The Brutality of War -- And Its Aftermath -- On Women
A review by Curt Schleier
Every morning as part of their ritual, some orthodox Jewish men recite a prayer thanking God that they are not women. After reading Ann Jones' War Is Not Over When It's Over: Women Speak Out From the Ruins of War (Metropolitan Books, 256 pages, $25), men of all faiths might want to make that part of their daily routine. Jones is an expert in the field of violence against women, a subject she has written about previously. What she brings to the fore here is sadly often overlooked in discussions of the world politic: In some areas, men can subject women to barbaric levels of brutality with impunity. Women -- even infants -- are sadistically raped, beaten and murdered in ways that cannot be described in a newspaper. However, the book raises a chicken-or-egg question that it doesn't answer. On one hand, Jones believes that war creates the problem. "When rape is used as a tactic of war, it becomes a habit hard to break, popularized by soldiers and civilians." But she also writes ...
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Previously Reviewed by Minneapolis Star Tribune
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