Medical care, coercion and gender in the Nepalese civil war (1996-2006) – Bertrand Taithe, Bhimsen Devkota, Roisin Read et Sudha Ghimire

This article explores the issue of gender-based medical care and wartime violence during the Maoist insurgency and the Nepalese civil war (1996-2006). Based on oral testimonies and archives, it shows that the role of women in healthcare was transformed by the proximity of combat zones and the demands of subversive warfare and concealment. In a conflict where access to healthcare proved to be an important strategic issue, women carers faced the violence of being coerced to care for combatants and of enduring the risk of abduction. This article also examines the perspective of the cared-for, looking at the bodily concerns of women combatants in the revolutionary war and the care they received. It raises the question of the micro-politics of care in informal and private spaces due to insecurity, as well as the politics of memory and trauma at that time.