The Women's Review of Books articles from February 2004

The Women's Review of Books archives from February 2004

Special issue: women, war, and peace.(Editorial)
February 1, 2004... Women in Bosnia are systematically raped as a tactic of war.... First Lady Laura Bush calls on the US to liberate Afghan women from their burqas.... A squad of female fighters in Liberia attracts worldwide attention.... Women's groups around...

Afghan heroines.(Book Review)
February 1, 2004... Meena, Heroine of Afghanistan: The Martyr Who Founded RAWA, The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan by Melody Ermachild Chavis. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003, 208 pp., $19.95 hardcover. The Storyteller's Daughter by Saira...

Anti-war in the heartland: feminists have been organizing for peace around the US--not just on the two coasts.
February 1, 2004... Here in South Minneapolis, I often live in a warm and purposeful peace and justice "bubble," surrounded by like-minded friends. I buy food at the local coop grocery, browse at the remaining independent bookstores, get the best of the bad news...

Military women: who they are, what they do, and why it matters.
February 1, 2004... Quick, which employer in the United States can--indeed must--discriminate against its employees based solely on their gender, without regard for their actual skills and talents? If you answered the US military, you are right. This legal...

Feminist peacemaking: in Resolution 1325, the United Nations requires the inclusion of women in all peace planning and negotiation.
February 1, 2004... (1) "Women are not just victims of violence. They are often the driving force for peace." (2) "In our view, only the full participation of women in global affairs can open up greater opportunities for achieving global peace." (3)...

Beyond "fears and tears".(Book Review)
February 1, 2004... Feminists Under Fire: Exchanges Across War Zones edited by Wenona Giles, Malathi de Alwis, Edith Klein, Neluka Silva (co-editors) with Maja Korac, Djurdja Knezevic, and Zarana Papic (advisory editors). Toronto, ON: Between the Lines, 2003, 238...

The road from Beirut: from student to refugee overnight. In your one suitcase, do you pack photographs or an extra sweater?
February 1, 2004... They say that during pregnancy we absorb cells from our babies into our own bodies: Decades later those cells may still be floating in our bloodstreams. If the past can be so viscerally present within us, perhaps it's no surprise that almost 22...

No more raping: when some women are armed, are all of us safer?
February 1, 2004... As I sit down to compose this essay, the Northeast is being hammered by the first blizzard of the season. This weather has me thinking about last summer, although not for the obvious reasons. It is two weeks to the day since Dru Sjodin went...

Peace.(Poetry)(Poem)
February 1, 2004... Peace 1. Peace. What is it? Is it an animal? A bird? A plane? (dooodoo doodee bopbopbop) 2. Is it a verb? A noun? An adjective? Circling our paragraphed lives? (dwoodop bopbop dwowaaa) 3. Du Bois said:...

Reflections after the June 12th March for Disarmament.(Poetry)(Poem)
February 1, 2004... Reflections after the June 12th March of Disarmament I have come to you tonite out of the depths of slavery from white hands peeling black skins over america; I have come out to you from reconstruction eyes ...

The new war zone: the ubiquitous presence of guns and light weapons has changed the definitions of "war," "victim," and "perpetrator.".
February 1, 2004... Every minute, someone, somewhere around the globe, is killed by a gun. The victim may have been walking down the street in Rio, Brazil; fleeing from armed guerillas in Goma, Eastern Congo; or sitting in a living room in Indianapolis. The...

Living room terrorists: rates of domestic violence are three to five times higher among military couples than among civilian ones.
February 1, 2004... War always comes home, even when it seems safely exported. We now have indications that the new wars of pre-emption and empire-building are bleeding back already onto our shores. The evidence is not just in the 10,000 ill and mangled soldiers...

Proving their loyalty.(Book Review)
February 1, 2004... Serving Our Country: Japanese American Women in the Military during World War II by Brenda L. Moore. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2003, 211 pp., $22.00 paper. Yoshiye Togasaki recalls of her Japanese-born father, "[His]...

Women, citizens, Muslims: Afghan women assert their human rights in the context of Islam, not in opposition to it.
February 1, 2004... On December 13, 2003, 502 members of Afghanistan's constitutional Grand Council, or loya jirga, met in the capital, Kabul, to begin writing the document that would henceforth shape governance of an Islamic, representative democracy. Three weeks...

Crucial reporting: human fights reports and why we should all be reading them.
February 1, 2004... It's hard to find the authors. Sometimes their names are buried in an opening paragraph; other times you have to read to the very end to track them down. But their names are important. It is, after all, real people, with histories, skills,...

The bookshelf.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
February 1, 2004... The Bookshelf provides a sampling of books of interest by and about women that we've received in our office recently. Elaine Aston, Feminist Views on the English Stage: Women Playwrights, 1990-2000. New York: Cambridge University Press,...