CİNSİYETÇİ MİLLİYETÇİLİK VE SAVAŞLARDA CİNSEL ŞİDDETİN KULLANIMI: BOSNA ÖRNEĞİ
GENDERED NATIONALISM AND THE USE OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN WARS: THE CASE OF BOSNIA

Summary/Abstract: In this article, the construction process of gendered identity within the context of ethnic conflicts is discussed, and sexual violence during the Bosnian War is analyzed as a case study. Feminism discusses women’s control and repression by masculine thought and practices through social, political, ideological and international dimensions, and studies the facts such as war, nationalism, militarism and foreign policy within the framework of power relations. A state-centric analysis of these facts overshadows the ideological and sociological dimensions of the acts of violence toward individuals/groups and makes it difficult to find out the motivations and discourses behind the rapes during the wars. A feminist examination of the Bosnian War is important in terms of revealing how state-centric nationalism produces power relations through gendered identities. As seen in the Bosnian War, the nationalist discourse has been intertwined with gendered discourse, eventually aiming at ethnic cleansing through mass rapes. It is argued that the mass rapes in Bosnia cannot be regarded merely as individual cases since they target the reproduction of society as a whole, and nationalist practices further deepened the existing gender inequality. Also, the link between nationalism and gender was reinstated and emboldened through rapes which were used as a political instrument and tactic of war.

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