Introduction

This volume challenges the assumption that women are absent from war and conflict because of some traditional, natural link between women and pacifism, an assumption based on the femininized qualities of caring, nurturing, mourning, and empathy. By contesting the divide between private and public space, Gender, Globalization and Violence: Postcolonial Conflict Zones aims to analyze how the gender dimension emerges as multiple and ambivalent, ranging from women in frontline positions to women in more subsidiary and invisible roles. The scope is to explore how racialized and gendered bodies have played a crucial role from colonial to current global conflicts.