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Invisible Bodies: Gender, Conflict and Peace in Mindanao

Authored by: Anne-Marie Hilsdon

Categories: Peace Support Operations, Violent Conflict
Sub-Categories: Peacemaking
Country: Philippines
Region: East Asia and the Pacific
Year: 2009
Citation: Hilsdon, Anne-Marie. “Invisible Bodies: Gender, Conflict and Peace in Mindanao.” Asian Studies Review 33 (2009): 349-65.

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Executive Summary

Against a backdrop of “conflict” and “violence”, this article explores several community spaces where Maranao women become “invisible”. It argues that through attempts to explain how and why such exclusions and omissions occur, Maranao women’s negotiated embodied existence can be understood. I focus on a number of aspects of women’s invisibility. First, although women are active in community peacemaking, this activity remains invisible and generally unacknowledged in both Muslim and Christian communities. Second, the intra-community conflict of rido remains unacknowledged in both “war” and peacemaking as the government focuses almost solely on the resolution of national political conflict. In addition, Muslim women’s peacemaking abilities remain unacknowledged in national peace forums. Third, although religious tolerance underpins and often propels peacemaking processes, social justice for women is lacking.