Author: Malek Abisaab, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University - ORCID, ResearchGate

Abstract: »This article explores the transformation in the levels of violence against women and children in Lebanon during the 1975–1990 civil war and the systematic atrocities committed, compared to the nineteenth-century where non-combatants were generally spared. Focusing on the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre, it analyzes how Lebanese fascist militias employed rape and mass killings as political tools to avenge military losses, reinforce ethno-nationalist dominance, and reclaim perceived lost masculinity. The Israeli military orchestrated these acts to impose collective punishment and psychological terror on Palestinians, while Lebanese leftists later exploited the massacre to reignite political mobilization. Existing scholarship has overlooked women’s experiences in civil wars, particularly in Lebanon, where narratives center on male combatants. This study fills this gap by examining how the modern Lebanese state dismantled traditional safeguards, exposing women and children to wartime violence. While women exercised agency through survival tactics and even militant roles, their actions were often tied to survival rather than feminist empowerment. By centering gendered violence in the analysis of war, this research challenges historiographical silences and re-positions women’s experiences within broader discussions of nationalism, trauma, and memory.« (Source: Contemporary Arab Affairs)

Contents:

	Abstract (p. 429)
	1 Women and Rape: The 1860 Civil War (p. 431)
	2 The Sabra and Shatila Massacre, 1982 (p. 436)
	3 Women and Rape: Sabra-Shatila, 1982 (p. 438)
	4 The Story of Suad (p. 440)
	5 The Story of Umm Ali (p. 443)
	6 Concluding Remarks (p. 443)
	Acknowledgments (p. 444)
	References (p. 445)

Wikipedia: History of Asia: History of Lebanon | Sex and the law: Rape / Wartime sexual violence | War: Lebanese Civil War / Sabra and Shatila massacre, Sexual violence in the Lebanese Civil War