Culturally competent responses to the effects of armed conflict on the well-being of refugee women

Abstract

Armed conflict is often conceptualized as a gendered activity where fighters are men, and where women and children suffer, often differently and disproportionately. Sadly, Violence is no longer merely the business of male combatants and trained militaries (Rajasingham-Senanayake, 2004, p. 145). The postmodern wars and armed conflicts in the Balkans and in Africa that targeted and involved large number of civilians, including women and girls, present a fundamental challenge to how we conceptualize war and peace (Rajasingham- Senanayake, 2004) and analyze the effects of these new wars (Kaldor, 1999) on their survivors. Girl soldiers, women suicide bombers and women in battle fatigues carrying guns begin to blur both gender roles and conventional distinctions between military and civilian actors. As evidenced by the violence in Rwanda and Bosnia, for example, civilians can be both victims and perpetrators, sometimes seemingly in equal measure. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.