Feminist Activism in Resistance Kosovar Women's Organising through Civil Resistance, War, and Peacebuilding

1. Resistance: Feminist activism in conflict

Nonviolent and violent conflicts, and peacebuilding

The gendered logics of conflict and peace

Kosovo: from nonviolence to war, from liberal peace to resistance

The gendered dynamics of conflict and international interventionism

On the methods used     

Chapter outline

2. Nonviolent civil resistance and women organizing

Balkan women organizing under Communism

From the zadruga to the university

Ilegalja: background to resistance

Nonviolence against the war: the reality behind

First steps of women’s activism

Women’s participation in the LDK

In our way: the creation and development of women’s organisations

The defence of active resistance

Conclusion

3. ‘As if we were only victims’: variations of feminist activism and women’s political participation through the war

Women combatants in the KLA

(Un)Protected women

Women building peace and enabling security

But the violence continues

Conclusion

Ch. 4. The reconfiguration of women’s and feminist organising after war

NGOisation, the mushrooming of organisations and its consequences

Kosovo Women’s Network: creating spaces for resistance

Re-organising and expanding spaces of action

Conclusion

Ch. 5. UNSCR 1325 in Kosovo: shared spaces, resistances, alternative moves

Calling for UNSCR 1325

Implementing 1325: who does what, and how

Political and decision-making spaces

Gender responsibility at all levels

Security through gender lenses

The institutionalisation of women’s rights

Creating alternatives: it is not only the 1325

Women’s Peace Coalition: the parallel negotiations

The Women’s Court: transitional justice in feminist terms

Regional Women’s Lobby for Peace, Security and Justice in South East Europe

In our own way, again

Conclusion

Chapter 6. Hybrid moves: where funding goes and its implications

Dynamics in an anarchic ecosystem

When goals differ: contesting liberal peace

Resisting international interventionism?

Hybrid moves, seeds in the cracks

Conclusion

Chapter 7. Still here, still resisting: The continuum of resistances

Counter-narratives vs incomplete narratives

Which and whose peace and equality, anyway?

The continuum of feminist resistances

Not a single story

Biography

Itziar Mujika Chao teaches at the Department of Political Science and is member of the Hegoa Institute for International Cooperation and Development Studies, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). She holds a PhD in Development Studies from the UPV/EHU, and obtained her Masters in International Studies and Women, Gender and Citizenship Studies at the UPV/EHU and the University of Barcelona, respectively. Dr. Mujika Chao’s research focuses on feminist activism, gender politics of violent and nonviolent conflict, civil resistance, post-conflict peacebuilding and development, and the implementation of and responses/resistances to the United Nations’ Security Council Women, Peace and Security agenda.

"Mujika Chao’s Feminist Grassroots Activism in Resistance is a compelling and meticulously researched account of women’s organising in Kosovo, from the courage of nonviolent civil resistance to the grit of armed combat and the complexities of post-war peacebuilding. The book offers a complete anatomy of feminist and women-led activism in Kosovo, capturing both grassroots and institutional movements and critically examining how these vital contributions have been sidelined in the aftermath of liberal statebuilding."

Dr. Vjosa Musliu, Associate Professor, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)

“In a world torn by conflict, we need to relearn the innovative endurance of feminist resistance. This book offers a tender and attentive study of grassroots women’s movements in Kosovo, spotlighting their crucial role in peace-building in the last 30 years. The author brings to the forefront the agency of women’s and feminist organizations, thus displacing the androcentric narratives of peacebuilding and state-building. The book also provides new insights into the political economy of liberal peace and the complex relationship between funders and local women's organizations. This work makes a significant theoretical and methodological contribution to Feminist IR and Peace & Conflict Studies by reorienting our attention to resistance in the gradual, everyday coming together of feminists. Thus, centering the processes that sustain resilience and feminist transformation. An essential read for all IR classrooms!”

Khushi Singh Rathore, Max Weber Fellow, European University Institute

"This is a book about the paradoxes of liberal peacemaking. By focusing on women’s organizations in Kosovo, Itziar Mujika Chao convincingly demonstrates that they have often been forged and strengthened in resistance to rather than by international organizations and their funding. Gender equality is a result of local concerns, struggles, and articulations - not an invention of foreign donors."

Aida A. Hozić, Associate Professor of International Relations at the University of Florida.