It, in turn, has a compounding effect in exacerbating gender vulnerability in war-torn societies.Īnn Tickner, who has dedicated her life’s work in providing for a feminist theory to be integrated into the realm of international relations, underscores the prevalent biases in the masculinised, realist version of security studies. The struggle to ensure justice for women victims of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) is aggravated by pre-existing exclusions and discrimination that typifies women’s status in many societies. In a similar vein, Bharat H Desai and Balraj K Sidhu observed in their 2017 article in EPW, ‘Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones: A Challenge for International Law?’ : To that extent, rape has also been normalised as an inevitable outcome of war. This becomes especially challenging in the absence of justice delivery mechanisms and the lack of criminal infrastructure. Wartime sexual violence is not just committed by some individuals, but rather it is often deployed as a tool to further political/military gains, to prove a point. They prompt us to reconsider how we approach the political and social terrain of conflict zones and to reflect on the challenging path to achieving justice for women. This should especially be examined in light of the fact that "Civil conflicts have more than doubled over the last two decades, rising from 30 in 2001 to 70 in 2016." These grim numbers serve as a reminder to the never-ending conflicts that have pervaded human history. The war zone presents a socio-political discourse that is still underdeveloped both in India, as well as internationally. A gendered lens must be used to analyse conflict because of the complicated challenges and cascading repercussions that occur before, during, and after the war and the substantial impact it has on women's lives. Women’s access to fundamental rights are frequently left out of the political discussions, actions and networks that run through conflict zones. As British academic Cynthia Cockburn once observed, “Gender has a curious way of being both simultaneously present and absent in popular perception.” (Cockburn 2004)
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