Building the City of Women: creating a site of feminist resistance in a northern Colombian conflict zone

Abstract

Against all odds, in uncertain and violent times, Colombian women are mobilising for peace. They do so even when they face ongoing violence and personal threats from a variety of armed actors. Despite a well-established tradition of studying women’s social movements in times of conflict, there is a lacuna when it comes to analysing feminism as a mobilisation strategy. This article uses the case study of the League of Displaced Women, the Liga de Mujeres Desplazadas (LMD) to illustrate the utility of Zulver’s High Risk Feminism framework to explain how and why women chose to build the City of Women, despite the real and threatened danger that this implied. The article narrates the history of the LMD, from its foundations in a geography of marginality to its creation of a space of resistance for displaced women and their families. In all, this articles demonstrates how feminist resistance has not only become a way of life for the women of the LMD, but also a strategy for creating pockets of safe places in the midst of a conflict zone.

Keywords:

• City of Women
• Colombia
• displaced women
• feminist mobilisation
• high risk feminism

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank the Liga de Mujeres Desplazadas for their time and willingness to participate in this project. She also wishes to thank Professor Leigh Payne and Jonas von Hoffmann for their comments and suggestions.