Description
This paper examines the ethics of conducting fieldwork-based research on/with female combatants. We critically evaluate the benefits, challenges, and limitations of using ‘feminist fieldwork’ to explore the diverse and situated conflict experiences of women who joined fighting forces. Drawing on our experiences of undertaking fieldwork in conflict-affected Bosnia & Herzegovina, Liberia, and Nepal, we explore the key ethical challenges that feminist researchers may encounter before, during, and after fieldwork in sites of conflict. We explore key questions such as: how do we define ‘female combatant’, and therefore whose voices/experiences are included in our research? How can we construct knowledge about the complex realities and everyday lives of women and girls in armed groups, given that these experiences are so often written out the histories of war and armed conflict? We discuss the strategies that can be used to (co-)produce research on/with female combatants. Overall, our paper highlights the importance of continuously foregrounding ethics across the whole ‘life-cycle’ of a research project.
