Genre et violences de guerre dans les conflicts actuels du Moyen-Orient

The Middle East is more than ever a region shaken by war: some examples include civil wars in Syria and Iraq and intermediary wars between Iran and Saudi Arabia in Yemen. The oldest conflicts (such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict) endure and others threaten (such as in Lebanon), aggravated by the militarization of the region. The process of peace has collapsed and the threat looms of a separation of populations without withdrawal of occupation. The Kurdish people, another conflicted people, are closely mixed in the conflicts of the region, owing to their homes in various states (Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Iran). These conflicts of varying intensities, apart from all being undergirded by multiform violence, have in common massive implications for civilian populations: namely, to push certain numbers of these populations into the path of exile. They often contribute to a disaggregation of terroritories, of communities, and to a challenge of fragile political, social, and ethnic equilibria.

This special issue of Confluences Méditerranée addresses these issues and is in large part the result of a day of studies organized in April 2016 at the University of Paris 8 that at once convened researchers and humanitarians to discuss the question of the violence of war linked to gender. [translated and modified from author]