Armed conflict and gender victimization in Colombia

Abstract

This paper discuses victimization of women in Colombia’s armed conflict. It uses data from interviews with women who were displaced from the conflict zones. It analyzes victimization from material losses, sexual violence, and murder and disappearance of loved ones. It demonstrates that, although sexual violence is the most specific form of victimization faced by women, the other forms of victimization also had a strong impact on them. While the destruction of material patrimony undermined the social reproduction of their family groups, the effective and potential loss of loved ones affected those women’s ties of maternity, care, and protection. The paper shows that the resulting burden forced those women to react to the armed groups and flee from their places of origin to protect their families. It concludes the effects associated to displacement ensure that the weight of victimisations is more long lasting. Those effects continue to accompany them and project themselves on their new ways of life in their places of destination.