Shir Daphna-Tekoah
Ashkelon Academic College, School of Social Work., Faculty Member
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This is the editorial for our Special Issue on Women's coping in various spheres in society: Challenges and opportunities.
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The military service of combat soldiers may pose many threats to their well being and often take a toll on body and mind, influencing the physical and emotional make-up of combatants and veterans. The current study aims to enhance our... more
The military service of combat soldiers may pose many threats to their well being and often take a toll on body and mind, influencing the physical and emotional make-up of combatants and veterans. The current study aims to enhance our knowledge about the combat experiences and the challenges that female soldiers face both during and after their service. The study is based on qualitative methods and narrative analysis of in-depth semi-structured personal interviews with twenty military veterans. It aims to analyze the narratives of American and Israeli female combat soldiers regarding their military service, with emphasis on the soldiers’ descriptions, in their own words, about their difficulties, challenges, coping and successes during their service and transition to civilian life. A recurring theme in the interviews with the veterans of both militaries was the need to be heard and the fact that societies, therapists, and military institutions do not always truly listen to female ve...
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The significant gap between the prevalence of child sexual abuse and disclosure underscores the need for new, innovative, and creative screening tools to identify victims to end the abuse and provide these victims with appropriate... more
The significant gap between the prevalence of child sexual abuse and disclosure underscores the need for new, innovative, and creative screening tools to identify victims to end the abuse and provide these victims with appropriate treatment. This article presents the cumulative efforts of a series of innovative studies dealing with sexually abused survivors and offenders that concentrates on preventing, assessing, screening, and treating Child Sexual Abuse (CSA). We start by describing the need and rationale for using the arts for purposes of identification and treatment. We discuss how these arts help bypass censorship and dissociation mechanisms involving the body as a critical factor during the assessment and the treatment. Each of the articles is then presented. The introduction is organized to show how non-verbal techniques for the prevention, screening, assessment and treatment of sexual abuse in chidren can move beyond verbal techniques that are known to be limited in their effectiveness.
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Feminists and Critical Theorists have long acknowledged the importance of methodologies in research frameworks. They also highlight the necessity for deconstruction as a means to question normalized hierarchies concerning the production... more
Feminists and Critical Theorists have long acknowledged the importance of methodologies in research frameworks. They also highlight the necessity for deconstruction as a means to question normalized hierarchies concerning the production of knowledge. These considerations are particularly true in the context of studying violent conflicts, trauma, security, and insecurity. However, to reach a sensitive research framework for examining war experiences, a suitable methodology is critical. Our study implements the Listening Guide method in analyzing the experiences of women in combat. We emphasize the merits of the Listening Guide in the context of research about complex, challenging, and traumatic contexts-in our case the environment of war and armed conflicts. By implementing the Listening Guide, our findings unpack voice and undermine the binary distinctions of active versus passive women, agency versus fragility, women engaged in violence versus women as victims of violence, and silence versus voice, all through the prism of the combatants' multilayered war experiences, as perceived by the combatants themselves. The shift between the combatants' various voices indicated that the "psychological" is not detached from the "political." By directing scholars to attune themselves to the ways in which interviewees present themselves before they begin to interpret the interviewees' narratives and by guiding them in a search for parallel and silenced voices, the Listening Guide methodology helps researchers peel away the outer layers of perceptions and experiences of war and conflict, thereby allowing new angles and perspectives to emerge.
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The book focuses on the importance of the study of women combat soldiers and veterans in the fields of Security Studies and International Relations. The chapter addresses this issue by bringing women’s voices and silences to the forefront... more
The book focuses on the importance of the study of women combat soldiers and veterans in the fields of Security Studies and International Relations. The chapter addresses this issue by bringing women’s voices and silences to the forefront of research in these domains and by presenting women soldiers as narrators of war and conflict through their alternative and very personal stories. The pivotal motif that runs through the book is the theoretical framework it provides for understanding the process of integration of women soldiers into combat and combat-support roles and the challenges they face. The research seeks to explore narratives of women as violent actors rather than as women struggling for peace. The book prompts scholars to be critical of widely accepted knowledge and binary conceptions in military studies. Chapter 1 outlines the book’s rationale, the research framework, the context of the research, and the contents of the subsequent chapters.
Chapter 6 concludes the book with a discussion about the gendered meaning of protection in the military and an exploration of changing gender roles in the military in the context of the evolvement of the new war. It further discusses the... more
Chapter 6 concludes the book with a discussion about the gendered meaning of protection in the military and an exploration of changing gender roles in the military in the context of the evolvement of the new war. It further discusses the false dichotomy between “feminine care” and “masculine protection” in the context of women in the military. In addition, the chapter provides a summary and a comprehensive analysis of veteran women soldiers’ narratives of security and insecurity. It also presents theoretical insights and final reflective remarks on the implications of our findings. The stationing of women in a variety of combat and combat-support roles in conflict zones and in conflicted border areas challenge traditional concepts of security, war, and gender roles. The narratives of women soldiers serving in such roles can thus provide critical insights into the nature of women’s involvement in the act of making war and the possible militarization of women.
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Chapter 5 addresses narratives of women in combat and in combat-support roles regarding their bodily experiences and struggles to integrate in traditionally masculine roles in the military, particularly in the light of objections to... more
Chapter 5 addresses narratives of women in combat and in combat-support roles regarding their bodily experiences and struggles to integrate in traditionally masculine roles in the military, particularly in the light of objections to women’s integration into combat forces. Accounts of bodily experiences disturb conventional IR and hegemonic masculine war metanarratives, whose tendency is either to abstract or to glorify combat (or both). These otherwise silenced narratives reveal juxtapositions of feelings of competence and vulnerability. The chapter shows how women combatants situate themselves in a masculine environment and demonstrates the ways in which, having crossed the pre-established imaginary boundary between male and female, they form unique meanings for their war experiences. Through the women’s narratives, issues of body and sex/gender are addressed, alongside nuanced interpretations of what it means to be feminine or masculine in the military environment, to carry a weap...
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Chapter 4 provides a critical feminist outlook on trauma and presents a deconstruction of binary perceptions about traumatic experiences in armed conflicts. Combat trauma and trauma studies emerged from masculine hierarchic theoretical... more
Chapter 4 provides a critical feminist outlook on trauma and presents a deconstruction of binary perceptions about traumatic experiences in armed conflicts. Combat trauma and trauma studies emerged from masculine hierarchic theoretical foundations. Current knowledge about trauma concentrates on men as combatants and women as victims. By focusing on the narratives of women combatants, the chapter’s analysis breaks with the traditional ways in which war-associated trauma has been studied. Hegemonic masculinity has influenced the study of trauma—just as it influences and reinforces everyday practices of gendered identities, particularly gendered identities in a military environment. These overlooked aspects of trauma can be understood through the study of women exposed to combat trauma (as perpetrators or victims or both). By the analysis of the traumatic experiences of women combat soldiers, the chapter challenges disciplinary boundaries by emphasizing the need for a critical and femi...
The literature concurs that war is the friend of binarisms, leaving little place for complex identities. This concurrence is the starting point of this scholarly investigation. The chapter addresses the important lack in Critical Studies... more
The literature concurs that war is the friend of binarisms, leaving little place for complex identities. This concurrence is the starting point of this scholarly investigation. The chapter addresses the important lack in Critical Studies on Security of narrative research on violent state actors. To understand violence, however, scholars must listen to and explore the narratives of those who are committing violence in the context of armed conflicts. Chapter 2, then, presents the authors’ perspectives about engaging with violent state actors in a non-binary manner and lays down the theoretical foundation of the book. The chapter prompts scholars to be critical of widely accepted knowledge and binary conceptions in military studies. The chapter thus seeks ways to produce emancipatory knowledge and to be critical without being exclusionary, thereby expanding the framework of Feminist IR and knowledge about women in combat.
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Chapter 3 contributes to the analysis of women’s security and insecurity by paying attention to the multiple voices of the combat veteran. Carol Gilligan’s “Listening Guide” is applied as a platform for evaluating the experiences of women... more
Chapter 3 contributes to the analysis of women’s security and insecurity by paying attention to the multiple voices of the combat veteran. Carol Gilligan’s “Listening Guide” is applied as a platform for evaluating the experiences of women soldiers. The chapter thus presents another deconstruction of binary perceptions in research epistemology through disaggregating the voices and silences of women combat veterans. The combatants’ narratives bring to light their gendered and political reflections about their military service and the political and armed conflict that surrounds them. By tuning in and listening to distinct aspects of their narratives regarding their experiences, the analysis shows that most of the ex-combatants indicated that their service had been an important milestone that changed their lives for the better and made them more mature and confident. While some of them were critical of the political leadership, most chose to discuss only personal, gendered, and social e...
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The book focuses on the study of women combat soldiers in the fields of Security Studies and International Relations. It addresses this issue by bringing the soldiers’ voices and silences to the forefront of research in these domains and... more
The book focuses on the study of women combat soldiers in the fields of Security Studies and International Relations. It addresses this issue by bringing the soldiers’ voices and silences to the forefront of research in these domains and by presenting the women soldiers as narrators. The book introduces a theoretical framework in Critical Security Studies for understanding—by binary deconstructions of the terms used in these fields—the integration of women soldiers into combat and combat-support roles and the challenges they face. The book draws on Feminist IR scholarship and introduces an interdisciplinary theoretical perspective that aims to lead scholars to consider why and how women’s experiences should be incorporated into the analysis of violence, state violence, combat trauma, security, and insecurity. The book therefore emphasizes the importance of including, in critical approaches to security, the understudied topic of the voices of women in combat. The book explores the vo...
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Healthcare workers (HCWs) facing the COVID-19 pandemic are required to deal with unexpectedly traumatic situations, concern about contamination, and mounting patient deaths. As a means to address the changing needs of our hospital’s HCWs,... more
Healthcare workers (HCWs) facing the COVID-19 pandemic are required to deal with unexpectedly traumatic situations, concern about contamination, and mounting patient deaths. As a means to address the changing needs of our hospital’s HCWs, we conducted a narrative analysis study in the early stages of the covid-19 outbreak. A focus group of medical experts, conducted as the initial step, recommended that a bottom-up research tool be used for exploring HCWs’ traumatic experiences and needs. We therefore conducted 450 semi-structured in-depth interviews with hospital personnel. The interviews were based on Maslow’s Pyramid of Needs model, and the narratives were analyzed by applying the Listening Guide methodology. The interviewees expressed a need for physical and psychological security in the battle against Covid-19, in addition to the need for attachment and meaning. Importantly, we also found that the interview itself may serve as a therapeutic tool. In light of our findings, we re...
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Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) is a condition considered to represent a prototype of central sensitization syndrome, characterized by chronic widespread pain and along with symptoms of fatigue, non-restorative sleep and cognitive... more
Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) is a condition considered to represent a prototype of central sensitization syndrome, characterized by chronic widespread pain and along with symptoms of fatigue, non-restorative sleep and cognitive difficulties. FMS can be induced by trauma, infection or emotional stress with cumulative evidence that dissociation is relatively frequent in FMS patients. Two randomized controlled trials have shown that hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) can induce neuroplasticity and be effective in patients suffering from FMS. In this paper we present, for the first time, case series of female fibromyalgia patients who, in the course of HBOT, suddenly recalled repressed traumatic memories of childhood sexual abuse (CSA). The surfacing of the repressed (dissociative) memories decades after the sexual abuse events was sudden and utterly surprising. No psychological intervention was involved. As the memories surfaced, the physical pain related to FMS subsided. In one patient w...
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Research Interests: Human Geography, Art Therapy, Critical Security Studies, Stress, Creative Arts Therapy, and 9 moreVisual Arts, Arts-based methodologies, Feminist Political Theory, Arts-Based Participatory Action Research, Women Soldiers, Arts Based Research, Public Administration and Policy, Feminist IR Theory, and Arts Based Educational Research
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Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) is a condition considered to represent a prototype of central sensitization syndrome, characterized by chronic widespread pain and along with symptoms of fatigue, non-restorative sleep and cognitive... more
Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) is a condition considered to represent a prototype of central sensitization syndrome, characterized by chronic widespread pain and along with symptoms of fatigue, non-restorative sleep and cognitive difficulties. FMS can be induced by trauma, infection or emotional stress with cumulative evidence that dissociation is relatively frequent in FMS patients. Two randomized controlled trials have shown that hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) can induce neuroplasticity and be effective in patients suffering from FMS. In this paper we present, for the first time, case series of female fibromyalgia patients who, in the course of HBOT, suddenly recalled repressed traumatic memories of childhood sexual abuse (CSA). The surfacing of the repressed (dissociative) memories decades after the sexual abuse events was sudden and utterly surprising. No psychological intervention was involved. As the memories surfaced, the physical pain related to FMS subsided. In one patient w...
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The book focuses on the study of women combat soldiers in the fields of Security Studies and International Relations. It addresses this issue by bringing the soldiers’ voices and silences to the forefront of research in these domains and... more
The book focuses on the study of women combat soldiers in the fields of Security Studies and International Relations. It addresses this issue by bringing the soldiers’ voices and silences to the forefront of research in these domains and by presenting the women soldiers as narrators. The book introduces a theoretical framework in Critical Security Studies for understanding—by binary deconstructions of the terms used in these fields—the integration of women soldiers into combat and combat-support roles and the challenges they face. The book draws on Feminist IR scholarship and introduces an interdisciplinary theoretical perspective that aims to lead scholars to consider why and how women’s experiences should be incorporated into the analysis of violence, state violence, combat trauma, security, and insecurity. The book therefore emphasizes the importance of including, in critical approaches to security, the understudied topic of the voices of women in combat. The book explores the vo...
Research Interests:
Healthcare workers (HCWs) facing the COVID-19 pandemic are required to deal with unexpectedly traumatic situations, concern about contamination, and mounting patient deaths. As a means to address the changing needs of our hospital’s HCWs,... more
Healthcare workers (HCWs) facing the COVID-19 pandemic are required to deal with unexpectedly traumatic situations, concern about contamination, and mounting patient deaths. As a means to address the changing needs of our hospital’s HCWs, we conducted a narrative analysis study in the early stages of the covid-19 outbreak. A focus group of medical experts, conducted as the initial step, recommended that a bottom-up research tool be used for exploring HCWs’ traumatic experiences and needs. We therefore conducted 450 semi-structured in-depth interviews with hospital personnel. The interviews were based on Maslow’s Pyramid of Needs model, and the narratives were analyzed by applying the Listening Guide methodology. The interviewees expressed a need for physical and psychological security in the battle against Covid-19, in addition to the need for attachment and meaning. Importantly, we also found that the interview itself may serve as a therapeutic tool. In light of our findings, we re...
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Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) is a condition considered to represent a prototype of central sensitization syndrome, characterized by chronic widespread pain and along with symptoms of fatigue, non-restorative sleep and cognitive... more
Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) is a condition considered to represent a prototype of central sensitization syndrome, characterized by chronic widespread pain and along with symptoms of fatigue, non-restorative sleep and cognitive difficulties. FMS can be induced by trauma, infection or emotional stress with cumulative evidence that dissociation is relatively frequent in FMS patients. Two randomized controlled trials have shown that hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) can induce neuroplasticity and be effective in patients suffering from FMS. In this paper we present, for the first time, case series of female fibromyalgia patients who, in the course of HBOT, suddenly recalled repressed traumatic memories of childhood sexual abuse (CSA). The surfacing of the repressed (dissociative) memories decades after the sexual abuse events was sudden and utterly surprising. No psychological intervention was involved. As the memories surfaced, the physical pain related to FMS subsided. In one patient w...
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Research Interests: Human Geography, Art Therapy, Critical Security Studies, Stress, Creative Arts Therapy, and 9 moreVisual Arts, Arts-based methodologies, Feminist Political Theory, Arts-Based Participatory Action Research, Women Soldiers, Arts Based Research, Public Administration and Policy, Feminist IR Theory, and Arts Based Educational Research
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שילוב נשים בתפקידי לחימה בצבא מעורר דיון ציבורי סוער ומעסיק את החברה הישראלית בעשורים האחרונים. ויכוחים חריפים על סוגיה זו ניטשים בזירות שונות — צבאיות ואזרחיות כאחד. האם נשים מסוגלות למלא תפקידים אלו? והאם ראוי שנשים ימלאו תפקידים אלו?... more
שילוב נשים בתפקידי לחימה בצבא מעורר דיון ציבורי סוער ומעסיק את החברה הישראלית בעשורים האחרונים. ויכוחים חריפים על סוגיה זו ניטשים בזירות שונות — צבאיות ואזרחיות כאחד. האם נשים מסוגלות למלא תפקידים אלו? והאם ראוי שנשים ימלאו תפקידים אלו? הן רק שתיים מהשאלות, אשר השיח עליהן משפיע על חיי הנשים בישראל, על מבנה הצבא ועל החברה בכללותה.
בספר מובא, באמצעות סיפורן של עשרות חיילות, סיפור הקרב הכפול של נשים ששירתו בתפקידי לחימה ובתפקידים תומכי לחימה בצה"ל. הקרב הכפול שלהן מתרחש בשדה הקרב (בו הן חשופות לטראומה כתוצאה מהפעילות המבצעית), וכן בחזית המאבק בכוחות המתנגדים להשתלבות נשים בתפקידי לחימה.
הספר מבקש להרחיב את היריעה האקדמית והחברתית שאפשר להפיק מניסיונן של נשים כשהן עומדות במרכז ולא כתוספת שולית לנושא הנחקר. הניתוח תקף לא רק לישראל, אלא מציע תובנות משמעותיות הן על שירות נשים בתפקידים קרביים והן על סוגיות רחבות יותר הבוחנות את הקשרים שבין מגדר למלחמה, לטראומה ולפוליטיקה. יתרה מזו, באמצעות הבלטת נקודת המבט של נשים בצבא, הספר מלמד גם על השירות הצבאי ועל החוויות של גברים לוחמים בצבא. הספר מדגיש את הדיכוטומיות הפגומות הרווחות בחקר המלחמה, האלימות והקרב, ומערער עליהן על ידי הצגה וניתוח של נרטיבים מפי מאה לוחמות משוחררות, המספרות את חוויותיהן בסביבה של סכסוך ומלחמה.
https://www.pardes.co.il/?id=showbook&catnum=978-1-61838-804-9
בספר מובא, באמצעות סיפורן של עשרות חיילות, סיפור הקרב הכפול של נשים ששירתו בתפקידי לחימה ובתפקידים תומכי לחימה בצה"ל. הקרב הכפול שלהן מתרחש בשדה הקרב (בו הן חשופות לטראומה כתוצאה מהפעילות המבצעית), וכן בחזית המאבק בכוחות המתנגדים להשתלבות נשים בתפקידי לחימה.
הספר מבקש להרחיב את היריעה האקדמית והחברתית שאפשר להפיק מניסיונן של נשים כשהן עומדות במרכז ולא כתוספת שולית לנושא הנחקר. הניתוח תקף לא רק לישראל, אלא מציע תובנות משמעותיות הן על שירות נשים בתפקידים קרביים והן על סוגיות רחבות יותר הבוחנות את הקשרים שבין מגדר למלחמה, לטראומה ולפוליטיקה. יתרה מזו, באמצעות הבלטת נקודת המבט של נשים בצבא, הספר מלמד גם על השירות הצבאי ועל החוויות של גברים לוחמים בצבא. הספר מדגיש את הדיכוטומיות הפגומות הרווחות בחקר המלחמה, האלימות והקרב, ומערער עליהן על ידי הצגה וניתוח של נרטיבים מפי מאה לוחמות משוחררות, המספרות את חוויותיהן בסביבה של סכסוך ומלחמה.
https://www.pardes.co.il/?id=showbook&catnum=978-1-61838-804-9
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A book review by Prof. Bruno Oliveira Martins about our book - "Breaking the Binaries in Security Studies" - OUP 2020.