Women in war in terms of post-colonial feminism: The case of Bosnia

Post-colonial feminism is a theory that emerged after the 1980s and was included in the third wave movement of feminist international relations theory. Post-colonial feminism has problematized the approaches of classical Western feminism that only deal with middle-class white women. At the same time, it deconstructed the basic concepts in liberal political science. The theory, which opposes the nationalist and militarist thought system, tried to understand the position of non-Western societies with Western eyes and criticized Western feminists' homogenization and marginalization of women's problems in non-Western societies. In this thesis, it is argued that women experience wars in different ways by analyzing the approaches of Western feminists to the Bosnian War and the experiences of women there. In the study, feminist approaches against the new wars argument, identity element, and war discourses are also discussed through the Bosnian War. By combining these theoretical points, the study hopes to shed light on how gender can be used by political leaders, power, and the media in times of war and the underlying motivations. It explores how traditional gender roles in Bosnia society affect the course of the war, and how gender relations changed just before and during the war. Feminist analysis of the phenomenon of women in war through the Bosnian War is important because it reveals the power relations produced by state-centered nationalist policies throughout gender identities. In other words, this thesis argues that sexual violence in the Bosnian War cannot be seen only as acts of physical violence directed at the individual, that the culture of the society is targeted through the bodies of the individuals who are attacked, that nationalist and militarist practices deepen existing gender inequalities, and that women experience wars in different ways.