On the Battleground of Women's Bodies: Mass Rape in Bosnia-Herzegovina

This article critically reviews the literature pertaining to mass rape during times of war to identify & understand the unique factors that promote it. A greater understanding of these factors is considered a productive initial step toward proffering effective solutions to address this significant problem. The former Yugoslavia, particularly Bosnia-Herzegovina, serves as a case study against which this literature is reviewed. The authors conclude that women's experience of rape in war, like the abuse of women's human rights, is often determined by the intersection of a variety of factors, such as age, race, class, religion, ethnicity, & nationality. Future studies should further explore how these complex variables relate to each other in an attempt to understand the horrific crimes that are often perpetrated against women during wartime. 64 References. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright 2006.]