Hidden Wars: Gendered Political Violence in Asia's Civil Conflicts

Abstract

Hidden Wars documents the gendered political violence that is frequently neglected or ignored in conventional analysis of war and conflict, affecting how we understand conflict and which violence we prioritize with implications for postwar peace. Specifically, the book-length study examines the relationship between reports of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and structural gender inequality in three conflict-affected societies in Asia: Burma, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka. It is based on extensive field research and analysis of an original dataset on conflict-related SGBV in each country. The longitudinal data is purposively contextualized within conflict dynamics, political struggles, and local understandings of gender relations. Existing social science research shows that structural gender inequality is the most significant risk factor for SGBV. Building on this scholarship, the authors argue that the presence and type of SGBV in Asian civil conflicts reflect distinct and highly politicized, gendered societies. Scholars and policymakers are aware that reporting silence is a major problem for identifying and responding to SGBV. As a result, however, they rarely note the limitations of the data and our knowledge of who perpetrates or is a victim of SGBV, when, and where, due to the politicized contexts of reporting and data collection on the ground. Hidden Wars addresses these real-world limitations by examining the social and political conditions—especially the reporting conditions—for SGBV. Localized patterns of SGBV and the prospects for its prevention in low-intensity conflict environments, like those predominant across Asia, are explicated.