ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on gender, geopolitics, and the politics of cultural memory. It describes a mixed picture of gender relations and gender equality in state-socialist Yugoslavia. The book shows how, for women fighters in the Lebanese civil war, the national cause was a more powerful motivating factor than feminist ideas; and how in some communities religious narratives also played a role. It investigates feminist memory politics, collective action, and collective memory, and considers the 'closed' or hegemonic narratives of '1968' and how they might be expanded and enriched. The book assesses women as violent actors in the light of the cultural complexities, religious worldviews, ideological frameworks, and (gender) political factors that contributed to their radicalisation and reception. It also shows that female involvement in radical and violent political movements is not necessarily linked to a desire for emancipation qua gender equality.
