Culture and conflict

103 women were involved in the project, across eight research sites in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. The research investigates the value of culture to women in conflict settings. It explores gendered economic exclusion and its relationship to peacebuilding, economic agency and empowerment. It uses a cultural mapping methodology to explore how communities of women across different conflict contexts rely on coded and tacit knowledge to rebuild their lives and to understand how cultural practices continue to exist and resist in these challenging contexts.

Participatory action research allowed those most impacted to lead in framing questions and determining which actions will be useful in effecting positive change.

Through photography, colour theory training, pattern making and other craft making training sessions, the women expanded and developed cultural and economic skills in craft. During the process, the women engaged in conversations about issues of identity and how intersectionality influences the everyday. They spoke about their culture, peace and conflict with singing, myth and legend story exchange. Love and romance are part of the dialogue while the women work on their textiles. Slightly tougher discussions about community relationships and everyday discrimination were also documented.

The crafts produced by the women have been shared widely in art exhibitions and through ongoing sales of their art and crafts in markets across the UK.

While the Women Peace and Security agenda acknowledges the importance of economic empowerment, agency and sustainability it fails to adequately emphasise how such work can and often does emerge organically and informally from the bottom up in conflict-affected contexts by the women themselves. Economic livelihood does not just mean formal employment in jobs that require qualifications. It also means the vast and varied informal sector and home-based economies which are often rooted in cultural practices and craft making.