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Apsaras losing their smile: Conflict and women in Cambodia

Anuradha Rai 1

1Amity University

Candidate

ABSTRACT

With the end o f ‘war’, s ocieties are a s s umed to go back to ‘ the normal’ and ‘to restore the cultural and traditional values’ that was destroyed by war and bloody conflict. This ‘going back to normal’ and ‘restoration of culture and traditions’ is an indication that women should ‘go back to the houses’ and take their primary duties assigned in almos t every society ‘ to take care of the home and family’. This at the same time also indicates that the discriminatory practices against women will continue despite the reconstruction of a new social, political and economic s tructure. This paper examines the problem of continuation of violence against women in post-conflict societies and argues that the traditional notion of security, on which most of the post-conflict societies are reconstructed, is partial. The overemphasis on power politics excludes women as actors in ‘war’ and ‘peace’ and ignores women security challenges and shuts the door of opportunity that any conflict opens, that is to reconstruct the new structures of state and society that promotes gender equality. This paper has taken the cases of Cambodia to argue that greater involvement of women in the reconstruction process makes a difference to women security and greater political representation of women put restrains on the problem of gender based violence by taking women issues as an agenda of importance. My research makes a comparative study of women in pre-conflict and post-conflict societies of Cambodia to look at the changes that reconstruction has brought out for women and influence of reconstruction programmes on women’s security challenges.

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