’s re-interpretation of normative roles amongst them. Thus, the research seeks to demonstrate the instability in gender constructs and gendered performances that highlight the variety of ways women’s gender identity can be iterated, re-iterated, mobilised and even subverted within political violence. This will allow us to understand how female perpetrators have been reduced to essentialist and subjective understandings of gender that has often fabricated women’s roles, motivations and agency within political violence. As a consequence, the more complex and dynamic nature of women within political violence is exposed, revealing women’s varied positionalities where they employ or challenge gendered constructs to justify and enable their involvement in political violence. This is done through the examination of two terrorists groups namely, Al-Qaeda in Iraq and The Liberation of Tamil Tigers.
Permanent link to this resource: https://doi.org/10.24384/e1m1-ey36
Powell, Evelkah
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Year: 2019
© Powell, Evelkah Published by Oxford Brookes University