Gendered Roles
Gender is not about male or female; rather, it is about social, cultural, and psychological characteristics and roles that a society considers appropriate for men, women, and other gender identities. It is a system that further leads to the significant division of men, women, and other gender identities according to societal expectations. Society often defines men and women based on their physical, external, or perceptible appearances, reinforcing assumptions about their expected roles and imposed behaviors. Eventually, the persistent repetition of such labels solidifies these assumptions into widely accepted social and normative behaviors, which ultimately create gender differences, further leading to the imposition of predefined roles on individuals and the reinforcement of inequalities.
Furthermore, separation reinforces gender inequalities by limiting equal, cross-gender interactions and keeping women in lower-status and less visible social roles in society. Once a belief system is injected into the social structure, stereotypes emerge, such as the notion that women are capable of certain tasks but not others, simply because of imposed roles and gender expectations. Women are often perceived as unsuitable for specific roles or positions, particularly those involving external work, as they are traditionally recognized as household workers and caregivers. The wide acceptance of imposed roles on women perpetuates gender inequalities, and in many aspects of life, women tolerate, suffer, and silently accept male dominance.
Gender, War and Suffering
The social perception not only limits women in domestic spheres but also affects their experience in a more extreme context. During war, both men and women suffer, but the sufferings of women are always overlooked during conflict, further perpetuating gender inequalities.
Women have long endured behavior at the hands of men, significantly in the form of domestic gender-based violence (GBV). However, during times of an active war, their sufferings intensify as they become direct targets of sexual assaults, forced prostitution, and rape. These inhumane activities are used by the enemy as weapons of war to demoralize the soldiers, families, and communities. Ultimately, it is women who bear the brunt of these merciless and barbaric acts of assault.
While men are busy on the battlefield, women are compelled at home to shoulder additional responsibilities in the absence of their male heads. As mothers, daughters, sisters, or wives, women not only administer the home and maintain households but also play a significant emotional role, such as preparing and sending their fathers, brothers, sons, or husbands to war. They (women) are the ones who witness the separation of their loved ones and bear the profound emotional impact of loss under increased pressure.
Women and girls are often among the most affected creatures before, during, and after the conflict, frequently becoming refugees, returnees, and internally displaced persons (IDPs) as a result of an armed conflict. Due to forced displacement, women have only the option to seek asylum in refugee camps; however, brutal acts against women do not end there for them. Within refugee camps, they are often exposed to sexual violence, harassment, and rape, and in some cases, subjected to forced labor by armed forces. Women are taken as hostages by armed forces, where they are forced to tolerate sexual assaults and forced enslavement. In many cases, they forcefully cook, clean, and provide care for combatants, turning them into unwilling servants in conflict zones.
In the socio-economic dimension, war often causes the destruction of essential infrastructure, including schools, hospitals, and homes, affecting every age and gender. Even significant water resources, such as wells, are poisoned during conventional wars. This huge devastation causes an enormous influx of refugees in the affected region, with women being the most vulnerable. Women are compelled to assume the role of head of the household, enduring the financial and emotional burden of sustaining their families. To ease these Sisyphean struggles, they often resort to selling homemade goods in order to provide food and maintain basic household functioning.
Protecting Women
Both men and women are targeted during war, yet, unfortunately, recognition and praise after the war are reserved only for men. The struggle, pain, and suffering of women who fought, tolerated, and faced challenges to survive on the peripheries are frequently ignored. This inequality and lack of recognition exist because our understanding of gender is manipulated to prioritize only men, marginalizing the brutal experiences of women. These sufferings and struggles faced by women can get true recognition by building the concept of gender in its full depth and by expanding impartial, transparent, and equal importance and dignity to both men and women.
In addition to that, branches of international law, including international human rights and international humanitarian law, have constituted a legal framework that provides the rights and protection of women during times of war. Historically, the United Nations has played a pivotal role in advancing these protections both during conflict and in times of peace.
The coordinated and united commitment has led to the foundation and development of key universal covenants to protect women’s rights, such as the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). International Convention Against Torture (CAT), and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). These key treaties not only protect during wartime but also in times of peace.
The Geneva Convention and its additional protocols have provided particular provisions that affirm the rights of families included in conflict and protect women during an armed conflict. For example, Article 26 of the 4th Geneva Convention and Article 32 of Additional Protocol I uphold the right of families to know the fate of their detainees and loved ones who have been forcibly disappeared.
Additionally, Article 12 of Geneva Convention I and II, Article 3 of Geneva Convention III, and Article 76 of Additional Protocol I explicitly prohibit inhumane activities against women, including rape, torture, sexual assaults, enforced prostitution, and enforced disappearance, emphasizing the need to respect women’s dignity and protect their civil and political rights. Considering the unique vulnerabilities of women, the same legal framework of Articles 18, 20, and 21 of the 4th Geneva Convention focuses on providing adequate medical assistance to women and girls who are pregnant.
These international institutions have provided legal guarantees to women; despite this, gender bias persists within the implementation of these provisions granted by International Human Rights Law (IHRL) and International Humanitarian Law (IHL). Women supposedly face gender-based violence, resulting in systemic neglect of women’s rights. This extraordinary exclusion of women from frontline rights not only violates international law and human rights under international humanitarian law (IHL) but also hinders the development of inclusive and sustainable peace.
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The views and opinions expressed in this article/paper are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Paradigm Shift.
Sajjad Ali Memon is currently pursuing his bachelor's degree in peace and conflict studies at the National Defence University, Islamabad. He is also a daily contributor to several prestigious newspapers in Pakistan, including Dawn, The News International, The Express Tribune, and The Nation. His area of interest involves Middle Eastern geopolitics, security, and the foreign policy of the US and Russia.