Research on the subject of women’s migration and conflict is generally organised along the twin axes of gender and conflict, and gender and migration. The reality of women’s conflict-driven migration, however, falls between these two axes. The essays in this volume seek to fill this gap by examining the changes in status, identities and power relations among women and men as they move from a conflict situation at home, to migrant camps, to the post-conflict or peace-building phase when they return home. Using a variety of research methods – including ethnography, dialogue, oral history, textual analyses and consciousness-raising techniques – the contributors discuss issues like: The thin line between choice and coercion in most conflict-related migration; The blurring of the division between the private sphere of women and the public sphere of men after such migration; The problem of finding solutions to crises which sometimes lead women to demand meaningful political participation; The need to go beyond ‘subaltern’ and marginalized conceptualizations of conflict-affected migrant women; The uneasy relationship between the state, citizenship and national honour on the one hand, and women on the other, during and after conflict; The need for national and regional ‘gender asylum laws’ in view of the gendered nature of refugee laws. The volume provides key insights to the understanding of these issues in specific conflict situations throughout South Asia. It will appeal to scholars of migration studies, gender studies, peace and conflict studies, sociology, human rights and political science, and to social activists and policy makers involved in shaping refugee laws and managing humanitarian aid to refugees.
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