Individual Motivations

Abstract

Individual MotivationsMost existing publications on female involvement in non-state political violence focus on individual aspects. In the case of women's participation in the Lebanese civil war, individual motivations were indeed crucial. It is unlikely that there would have been female fighters in any of the militias operating during the Lebanese civil war without women's insistence for their inclusion. This chapter discusses the backgrounds and motivations of the women (and men) who joined the militias involved in the war.In the literature on individual motivations in other violent conflicts, most authors stress the complex nature of the process that leads individuals to join non-state armed groups, and that it is difficult, if not impossible, to single out singular causes (