Women and War Reportage

Like all good reading rabbit holes, this one began with a book I’d been meaning to read for a few years: ‘Our Bodies, Their Battlefield’ by Christina Lamb. Her many decades of war reportage experience prepared her for this most harrowing of books – not just a deep dive in to the most extreme examples of violence against women, but for the acknowledgement that sexual violence is not just a spoil of war, but a tool that is systematically implemented into the machinations of territory control and psychological subjugation.

‘Our Women On The Ground’ is a perfect companion to this book; it is a brilliantly structured collection of essays from 19 different Arab women which both deconstruct the perceived homogeny of said group and draw together some universal experiences of women living through war.

Whether you enjoy reading about world history, current affairs, geopolitics, or the role of women in war which has so often been left out of the history books, then this is the list to check out.