This time on Opinion Peace, Dr. Elise Feron from TAPRI Peace Research and I tackle one of, until recently, overlooked dimensions of sexualized conflicted related violence: sexual violence against men. This conversation is based on Elise Feron’s book “Wartime Sexual Violence against Men: Masculinities and Power in Conflict Zones” (2018, Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield). Drawing upon several years of fieldwork and more than 80 in-depth interviews conducted in the Great Lakes region (DRC, Burundi, Rwanda), Northern Ireland, and asylum-seeking centers, Elise Feron looked at the patterns of sexual violence against men in different contexts. She sought to reflect upon what triggers this type of violence, why such violence has been neglected, what are its effects on survivors, etc..

On today’s episode with Dr. Elise Feron, you will be hearing about:

 Sexual and gender-based conflict-related violence is wider than (strategic) wartime rape;

 Call for uncovering the silences and queering approaches to sexual violence in conflict;

 Wartime sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) is performative and deeply embedded in patriarchal values that sustain the conflict dynamics themselves.

Continuum of violence and intersectional analysis. Sexual violence is not a stand-alone category, it is of great importance to take into consideration the broader context of conflict and relate sexual violence with patterns of other types of symbolic and structural violence that are taking place during, but also before and after, the conflict.

Three main takes from the book for a) scholarship and academic community; b) policymakers; and c) practitioners.

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