The Effects of Female Participation in Ideological Rebel Groups on the Patterns of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence

Research Article
Open access

The Effects of Female Participation in Ideological Rebel Groups on the Patterns of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence

Zhuoyan Wei 1*
  • 1 Shanghai Starriver Bilingual School, Shanghai, China    
  • *corresponding author weizhuoyan1106@163.com
LNEP Vol.6
ISSN (Print): 2753-7056
ISSN (Online): 2753-7048
ISBN (Print): 978-1-915371-37-9
ISBN (Online): 978-1-915371-38-6

Abstract

This essay analyzes how female participation may affect the perpetration of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) by rebel groups. I look at leftist, Islamist, Christian, and Buddhist rebel groups, examining how these ideologies interact with the factor of female participation. I hypothesize that while female participation in leftist and Buddhist rebel groups may reduce CRSV, it may have relatively little impact in Islamist and Christian rebel groups. I test these theories individually through the case studies of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), and the United People's Democratic Front (UPDF). Due to the lack of data on Christian and Buddhist rebel groups, I only statistically corroborate my hypotheses on leftist and Islamist rebel groups.

Keywords:

conflict-related sexual violence, female participation, rebel groups, rebel sexual violence

Wei,Z. (2023). The Effects of Female Participation in Ideological Rebel Groups on the Patterns of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence. Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media,6,920-930.
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References

[1]. Cohen, Dara Kay. 2016. Rape during Civil War. Cornell University Press.

[2]. Cohen, Dara Kay, and Ragnhild Nordås. 2021. Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict Data Project (SVAC) 3.0, 1989-2019 Codebook and Instruction Manual.

[3]. Wood, Elisabeth Jean. 2006. "Variation in sexual violence during war." Politics & Society 34 (3): 307-342.

[4]. Wood, Elisabeth Jean. 2009. "Armed groups and sexual violence: When is wartime rape rare?" Politics & Society 37 (1): 131-161.

[5]. Loken, Meredith. 2017. "Rethinking Rape: The Role of Women in Wartime Violence." Security Studies 26 (1): 60–92.

[6]. Mehrl, Marius. 2022. "Female combatants and wartime rape: Reconsidering the role of women in armed conflict." Armed Forces & Society 48 (2): 464-479.

[7]. Ju, Changwook. 2023. "The Distinct Effects of Women Combatants on State- and Rebel-Perpetrated Rape."

[8]. Thornhill, Randy, and Craig T. Palmer. 2001. “A natural history of rape: Biological bases of sexual coercion.” MIT press.

[9]. Sharlach, Lisa. 2000. "Rape as genocide: Bangladesh, the former Yugoslavia, and Rwanda." New Political Science 22(1): 89-102.

[10]. Wood, Elisabeth Jean. 2018. "Rape as a practice of war: Toward a typology of political violence." Politics & Society 46 (4): 513-537.

[11]. Ju, Changwook. 2022. "Why Do Military Officers Condone Sexual Violence? A General Theory of Commander Tolerance." International Studies Review 24 (3): 1-31.

[12]. Cohen, Dara Kay, Amelia Hoover Green, and Elisabeth Jean Wood. 2013. "Wartime sexual violence: Misconceptions, implications, and ways forward."

[13]. Sawyer, Katherine, Kanisha D. Bond, and Kathleen Gallagher Cunningham. 2021. "Rebel Leader Ascension and Wartime Sexual Violence." Journal of Politics 83 (1): 396–400.

[14]. Kirschner, Shanna, and Adam Miller. 2019. "Does Peacekeeping Really Bring Peace? Peacekeepers and Combatant-perpetrated Sexual Violence in Civil Wars." Journal of Conflict Resolution 63 (9): 2043–2070.

[15]. Asal, Victor, and Robert Ulrich Nagel. 2021. "Control over Bodies and Territories: Insurgent Territorial Control and Sexual Violence." Security Studies 30 (1): 136–158.

[16]. Card, Claudia. 1996. "Rape as a Weapon of War." Hypatia 11 (4): 5-18.

[17]. Duncanson, Claire, and Rachel Woodward. 2016. "Regendering the military: Theorizing women's military participation." Security dialogue 47 (1): 3-21.

[18]. Loken, Meredith, and Anna Zelenz. 2018. "Explaining extremism: Western women in Daesh." European Journal of International Security 3 (1): 45-68.

[19]. Mehrl, Marius. 2020. "Female Combatants and Wartime Rape: Reconsidering the Role of Women in Armed Conflict." Armed Forces & Society (2): 1–16.

[20]. Wood, Reed M., and Jakana L. Thomas. 2017. "Women on the frontline: Rebel group ideology and women's participation in violent rebellion." Journal of Peace Research 54 (1): 31-46.

[21]. Sarwari, Mehwish. 2021. "Impact of Rebel Group Ideology on Wartime Sexual Violence." Journal of Global Security Studies 6 (2): 1-23.

[22]. Inglehart, Ronald, and Pippa Norris. 2003. Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural Change. Cambridge University Press.

[23]. Wood, Reed M. 2019. Female Fighters: Why Rebel Groups Recruit Women for War. Columbia University Press.

[24]. Brown, Heather. 2014. "Marx on gender and the family: A summary." Monthly review 66 (2): 48-57.

[25]. Yuan, Lijun. 2005. Reconceiving Women's Equality in China: A Critical Examination of Models of Sex Equality. Lanham, MD: Lexington.

[26]. Robison, Kristopher K., Edward M. Crenshaw, and J. Craig Jenkins. 2006. "Ideologies of violence: The social origins of Islamist and leftist transnational terrorism." Social Forces 84 (4): 2009-2026.

[27]. Cook, David. 2005. "Women fighting in Jihad." Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 28(5): 375-384.

[28]. Speckhard, Anne. 2008. "The emergence of female terrorism." Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 31(11): 995-1023.

[29]. Sjoberg, Laura, and Reed Wood. 2015. "People, not pawns: Women's participation in violent extremism across MENA." USAID Research Brief 1: 1-4.

[30]. Kennedy, Margaret. 2003. "Christianity and Child Sexual Abuse–Survivors informing the care of children following abuse."

[31]. Scarsella, Hilary Jerome, and Stephanie Krehbiel. 2019. "Sexual violence: Christian theological legacies and responsibilities." Religion Compass 13 (9).

[32]. Rose, Susan D. 1999. "Christian fundamentalism: Patriarchy, sexuality, and human rights." In Religious fundamentalisms and the human rights of women, pp. 9-20. Palgrave Macmillan.

[33]. Samarakoon, Charya. 2022. "Addressing the causes of conflict-related sexual violence with the buddhist doctrine of lack of a permanent self and meditation training." Contemporary Buddhism: 1-20.

[34]. Vázquez, Norma. 1997. "Motherhood and sexuality times of war: The case of women militants of the FMLN in El Salvador." Reproductive Health Matters 5 (9): 139-146.

[35]. Kampwirth, Karen. 2021. Women and Guerrilla Movements. Penn State University Press.

[36]. Viterna, Jocelyn. 2013. Women in war: The micro-processes of mobilization in El Salvador. Oxford University Press.

[37]. Chatterjee, Debangana. 2016. "Gendering ISIS and mapping the role of women." Contemporary Review of the Middle East 3 (2): 201-218.

[38]. Zakaria, Rafia. 2015. "Women and Islamic militancy." Dissent 62 (1): 118-125.

[39]. Pearson, Elizabeth, and Emily Winterbotham. 2017. "Women, gender and daesh radicalisation: A milieu approach." The RUSI Journal 162 (3): 60-72.

[40]. Loken, Meredith, and Hilary Matfess. 2022. "Women's Participation in Violent Non-State Organizations." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies.

[41]. Kneip, Katharina. 2016. "Female Jihad–Women in the ISIS." Politikon: The IAPSS Journal of Political Science 29: 88-106.

[42]. Cooke, Miriam. 2019. "Murad vs. ISIS: Rape as a Weapon of Genocide." Journal of Middle East Women's Studies 15 (3): 261-285.

[43]. Al-Ali, Nadje. 2018. "Sexual violence in Iraq: Challenges for transnational feminist politics." European journal of women's studies 25 (1): 10-27.

[44]. Ehrenreich, Rosa. 1998. "The Stories We Must Tell: Ugandan Children and the Atrocities of the Lord's Resistance Army." Africa Today 45 (1): 79–102.

[45]. Ellison, Marc. 2015. "Magazine: The girls of the Lord's Resistance Army." Al Jazeera.

[46]. Nkabala, Helen Nambalirwa. 2014. "Gender perspectives in the Lord's Resistance Army in relation to the Old Testament." Old Testament Essays 27 (3): 930-944.

[47]. Kramer, Sophie. 2012. "Forced marriage and the absence of gang rape: Explaining sexual violence by the Lord's Resistance Army in Northern Uganda." 11-49.

[48]. Baines, Erin. 2014. "Forced Marriage as a Political Project: Sexual Rules and Relations in the Lord's Resistance Army." Journal of Peace Research 51 (3): 405–17.

[49]. Ali, HM Ashraf. 2012. "Place and contested identity: portraying the role of the place in shaping common sociopolitical identity in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh." COMPASS 1 (2): 31-46.

[50]. Corraya, Sumon. 2021 "Christians flee after two attacks by Buddhist radicals against their church."

[51]. UPDF. 1998. "United Peoples Democratic Front Manifesto (Preliminary)." http://updfcht.com/?page_id=692.

[52]. Jamil, Ishtiaq, and Pranab Kumar Panday. 2008. "The elusive peace accord in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh and the plight of the indigenous people." Commonwealth & Comparative Politics 46 (4): 464-489.

[53]. Braithwaite, John, and Bina D'Costa. 2018. "Macro to Micro Cascades: Bangladesh." In Cascades of Violence: War, Crime and Peacebuilding Across South Asia, 321–62. ANU Press.

[54]. San-Akca, Belgin. 2016. "States in Disguise: Causes of External State Support for Rebel Groups." Oxford University Press.

[55]. Cohen, Dara Kay, and Ragnhild Nordås. 2021. "Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict Dataset (Version 3)." The Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict.

Cite this article

Wei,Z. (2023). The Effects of Female Participation in Ideological Rebel Groups on the Patterns of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence. Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media,6,920-930.

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

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About volume

Volume title: Proceedings of the International Conference on Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication Studies (ICIHCS 2022), Part 5

ISBN：978-1-915371-37-9(Print) / 978-1-915371-38-6(Online)
Editor：Muhammad Idrees, Matilde Lafuente-Lechuga
Conference website: https://www.icihcs.org/
Conference date: 18 December 2022
Series: Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media
Volume number: Vol.6
ISSN：2753-7048(Print) / 2753-7056(Online)

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References

[1]. Cohen, Dara Kay. 2016. Rape during Civil War. Cornell University Press.

[2]. Cohen, Dara Kay, and Ragnhild Nordås. 2021. Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict Data Project (SVAC) 3.0, 1989-2019 Codebook and Instruction Manual.

[3]. Wood, Elisabeth Jean. 2006. "Variation in sexual violence during war." Politics & Society 34 (3): 307-342.

[4]. Wood, Elisabeth Jean. 2009. "Armed groups and sexual violence: When is wartime rape rare?" Politics & Society 37 (1): 131-161.

[5]. Loken, Meredith. 2017. "Rethinking Rape: The Role of Women in Wartime Violence." Security Studies 26 (1): 60–92.

[6]. Mehrl, Marius. 2022. "Female combatants and wartime rape: Reconsidering the role of women in armed conflict." Armed Forces & Society 48 (2): 464-479.

[7]. Ju, Changwook. 2023. "The Distinct Effects of Women Combatants on State- and Rebel-Perpetrated Rape."

[8]. Thornhill, Randy, and Craig T. Palmer. 2001. “A natural history of rape: Biological bases of sexual coercion.” MIT press.

[9]. Sharlach, Lisa. 2000. "Rape as genocide: Bangladesh, the former Yugoslavia, and Rwanda." New Political Science 22(1): 89-102.

[10]. Wood, Elisabeth Jean. 2018. "Rape as a practice of war: Toward a typology of political violence." Politics & Society 46 (4): 513-537.

[11]. Ju, Changwook. 2022. "Why Do Military Officers Condone Sexual Violence? A General Theory of Commander Tolerance." International Studies Review 24 (3): 1-31.

[12]. Cohen, Dara Kay, Amelia Hoover Green, and Elisabeth Jean Wood. 2013. "Wartime sexual violence: Misconceptions, implications, and ways forward."

[13]. Sawyer, Katherine, Kanisha D. Bond, and Kathleen Gallagher Cunningham. 2021. "Rebel Leader Ascension and Wartime Sexual Violence." Journal of Politics 83 (1): 396–400.

[14]. Kirschner, Shanna, and Adam Miller. 2019. "Does Peacekeeping Really Bring Peace? Peacekeepers and Combatant-perpetrated Sexual Violence in Civil Wars." Journal of Conflict Resolution 63 (9): 2043–2070.

[15]. Asal, Victor, and Robert Ulrich Nagel. 2021. "Control over Bodies and Territories: Insurgent Territorial Control and Sexual Violence." Security Studies 30 (1): 136–158.

[16]. Card, Claudia. 1996. "Rape as a Weapon of War." Hypatia 11 (4): 5-18.

[17]. Duncanson, Claire, and Rachel Woodward. 2016. "Regendering the military: Theorizing women's military participation." Security dialogue 47 (1): 3-21.

[18]. Loken, Meredith, and Anna Zelenz. 2018. "Explaining extremism: Western women in Daesh." European Journal of International Security 3 (1): 45-68.

[19]. Mehrl, Marius. 2020. "Female Combatants and Wartime Rape: Reconsidering the Role of Women in Armed Conflict." Armed Forces & Society (2): 1–16.

[20]. Wood, Reed M., and Jakana L. Thomas. 2017. "Women on the frontline: Rebel group ideology and women's participation in violent rebellion." Journal of Peace Research 54 (1): 31-46.

[21]. Sarwari, Mehwish. 2021. "Impact of Rebel Group Ideology on Wartime Sexual Violence." Journal of Global Security Studies 6 (2): 1-23.

[22]. Inglehart, Ronald, and Pippa Norris. 2003. Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural Change. Cambridge University Press.

[23]. Wood, Reed M. 2019. Female Fighters: Why Rebel Groups Recruit Women for War. Columbia University Press.

[24]. Brown, Heather. 2014. "Marx on gender and the family: A summary." Monthly review 66 (2): 48-57.

[25]. Yuan, Lijun. 2005. Reconceiving Women's Equality in China: A Critical Examination of Models of Sex Equality. Lanham, MD: Lexington.

[26]. Robison, Kristopher K., Edward M. Crenshaw, and J. Craig Jenkins. 2006. "Ideologies of violence: The social origins of Islamist and leftist transnational terrorism." Social Forces 84 (4): 2009-2026.

[27]. Cook, David. 2005. "Women fighting in Jihad." Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 28(5): 375-384.

[28]. Speckhard, Anne. 2008. "The emergence of female terrorism." Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 31(11): 995-1023.

[29]. Sjoberg, Laura, and Reed Wood. 2015. "People, not pawns: Women's participation in violent extremism across MENA." USAID Research Brief 1: 1-4.

[30]. Kennedy, Margaret. 2003. "Christianity and Child Sexual Abuse–Survivors informing the care of children following abuse."

[31]. Scarsella, Hilary Jerome, and Stephanie Krehbiel. 2019. "Sexual violence: Christian theological legacies and responsibilities." Religion Compass 13 (9).

[32]. Rose, Susan D. 1999. "Christian fundamentalism: Patriarchy, sexuality, and human rights." In Religious fundamentalisms and the human rights of women, pp. 9-20. Palgrave Macmillan.

[33]. Samarakoon, Charya. 2022. "Addressing the causes of conflict-related sexual violence with the buddhist doctrine of lack of a permanent self and meditation training." Contemporary Buddhism: 1-20.

[34]. Vázquez, Norma. 1997. "Motherhood and sexuality times of war: The case of women militants of the FMLN in El Salvador." Reproductive Health Matters 5 (9): 139-146.

[35]. Kampwirth, Karen. 2021. Women and Guerrilla Movements. Penn State University Press.

[36]. Viterna, Jocelyn. 2013. Women in war: The micro-processes of mobilization in El Salvador. Oxford University Press.

[37]. Chatterjee, Debangana. 2016. "Gendering ISIS and mapping the role of women." Contemporary Review of the Middle East 3 (2): 201-218.

[38]. Zakaria, Rafia. 2015. "Women and Islamic militancy." Dissent 62 (1): 118-125.

[39]. Pearson, Elizabeth, and Emily Winterbotham. 2017. "Women, gender and daesh radicalisation: A milieu approach." The RUSI Journal 162 (3): 60-72.

[40]. Loken, Meredith, and Hilary Matfess. 2022. "Women's Participation in Violent Non-State Organizations." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies.

[41]. Kneip, Katharina. 2016. "Female Jihad–Women in the ISIS." Politikon: The IAPSS Journal of Political Science 29: 88-106.

[42]. Cooke, Miriam. 2019. "Murad vs. ISIS: Rape as a Weapon of Genocide." Journal of Middle East Women's Studies 15 (3): 261-285.

[43]. Al-Ali, Nadje. 2018. "Sexual violence in Iraq: Challenges for transnational feminist politics." European journal of women's studies 25 (1): 10-27.

[44]. Ehrenreich, Rosa. 1998. "The Stories We Must Tell: Ugandan Children and the Atrocities of the Lord's Resistance Army." Africa Today 45 (1): 79–102.

[45]. Ellison, Marc. 2015. "Magazine: The girls of the Lord's Resistance Army." Al Jazeera.

[46]. Nkabala, Helen Nambalirwa. 2014. "Gender perspectives in the Lord's Resistance Army in relation to the Old Testament." Old Testament Essays 27 (3): 930-944.

[47]. Kramer, Sophie. 2012. "Forced marriage and the absence of gang rape: Explaining sexual violence by the Lord's Resistance Army in Northern Uganda." 11-49.

[48]. Baines, Erin. 2014. "Forced Marriage as a Political Project: Sexual Rules and Relations in the Lord's Resistance Army." Journal of Peace Research 51 (3): 405–17.

[49]. Ali, HM Ashraf. 2012. "Place and contested identity: portraying the role of the place in shaping common sociopolitical identity in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh." COMPASS 1 (2): 31-46.

[50]. Corraya, Sumon. 2021 "Christians flee after two attacks by Buddhist radicals against their church."

[51]. UPDF. 1998. "United Peoples Democratic Front Manifesto (Preliminary)." http://updfcht.com/?page_id=692.

[52]. Jamil, Ishtiaq, and Pranab Kumar Panday. 2008. "The elusive peace accord in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh and the plight of the indigenous people." Commonwealth & Comparative Politics 46 (4): 464-489.

[53]. Braithwaite, John, and Bina D'Costa. 2018. "Macro to Micro Cascades: Bangladesh." In Cascades of Violence: War, Crime and Peacebuilding Across South Asia, 321–62. ANU Press.

[54]. San-Akca, Belgin. 2016. "States in Disguise: Causes of External State Support for Rebel Groups." Oxford University Press.

[55]. Cohen, Dara Kay, and Ragnhild Nordås. 2021. "Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict Dataset (Version 3)." The Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict.

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