Continuing to think about victimization and crimes committed by focusing on the perpetrators, I think this article about the female genocide perpetrators in the International Feminist Journal of Politics is an interesting illustration of gender roles in a genocide. Considering the holocaust, I find it interesting that for the most part (of course there are exceptions to this) victims' stories are told by women, especially when we consider the most well-known books written by survivors, whereas when we think of the perpetrators we think primarily of men. This article focuses on the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, but I think it's relevant to the issues we've been discussing in class. I thought it was definitely interesting that the author addresses the "implications of ignoring female perpetrators of genocide," and how leaving this area unaddressed could harm the entire process of post-genocide reconstruction and lasting peace and reconciliation, a task that in Rwanda is still somewhat contentious, very tedious, and systematically flawed. I think this point is an interesting one to consider in post-holocaust reconstruction as well, especially given that almost 70 years later we're still struck by the roles of and the portrayal of the roles of female perpetrators.
Last year in high school, I read a book on the Rwandan genocide. It was called Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza. It was about how she survived the genocide and I remember that all of the people that she would mention that she was in hiding with were women. Also, any perpetrators she mentioned were always male. It seemed odd to me that none of the people in hiding were men, and most of the time, if a male was mentioned, he was a victim and had already been killed or he was one of the "good guys" and was trying to protect and save others. It's interesting to see how gender roles played a part in the novel. I would definitely suggest the book to any of you interested in the Rwandan genocide.
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