International Journal of
Peace and Development Studies

  • Abbreviation: Int. J. Peace and Dev. Stud
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 2141-6621
  • DOI: 10.5897/IJPDS
  • Start Year: 2010
  • Published Articles: 103

Full Length Research Paper

Security, peace and development: Unpacking discursive constructions of wartime rape and sexual violence in Syria

Stacy Banwell
  • Stacy Banwell
  • School of Law, Faculty of Architecture, Computing and Humanities. University of Greenwich, London, United Kingdom.
  • Google Scholar


  •  Received: 05 February 2018
  •  Accepted: 11 April 2018
  •  Published: 30 April 2018

References

 

Abboud S (2017). The economics of war and peace in Syria: Stratification and factionalization in the business community. Available at: 

View

 

Agathangelou AM, Turcotte HM (2015). Postcolonial theories and challenges to 'first world-ism. In L. J. Shepherd, Gender matters in global politics: A feminist introduction to international relations. New York: Routledge pp.36-48.

 
 

Alsaba K, Kapilashrami A (2016). Understanding women's experience of violence and the political economy of gender in conflict: The case of Syria. Reproductive Health Matters 24(47):5-17.
Crossref

 
 

Amnesty International (2016). I Want a safe place: Refugee women from Syria uprooted and unprotected in Lebanon. Available at: 

View

 
 

Anani G (2013). Dimensions of gender-based violence against Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Available at: 

View

 
 

Aoláin FN (2016). The 'war on terror' and extremism: assessing the relevance of the women, peace and security agenda. Int. Aff. 92(2):275-291.
Crossref

 
 

Askin DK (2003). Prosecuting wartime rapes and other gender-related crimes under international law: Extraordinary advances, enduring obstacles. Berkeley J. Int. Law. 21:288-349.

 
 

Baaz EM, Stern M (2013). Sexual violence as a weapon of war? Perceptions, prescriptions, problems in the Congo and beyond. New York: Zed Books.

 
 

Banwell S (2015). Globalization masculinities, empire-building and forced prostitution: A critical analysis of the gendered impact of the neoliberal economic agenda in post-invasion/occupation Iraq. Third World Quart. 36(4):705-722.
Crossref

 
 

Beauchamp Z (2017). The war in Syria, explained: How Syria's civil war became America's problem. Available at: 

View

 
 

Black I (2016). Report on Syria conflict finds 11.5% of population killed or injured. Retrieved February 7, 2017, from The Guardian: 

View

 
 

Browne G (2018). Al Qaeda's 're-radicalization' schools lure ISIL fighters in Syria. Retrieved January 31, 2018, from The National: 

View

 
 

Brunner C (2016). Expanding the combat zone. Int. Fem. J. Polit. 18(3):371-389.
Crossref

 
 

Buss DE (2009). Rethinking rape as a weapon of war. Fem. Leg. Stud. 17(2):145–163.
Crossref

 
 

Butler J (1990). Gender trouble. Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Routledge.

 
 

Butler J (1993). Bodies that matter: On the discursive limits of "sex." London: Routledge.

 
 

Callimachi R (2015). ISIS enshrines a theology of rape. Retrieved from January 25, 2017, from The New York Times: 

View

 
 

Card C (1996). Rape as a weapon of war. Hypatia. 11(4):5-18.
Crossref

 
 

Christodoulou H (2017). Rape became normal. Retrieved January 31, 2018, from The Sun: 

View

 
 

Chulov M (2017). Up to 13,000 secretly hanged in Syrian jail, says amnesty. Retrieved February 7, 2017, from The Guardian:

 
 

Cockburn P (2017). While defeat of Isis dominates global attention, Al-Qaeda strengthens in Syria. Retrieved January 31, 2018, from The Independent: 

 

Cohen DK, Green AH, Wood EJ (2013). Wartime sexual violence: Misconceptions, implications, and ways forward. Special report of the United States institute of peace. Available at: 

View

 
 

Cohn C (2013). Women and Wars: Toward a Conceptual Framework. In C. Cohn, Women and Wars. Cambridge: Polity Press. pp.1-35.

 
 

Crawford KF (2013). From spoils to weapons: Framing wartime sexual violence. Gend. Dev. 21(3):505-517.
Crossref

 
 

Crawford KF, Green AH, Parkinson SE (2014). Wartime sexual violence is not just a "weapon of war." Retrieved January 31, 2017, from The Washington Post: 

View

 
 

Davies SE, True J (2015). Reframing conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence: Bringing gender analysis back in. Secur. Dialogue. 46(6):495-512.
Crossref

 
 

Doty RL (1996). Imperial encounters: The politics of representation in North-South relations. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

 
 

Fogelman E (2012). Rape during the Nazi Holocaust: Vulnerabilities and motivations. In C. Rittner, J Roth, Rape: Weapon of War and Genocide. St Paul Minnesota: Paragon House, pp. 15-28.

 
 

FIDH (2012). Violence against women in Syria: Breaking the silence. Briefing Paper. based on an FIDH assessment mission in Jordan. Available at: View

 
 

Foucault M (1977). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison (A. Sheridan, Trans.). London: Penguin.

 
 

Foucault M (1978). The History of Sexuality. Volume I: An Introduction (R. Hurley, Trans.). London: Penguin.

 
 

Freedman J (2016). Sexual and gender-based violence against refugee women: A hidden aspect of the refugee "crisis." Reprod. Health Matters 24(47):18-26.
Crossref

 
 

George N, Shepherd L (2016). Women, peace and security: Exploring the implementation and integration of UNSCR 1325. Int. Polit. Sci. Rev. 37(3):297-306.
Crossref

 
 

Girls not Brides (2017). Child marriage and the Syrian conflict: 7 things you need to know. Available at: 

View

 
 

Gobat J, Kostial K (2016). International monetary fund working paper: Syria's conflict economy. Available at: 

View

 
 

Gov.UK (2013). UK to contribute to ICC trust fund for victims of sexual violence. Available at: 

View

 
 

Gov.UK (2015). 2010 to 2015 government policy: sexual violence in conflict. Available at: 

View

 
 

Greenwood P (2013). Rape and domestic violence follow Syrian women into refugee camps. Retrieved February 27, 2017, from The Guardian: 

View

 
 

Guilbert K (2015). Angelina Jolie warns Islamic State using rape on unprecedented scale. Retrieved February 13, 2018, from Reuters: 

 
 

Gupta R (2016). Understanding the war in Syria and the roles of external players: Way out of the quagmire? The Round Table: The Commonwealth J. Int. Affairs. 105(1):29-41.

 
 

Hansen L (2015). Ontologies, epistemologies, methodologies. In L. J. Shepherd, Gender matters in global politics: A feminist introduction to international relations. New York: Routledge, pp. 14-23.

 
 

Henry N (2014). The fixation on wartime rape: Feminist critique and international criminal law. Soc. Leg. Stud. 23(1):93-111.
Crossref

 
 

Henry N (2016). Theorizing wartime rape. Deconstructing gender, sexuality, and violence. Gend. Soc. 30(1):44-56.
Crossref

 
 

Hirschauer S (2014). The securitization of rape: Women, war and sexual violence. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Crossref

 
 

Human Rights Council (2015). Oral update of the independent international commission of inquiry on the Syrian Arab republic. (Report no A/HRC/29/CRP.3). UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner.

 
 

Human Rights Council (2016). They came to destroy: ISIS crimes against the Yazidis' (Report No. A/HRC/32/CRP.2). UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner.

 
 

Human Rights Watch (HRW) (2014). We are still here: Women on the front lines of Syria's conflict. Available at: 

View

 
 

Human Rights Watch (HRW) (2015). Iraq: ISIS escapees describe systematic rape: Yezidi survivors in need of urgent are. Available at: 

View

 
 

Inter-Agency (2013) Gender-based Violence and child protection among Syrian refugees in Jordan, with a focus on early marriage. Available at: 

View

 
 

Irigaray L (1977). The sex which is not one (C. Porter with C. Burke, Trans.). New York: Cornell University Press.

 
 

Jolie A (2014). Foreign secretary's remarks at the opening of the global summit fringe. Available at: 

View

 
 

Kerry J (2014). Remarks at the global summit to end sexual violence in conflict. Available at: 

View

 
 

Kirby P (2012). How is rape a weapon of war? Feminist international relations, modes of critical explanation and the study of wartime sexual violence. Eur. J. Int. Relat. 19(4):797-821.
Crossref

 
 

Leatherman J (2011). Sexual violence and armed conflict. Cambridge: Polity Press.

 
 

Lentin R (1999). The rape of the nation: Women narrativising genocide. Sociological Research Online. Available at: 

View
Crossref

 
 

Mackenzie M (2010). Securitizing sex? Int. Fem. J. Polit. 12(2):202-221.
Crossref

 
 

McKinnon SL (2016). Gender violence as global phenomenon: Refugees, genital surgeries, and neocolonial projects of the united states. Cult. Stud. Crit. Methodol. 16(4): 414-426.
Crossref

 
 

Meger S (2016a). Rape loot pillage: The political economy of sexual violence in armed conflict. New York: Oxford University Press.
Crossref

 
 

Meger S (2016b). The fetishization of sexual violence in international security. ‎Int. Stud. Q. 60:149-159.
Crossref

 
 

Mertens C, Pardy M (2017). 'Sexurity' and its effects in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Third World Quart. 38(4):956-979.
Crossref

 
 

Mohanty C (1988). Under western eyes: Feminist scholarship and colonial discourses. Fem. Rev. 30: 61-88. Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office. Available at: 

View

Nayak M (2006). Orientalism and 'saving' US state identity after 9/11. Int. Fem. J. Polit. 8(1):42-61.
Crossref

 

O' Bagy E (2013). The free Syrian army. Middle east security report. Institute for the study of war. Available at: 

View

 
 

O'Brien Z (2017). Horror of ISIS sex slave app: Virgins put on sale by twisted jihadis. Retrieved January 31, 2018, from The Express:

 
 

Olivius E (2016a). Refugee men as perpetrators, allies or troublemakers? Emerging discourses on men and masculinities in humanitarian aid. ‎Women's Stud. Int. Forum. 56:56-65.
Crossref

 
 

Olivius E (2016b). Constructing humanitarian selves and refugee others. Int. Fem. J. Polit. 18(2):270-290.
Crossref

 
 

Peterson VS (2009). Gendering informal economies. In: N. Ali-Ali, N Pratt, Women and war in the middle east: Transnational perspectives. London: Zed Books. pp. 34-64.

 
 

Puechguirbal N (2010). Discourses on gender, patriarchy and resolution 1325: A textual analysis of un documents. Int. Peacekeeping. 17(2):172-187.
Crossref

 
 

Richani N (2016). The Political Economy and Complex Interdependency of the War System in Syria. Civil Wars. 18(1):45-68.
Crossref

 
 

Richter-Montpetit M (2007). Empire, desire and violence: A queer transnational feminist reading of the prisoner 'abuse' in Abu Ghraib and the question of gender equality. Int. Fem. J. Polit. 9(1):38-59.
Crossref

 
 

Said E (1979). Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books.

 
 

Saleh L (2016). (Muslim) woman in need of empowerment. Int. Fem. J. Polit. 18(1):80-98.
Crossref

 
 

Sami S, Williams HA, Karause S, Onyango MA, Burton A, Tomczyk B (2013). Responding to the Syrian Crisis: The Needs of Women and Girls. The Lancet. 383:1179–1181.
Crossref

 
 

Save the Children (2014). Too young to wed: The growing problem of child marriage among Syrian girls in Jordan. Available at: 

View

 
 

Schmitt E, Mazzetti M (2013). U.S. intelligence official says Syrian war could last for years. Retrieved February 27, 2017, from The New York Times: View

 
 

Schneider G, Banholzer L, Albarracin L (2015). Ordered rape: A principal–agent analysis of wartime sexual violence in the DR Congo. Violence Against Women. 21(11):1341-1363.
Crossref

 
 

Shaheen K (2017). Al-Qaida-linked militants' advance throws west's Syria plans into disarray. Retrieved January 31, 2018, from The Guardian:

View

 
 

Shammas J (2015). ISIS release 'rape handbook' to fighters, with 15 sickening new rules revealed. Retrieved January 31, 2018, from The Mirror: View

 
 

Shepherd LJ (2006). Veiled references: Constructions of gender in the Bush administration discourse on the attacks on Afghanistan post-9/11. ‎Int. Fem. J. Polit. 8(1):19-41.
Crossref

 
 

Shepherd LJ (2015). Constructing civil society: Gender, power and legitimacy in united nations peacebuilding discourse. Eur. J. Int. Relat. 21(4):887-910.
Crossref

 
 

Siddiqui M (2014). Isis: A contrived ideology justifying barbarism and sexual control. Retrieved February 23, 2017, from The Guardian: 

View

 
 

Sippel Serra (nd). Rape in conflict continues. Retrieved February 3, 2018, from The Huffington Post: 

View

 
 

Skjelsbæk I (2001). Sexual violence and war: Mapping out a complex Relationship. Eur. J. Int. Relat. 7(2):211-237.
Crossref

 
 

Spencer R, Usta J, Essaid A, Shukri S, El-Gharaibeh Y, Abu-Taleb H, Awwad N et al (2015). Gender based violence against women and girls displaced by the Syrian conflict in south Lebanon and north Jordan: Scope of violence and health correlates.

 
 

Spivak GC (1988). Can the subaltern speak? In C. Nelson, L. Grossberg (Eds.). Marxism and the interpretation of culture. Basingstoke: Macmillan Education, pp. 271-313.
Crossref

 
 

Steans J (2008). Telling stories about women and gender in the war on terror. Glob. Soc. 22(1):159-175.
Crossref

 
 

Steans J (2013). Gender and international relations: Theory, practice, and policy. (3rd ed.). Cambridge: Polity Press. Stop Rape Now. Available at: View

 
 

The Freedom Fund (2016). Struggling to survive: Slavery and exploitation of Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Available at: 

View

 
 

The International Rescue Committee (2013). Syria: A regional crisis. The IRC commission on Syrian refugees.

 
 

The Syrian Centre for Policy Research (SCPR) (2015). Syria: Confronting fragmentation. impact of Syrian crisis report.

 
 

Townsend M (2017). Rape and slavery was lure for UK Isis recruits with history of sexual violence. Retrieved January 31, 2018, from The Observer: View

 
 

True J (2010). The political economy of violence against women: A feminist international relations perspective. Aust. Fem. Law J. 32(1):39-59.
Crossref

 
 

True J (2012). The political economy of violence against women. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Crossref

 
 

UNICEF (2013). Assessment of the impact of GBV on male youth and boys among Syrian and Syrian/Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Available at: View

 
 

UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) (2014). A study on early marriage in Jordon. Available at: 

View

United Nations General Assembly (2013) Report of the independent international commission of inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic 22nd session, 5th February U.N. Doc. A/HRC/22/59.

 

United Nations General Assembly (2014) Report of the independent international commission of inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic 27th session, 13th August U.N. Doc. A/HRC/27/60.

 
 

United Nations General Assembly (2015a) Report of the independent international commission of inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, 27th session, 5th February U.N. Doc. A/HRC/28/69.

 
 

United Nations General Assembly (2015b) Report of the independent international commission of inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, 30th session, 13th August. U.N. Doc. A/HRC/30/48.

 
 

United Nations General Assembly (2016) Report of the independent international commission of inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, 33rd session, 11th August. U.N. Doc. A/HRC/33/55.

 
 

UNHCR (2015). Woman alone: The fight for survival by Syria's refugee women. Available at: 

View

 
 

UN News (2015). Syria: senior UN official calls for immediate end to use of sexual violence by all sides as weapon of war. Available at: 

View

 
 

United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) (2000) Resolution 1325.S/2000/1325.

 
 

United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) (2008) Resolution 1820.S/2008/1820.

 
 

United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) (2009) Resolution 1888.S/2009/1888.

 
 

United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) (2010). Resolution 1960. S/2010/1960.

 
 

United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) (2013) Resolution 2106. S/2010/2106.

 
 

United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) (2015). Fight against sexual violence in conflict reaches 'new juncture', security council told. Available at: 

View

 
 

Universal Periodic Review (2016). Human rights violations against women and girls in Syria.' Submission to the United Nations universal periodic review of the Syrian Arab republic. 26th session. 25 July. Available at: 

View

 
 

Waller JE (2012). Rape as a tool of 'othering' in genocide. In C. Rittner, J Roth, Rape: weapon of war and genocide. St Paul Minnesota: Paragon, pp. 83-100.

 
 

Wilcox LB (2015). Bodies of Violence: Theorizing embodied subjects in international relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Crossref

 
 

Wolfe L (2012). The ultimate assault: Charting Syria's use of rape to terrorize its people. [Blog post] Available at: 

View

 
 

Wolfe L (2013). Syria has a massive rape crisis. [Blog post]. Available at 

View

 
 

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) (2016). Violations against women in Syria and the disproportionate impact of the conflict on them. NGO summary report. Universal periodic review of the Syrian Arab republic.

 
 

Women's Media Centre. Women's media center's women under siege. Available at: 

View

 
 

Wood EJ (2009). Armed groups and sexual violence: When is wartime rape rare? ‎J. Polit. Soc. 37(1):131-162.
Crossref

 
 

Wood EJ (2014). Conflict-related sexual violence and the policy implications of recent research. Sexual Violence in Armed conflict: Int. Rev. Red Cross. 96(894):457-478.
Crossref

 
 

Women's Refugee Commission (2016). A girl no more: The changing norms of child marriage in conflict. Available at: 

View