Ethnic‐nationalism, wars and the patterns of social, political and sexual violence against women: The case of post‐Yugoslav countries

Abstract

The paper takes the recent conflict and wars in the region of post-Yugoslav states and their impact on women as the point of departure. In this empirical context, I explore the patterns of violence against women, arguing that ethnic nationalism as a social phenomenon engenders a kind of “structural violence” with gender specific implications. Women are exposed to various forms of sexual, physical, and non-physical violence in their relation to ethnic-national movements and their respective states-in-the-making. Therefore the paper examines the ways in which gendered militarization of ethnic nationalism is used to justify different forms of abuse of women, from abuse of women's reproductive rights to domestic violence. Furthermore, it addresses the issue of political exploitation of militarized violence against women, wherein abused women are used by their nation-states to gain more power in the struggle for nationalistic expansion.