Mike Anastario

This powerful new book argues that violence against women should be understood as a systemic problem—one for which the state must be held accountable. The essays in Gender Violence in Peace and War examine a variety of cases where the state facilitates, legitimates, or perpetuates violence against women—a continuum that ranges from state-sponsored rape and torture in Guatemala, Indonesia, and Kenya to lax prosecution of domestic violence and sex trafficking in Russia and the United States.

Anastario investigates the social memories of rural Salvadorans from an area that was heavily impacted by the Salvadoran Civil War, which fueled a mass exodus to the U.S. By working with travelers who exchanged parcels containing food, medicine, photographs and letters, Anastario tells the story behind parcels and illuminates their larger cultural and structural significance.

This powerful new book argues that violence against women should be understood as a systemic problem—one for which the state must be held accountable. The essays in Gender Violence in Peace and War examine a variety of cases where the state facilitates, legitimates, or perpetuates violence against women—a continuum that ranges from state-sponsored rape and torture in Guatemala, Indonesia, and Kenya to lax prosecution of domestic violence and sex trafficking in Russia and the United States.