���Is there a right time for gender just peace? Feminist anti-war organising revisited���

This paper addresses the question of totalising gender power relations that have led to and shaped the wars of the 1990s in Yugoslavia and the emerging ethno-national states on the ���periphery��� of Europe. I argue that the same type of gender power relations continue to dominate the region, notably Serbia, and to perpetuate gender inequalities and gender based violence in its many everyday and structural forms, causing profound levels of human insecurity. My analysis aims to set in motion a debate on how to tackle these continuing gender inequalities and GBV in post-war societies. In so doing, I propose a shift from focusing on the hierarchy of victimisation that has characterised much of the feminist analyses, activism and scholarly work in relation to these (and other) conflicts, to a relational understanding of the gendered processes of victimisation in war and peace, that is - of both women and men. Such an approach holds a potential to undermine the power systems that engender these varied types of victimisation by ultimately reshaping the notions of masculinity and femininity, which are central to the gender power systems that generate gender unjust peace.

���Refugee Voices,��� New Social Media and Politics of Representation: Young Congolese in the Diaspora and Beyond

This article examines the role of new social media in the articulation and representation of the refugee and diasporic ���voice.��� The article problematizes the individualist, de-politicized, de-contextualized, and aestheticized representation of refugee/diasporic voices. It argues that new social media enable refugees and diaspora members to exercise agency in managing the creation, production, and dissemination of their voices and to engage in hybrid (on- and offline) activism. These new territories for self-representation challenge our conventional understanding of refugee/diaspora voices. The article is based on research with young Congolese living in the diaspora, and it describes the Geno-cost project created by the Congolese Action Youth Platform (CAYP) and JJ Bola���s spoken-word piece, ���Refuge.��� The first shows agency in the creation of analytical and activist voices that promote counter-hegemonic narratives of violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, while the second is an example of aesthetic expressions performed online and offline that reveal agency through authorship and ownership of one���s voice. The examples highlight the role that new social media play in challenging mainstream politics of representation of refugee/diaspora voices.

Introduction to Women Against Fundamentalism: Stories of Dissent and Solidarity

Th is book celebrates ��� while also acknowledging the huge challenges it faces ��� a particular kind of feminism, one that has been concerned with challenging both fundamentalism and racism. It consists of the autobiographical political narratives of feminist activists of diff erent ethnic and religious backgrounds who have been members of Women Against Fundamentalism (WAF), a feminist anti-racist and antifundamentalist organisation that was established in London in 1989, at the heart of the Salman Rushdie aff air. Political narratives have been described as ���stories people tell about how the world works���, the ways in which they explain the engines of political change, and as refl ections on the role people see themselves and their group playing in their ongoing struggles.1 And the contributors to this book off er just such narratives ��� they talk about the trajectories of their lives, and how they see themselves and the groups to which they belong in relation to the wider political struggles in which they have been involved. WAF women have shared solidarity and trust, based on common political values, but, as can be seen from the chapters of this book, their perspectives ��� as well as their personal/ political histories ��� have also diff ered.2 Th is variety of voices is signifi - cant not only for these women as individuals but also for WAF as a political organisation. In this introduction we highlight what we as editors perceive to be the most important issues for WAF���s activism throughout its history. However, the book has been constructed in such a way that reading all the chapters will itself provide a more pluralistic and contested fl avour of WAF���s politics. Th is introduction outlines the rationale for the book, introduces WAF and its political context, explains the book���s theoretical and methodological framework, and explores some of the themes that have emerged from the activists��� stories.