bush wives and female fighters: the complicated reality of women's participation in the sierra...
Post on 21-Dec-2015
213 views
TRANSCRIPT
Bush Wives
and
Female Fighters: The complicated reality of women's
participation in the Sierra Leone war
Chris Coulter, PhD
“Their female accomplices were almost more terrifying, covered from head to foot in black, their veils bearing Islamic slogans, their waists wrapped with belts full of explosives” (BBC 2002-12-16)
“’Black Diamond" and her comrades may look like any bunch of street-wise girls with attitude but they have the military hardware to back up the look.” (BBC 2003-08-26)
The Sierra Leone War1999-2002
10 to 20 % of irregular
fighters are thought to have been
women or girls
DDR
• 72 500 combatants demobilized• 4 751 (6.5%) of them were women• 6 845 child soldiers demobilized• 506 (7.4%) of them were girls
“They trained all of us. No woman that spent a year with them was not trained how to fix gun and fire. This was for protection, maybe even among ourselves, if your companion want to kill you and you also know how to fire you can retaliate.”
Aminata, 19
Major reasons for not demobilizing:
• No weapon or ammunition
• Fear and shame
• Not present at the time
They were afraid of me because they thought that the life we were living with the rebels will be the same I will do to them
Aisha 21.