Collective victimhood of individual survivors: reflecting the uses and impacts of two academic narratives two decades after the war-rapes in Bosnia-Herzegovina

Abstract

The author argues that engaging with the legacy of war rapes that happened two decades ago allow us to observe, reflect and analyse the impact of past research, and in doing so to revise methodologies and theoretical approaches in the future research projects in the field. To reflect on the use of the pas knowledge production in her own ethnographic work, she reflects on two most persuasive academic narratives in the context of war-inflicted rapes in Bosnia-Herzegovina: (1) the victim-survivor name argument and (2) the idea of collective victimhood.

Event centrality and conflict-related sexual violence: A new application of the Centrality of Event Scale (CES)

“…Such discourse further maintains the focus on a particular aspect of the women’s identities (thus overlooking the many other PTEs that they experienced), limiting the space for them to be something other than ‘victims’ (a term that is used in BiH far more commonly than ‘survivors’) of sexual violence. In her own work in BiH, moreover, Močnik (2019) notes that: What continuously emerged in workshops and group conversations was the ‘totalizing narrative of victimization’ (Simić, 2012: 133): Over the years, survivors have learned that this narrative is powerful and beneficial in attracting and engaging with representatives of various media and institutions (e.g. academic, humanitarian, political, etc.).…”

“…Such discourse further maintains the focus on a particular aspect of the women's identities (thus overlooking the many other PTEs that they experienced), limiting the space for them to be something other than 'victims' (a term that is used in BiH far more commonly than 'survivors') of sexual violence. In her own work in BiH, moreover, Močnik (2019) notes that:…”

‘The Everyday Work of Repair’: Exploring the Resilience of Victims-/Survivors of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence

“…academic, humanitarian, political, etc.). 113 Notwithstanding the contextual differences between the three countries, which translated into variations in the resources that interviewees' social ecologies provided, common across the three datasets was the importance of children (and in some cases grandchildren) as a crucial protective and sustaining connectivity that motivated 'the everyday work of repair'. Children (often regardless of age) were a significant protective factor in the interviewees' lives, giving them a major reason to get on with living.…”

“We Are All Alive . . . But Dead”: Cultural Meanings of War Trauma in the Tamil Diaspora and Implications for Service Delivery

“…That the community's perception of war is as collective trauma and a normal response to calamity, collective spaces may help to contain the trauma of individuals, where their distress is validated and incorporated at a collective level. Speaking about rape survivors in the former Yugoslavia, Močnik (2019) suggests creating spaces to listen and acknowledge the "broken silences" of the women, and Lentin (1999) writes about how these spaces should close the memory gap between the trauma of rape and its available expressions/discourses. According to Močnik, collective approaches are more functional in facilitating healing as they can acknowledge and incorporate the diversity of victimhood.…”

“…The double victimization and silencing is not unique to Tamil women who share many commonalities with women who suffered through what is termed as "the gendered wars" in countries such as Rwanda, Bosnia, Iraq, Algeria, and Kosovo (Lentin, 1999). Furthermore, the gender constructions and their influence in sanctioning expressions of distress in Tamil women is also observed in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission testimonies of South African women (Ross, 2003) and the narratives of Bosnian rape survivors (Močnik, 2019). Höglund (2019) comments on the gendered dimensions of the public Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) testimonies by Tamil women from the war-torn North and East of Sri Lanka.…”