Violence against women in Colombia under conditions of civil war

Abstract

This research explores women’s experience of violence in civil war in Colombia. Its purposeis to allow women’s voices to be heard. Mostly women are unwillingly participants in the warand are at the mercy of competing armed groups. The research includes a review of academicstudies into the nature of violence, in particular violence against women, with an emphasis ongender and the work of feminist scholars. As violence against women in a civil war is littlestudied, is underreported and the violence is invisible the research also relies on reports byhuman rights groups and other organisations supporting women. It includes an examinationof the historical background and the nature of the civil war in Colombia and of work done byscholars into violence against women in other civil wars, notably in the Balkans.The data was obtained using semi-structured interviews with five women and an expertinterview with the director of an NGO as primary sources and 135 testimonies as secondarysources, all taken from the department of Santander in north-eastern Colombia. This materialwas then analysed and triangulated.The research explores how women’s experience and definition of violence differs fromthat of men, which is the predominant narrative. Women’s experience of war tends to bepassive, of a multiplicity of events which create feelings of helplessness and depression. The loss of a husband or relatives is accompanied by displacement, poverty, becoming the solehead of a household, threats and control by armed groups, all resulting in feelings ofabandonment and isolation. This occurs in the context of a patriarchal social system whichallows violence against women and of a state which is either complicit in the violence,particularly of paramilitary groups, or is too weak to provide support for victims.