Rethinking Peace-building:
women, revolution, exile and conflict resolution in Yemen

The Peace Women project is an academic postdoctoral research study funded by the European Commission under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship Programme. It is hosted by the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam (Netherlands) and by the Center for Applied Research in Partnership with the Orient in Bonn (Germany).

 

The Peace Women is a full-length and multisite study of women, revolution, forced migration and peacebuilding in Yemen and beyond. It proposes a deeper and more critical understanding of the role of women's rights activists and refugees in post-revolutionary conflicts and peace processes. It focuses particularly, but not exclusively, on Yemeni activists in exile, based in the Netherlands, Germany and Jordan. 

​

The research objectives are: 

• to explore Yemeni female refugees’ and activists’ efforts and actions in conflict management and peace-making, between 2015-2023, in order to rethink women’s roles in peace processes; 

• to document women's experiences to understand how the post-revolutionary violence and conflict situation in the country affected and re-shaped their political participation, and how they resisted their marginalization and dealt with their disadvantaged position in and outside the country; 

• to contribute to the conceptual development of women and revolution theory by articulating an intricate interplay of revolution, gender, forced migration, conflict and peace-building; 

• to analyse possible contributions from Yemeni female activists and refugees with the objective of identifying practical ways and “promising practices” on peace-building and conflict prevention strategies; 

• to link research findings to relevant policy-makers and put forward gender-sensitive policy recommendations on the Yemeni peace-building efforts.

​