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Humanitarian virtues

Wars change life conditions.

There are the sheer number of civilian deaths and the flow of forcibly displaced people. There is family disintegration, weakening of social networks and breakdown of social services. There are material losses, disruption of social economies, dislocation of food production, and the exodus of the workforce. There are high unemployment rates and low wages; and there is poverty.

Wars also create new possibilities.

People reorient themselves towards one another and towards the influx of strangers – the mercenaries, the peacekeepers, and the aid providers. I observed for years how humanitarian aid with its entourage of experts, volunteers, and adventurers profoundly […]

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She is ready. Upright, she stands in front of her modest house. Golden Bag is emblazoned across the small black sports bag she carries in her hand. In the blistering sun, we walk slowly to my beaten-up VW Golf parked in the shade of the rough, unpaved road. Adjusting her headscarf, Ellma[1] squeezes into the back of the car between Marigona – my research assistant – and me. My husband drives.

We are on a mission. We want to recover money that has been stolen from Ellma’s bank account. Two hundred and fifty euros is missing from her meagre widow’s pension […]

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“Women who come from rural areas don’t know how to explain their health problems to psychiatrists like me. When I tell them that their problems have a psychological basis, they say, ‘Why? I have good living conditions’.” As he was adjusting his tie, the psychiatrist reasoned that since the lives of Kosovar village women mainly revolved around fulfilling their basic needs, they lacked a refined understanding of their emotions and psychological pains. With some disdain in his voice, he went on, “They think that having enough to eat and good living conditions is all they need (…)” and illuminated this point by […]

Excruciating pains slowed many of the women survivors of war down, bound them to their couches, frustrated interactions with their children, and meant that work was left undone. To endure their sickened bodies and be able to carry on, they reframed their pains into health problems and, in this process, created spaces for alternative bodied actions and interactions. Initial reframing usually occurred through unspectacular, unnoticed activities as women in Krusha e Madhe and Pastsel made use of what was at hand: their kitchen cabinet became a source of different dietary options such as herbs that were taken to soothe them, in the […]