ABSTRACT
Women’s bodies serve as both political instruments and a central component of narrating the nation anew after a violent political conflict. In the process of re-creating post-conflict communities, some bodies and their narratives are silenced. These silenced voices belong to those whose bodies are cast out from the community, to those who do not fit into idealised gender roles of heroic masculinity and sacrificial femininity. In this chapter, we examine the processes and mechanisms of elevating and suppressing narratives of war and violence after a peace treaty has been signed, and show how silencing itself can be a form of violence.
