Experiences of Female Ex-Combatants in the Maoist Insurgency in Nepal: Endless Battles and Resistance

Abstract

Recent literature on women and war has put to rest the persisting question of whether women’s participation as combatants is just an aberration. However, the question also arises if all female combatants experience the war in the same way. We can go further in this direction by exploring their diverse and complex experiences before, during, and after the war. Therefore, I try to answer the question- What are the varied experience of female combatants during the Maoist insurgency in Nepal and after, and how do these experiences compare to their varied expectations upon joining the group? I found the intersectional theoretical framework combining ‘matrix of domination’ within black feminism (Collins, 2009) and decolonial thinking (Shilliam, 2015) along with a poststructural narrative approach informed by the feminist methodology best-suited to answer the question. I extend the messiness and complexity of the Maoist insurgency in Nepal (1996-2006) through the experiences of female combatants in three major ways- First, female ex-combatants experienced, understood, and perceived the war and its aftermath heterogeneously often conditioned by their rank, caste, class, social location, educational status, and geographical location in intricate ways. Secondly, the pre-during-post compartmentalisation of the war is incompatible with the diverse and complex experiences of female ex-combatants. While they were fighting to survive even before the war, they fought multiple ‘wars’ during the war. And in the ‘peace’ after the war, they had to fight against the re-marginalisation, neglect, alienation, and ostracisation. Finally, in having to fight endless battles- within and outside, and before, during, and after the war- also uniquely positions female ex-combatants to see the war deeply and differently. Their experiences are the deep seabed which contains the alternative ways of seeing, knowing, and understanding the war to resist the hegemonic narratives and discourses.