Women and the Lebanese Civil War

This book analyses the reasons for women’s participation in the various Lebanese and Palestinian militias involved in the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990). Whilst most existing accounts of the Civil War in Lebanon either overlook the roles and experiences of women entirely or focus on women as victims or peacemakers only, ‘Women and the Lebanese Civil War’ highlights that women were involved as militants (and often also as fighters) in all of the militias partaking in the war. Analysing individual motivations, organisational characteristics, security-related aspects and societal factors, the book explains why women were included as fighters in some of the militias but not in others. Based on extensive fieldwork in Lebanon, the book is the first comprehensive study of female perpetrators and supporters of political violence during the Lebanese Civil War. Beyond the case of Lebanon, it questions widespread assumptions about the roles of women at times of violent conflict and war.

Eggert has written an excellent book on female participation in militia groups in Lebanon during the Civil War. Relying on extensive qualitative work, interviews and in-depth fieldwork, Eggert examines the ways in which gender and organizational barriers structured female participation. The book is an authoritative account on the ways in which gender dynamics shaped the motivations of women in these groups.

Amaney A. Jamal, Director: Bobst Center for Peace and Justice and Workshop on Arab Political Development_PIIRS, Princeton University, New Jersy, USA

Female Fighters in Lebanese Civil War is the first comprehensive, book-size publication that takes all key actors in the war into account, particularly women who were not just victims of the war or “peacemakers” but also perpetrators and supporters of violence. This narrative contradicts widespread assumptions about women being more peaceful than men. It also challenges the widespread depiction ofwomen in non-state armed groups as being devoid of agency, naive, delusional and manipulated.

Female Fighters fills a major gap in the field.

Fawaz A. Gerges, Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics, is author of Making the Arab World: Nasser, Qutb, and the Clash That Shaped the Middle East.

At long last, a book-size thorough research dedicated to one of the most occulted aspects, and yet one of the most interesting, of Lebanon’s long war, especially its initial years. Beyond this crucial contribution, this book sheds an important new light on the study of female fighters’ involvement in non-state conflicts in general. It is on both scores a remarkable achievement that any discussion of these issues will need to take into account hereafter.

Gilbert Achcar, Professor at SOAS, University of London, UK

Jennifer Eggert has produced pioneering research on female fighters, countering the dominant narrative of women-as-victims and filling a critical research void in our understanding of female perpetrators of political violence. She claims this space because of a notable absence in existing literature: the roles and experiences of women in accounts of war and conflict have been silenced. The Lebanese civil war is no exception. Eggert gives voice to Lebanese women’s experiences, as told by the women themselves.

Women in Lebanon are silenced in so many aspects of their lives – but nowhere more so than in academic literature on female fighters in the Lebanese Civil War, even though it has been almost 30 years after the end of the war. In this book, we come to understand how women defied socio-cultural restrictions with their insistence to be included, overcoming gendered barriers to achieving equality in war. Despite assumptions, coercion did not in fact play a role in women’s motivations.

Contrary to our imagined narrative, Lebanese women were driven bychoice, and compelled by agency. This book is a must-read – not only to understand Lebanon’s history but also present insights to gender roles, undoing predominant gender-blindness across all aspects of public life in Lebanon.

In this book, Eggert makes a significant intellectual contribution with great practical implications. She explains that there is “hardly any literature on women (even less so on female combatants) during the Lebanese civil war”, and yet women were involved in variety of roles in nearly all political parties and militias during the war. Eggert’s courageous research, extensive fieldwork in Lebanon, and deep contextual knowledge is a gift to Lebanese herstory. In this work, she brings Lebanese women back into the Lebanese story.

Eggert’s work will be the first monograph on the roles female fighters played in the Lebanon conflict. The main contribution of this study is an in-depth examination of the decision-making of organizational forces regarding the inclusion of female fighters. Rather than present us with a theory of female political violence in general, Eggert uses her contextual understanding and deep knowledge of Lebanon to tell a specific story. Lebanon’s diversity and specificities are understood and explored in this work.

While the extent to which findings of this study can be used to understand the motivations of non-state armed groups vis-à-vis female fighters remains to be seen, there are still lessons that can be gleaned and applied to other conflict contexts. As Eggert herself explains, this study provides empirical support for claims in current literature – critical in a field of study that is often characterized by its lack of empirical studies.

Additionally, this book is written in a manner that makes it accessible to readers who might not be experts or academics, but rather for any reader with interest in the role of women in the Lebanese war. As such, findings of this study areparticularly relevant to practitioners working on violence prevention, conflict transformation, post-war recovery – recognizing women’s pivotal role in all of these. As an academic, as an activist, as a former humanitarian aid worker, and as the current Director of the Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World, I strongly endorse this important work. Jennifer Eggert is a long-time friend of the Institute – and of Lebanon - and her work is a much-needed contribution to this field.

Dr. Lina Abirafeh, Executive Director, Arab Institute for Women (AiW; previously Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World), Lebanese American University, Lebanon and New York City, US

This important new book is the first systematic study of the participation of female fighters in the Lebanese civil war, in addition to presenting valuable new perspectives on the recruitment of women in non-state armed groups more generally. It will undoubtedly stimulate discussion and debate.  

Dr. Nicola Pratt, Reader in International Relations the Middle East, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

Jennifer Eggert’s book "Women and the Lebanese Civil War: Female Fighters in Lebanese and Palestinian Militias" makes an important contribution to our understanding of how and why women are involved (or not) in armed insurgent and terrorist organizations and how society, need and ideology interact to impact if they do participate and how they participate in such organizations. Focusing on female fighters in armed groups in Lebanon she examines a population of people that is often overlooked in the study of violent nonstate actors. Eggert makes an important contribution to this field both in the specific historical context of the seven cases of violent organizations in Lebanon she is examining as well as the larger theoretical questions she is raising.  Lebanon is a particularly interesting country to serve as a case study given the prevalent gender norms that pushed back strongly against women’s involvement in conflict. Using qualitative research based on field research involving extensive interviews with former fighters of both genders and party members and others, Eggert teases out the causes of different levels and types of participation in different organizations over time. One of Eggert’s most interesting findings is that often the key factor driving women’s involvement was the insistence by women themselves to be involved and their push against societal and organizational norms that often tried to block them. Eggert also finds strong support for the impact of organizational ideology on women’s involvement and the roles they were given, as well as the important impact of external threat directed at organizations driving them to include women. Overall, this is a fascinating and well written book that is shining an important theoretical and empirical light on our understanding of when and how women joinviolent nonstate organizations and when they pick up guns to fight and to kill.

Professor Dr. Victor Asal, Professor of Political Science, Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, State University of New York at Albany, New York, USA

Dr Jennifer Philippa Eggert is an academic, NGO researcher and practitioner. Her work focuses on violent conflict, development and migration, with a focus on gender, faith and local actors. She has worked in Europe, the Middle East, South Asia and the USA.