ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book begins to illuminate some of the critical intersections across health, gender, and security, through an approach that focuses on the quotidian violences – those everyday insecurities – emerging from the socio-economic and cultural organization of society that shape the health and life chances of people occupying different spaces and identities around the world. It argues that the impact of conflict and post-conflict sexual violence and torture has often been misunderstood in terms of an individual manifestation of psychological trauma and physical injuries, with responses confined to a biomedical approach. The book draws from field research conducted with male and female community health workers in Afghanistan, who, working as unpaid volunteers, form the foundation of the Community Based Health Care pillar of the Ministry of Public Health.
