ABSTRACT
Using the example of women combatants of the KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army), this chapter argues for the need to establish a decolonial feminist approach to the existing streams of liberal, standpoint, and post-structural feminism in critical security studies. Based on life-time narratives of women guerrilla veterans, the roles of these combatants will be explored. It can be argued that the KLA has not defined a concrete function for women as the “other” gender in guerrilla warfare. Their presence has sometimes challenged the patriarchal mindset within the KLA, while simultaneously this way of thinking was present in the guerrilla army throughout the war. Another argument of this chapter refers to how colonial violence of the Serbian regime in Kosovo in the 1990s affected the binary notions of masculinities and femininities of the oppressed. When it comes to the question of what motivated these women to join the KLA, this chapter identifies three main reasons: firstly, the involvement in the war as a continuation of political engagement by other means. Secondly, the participation in the war as a direct reaction to systematic killings by the Yugoslav-Serbian colonial regime in the late 1990s. Thirdly, the impossibility of escape, which led to military activity, i.e., involuntary partaking. This chapter also discusses the silencing of women KLA combatants in the post-war period.
