A mother's violence in global politics

Analyzing the cases of Biljana Plavšić and Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, two prominent female politicians accused of perpetrating political violence in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, respectively, this chapter focuses on the ways violent women represent themselves when accused of crimes against humanity, genocide, and genocidal rape. Employing the concepts of twisted motherhood, maternal love, and monstrous mothering, together with maternal naivety about realities of war-fighting, the work first traces the feminist theorization of politically violent womanhood and motherhood; second, the chapter discusses the conceptualization of female violence in relation to the dominant motherhood narratives; and, finally, it offers an alternative critical reading of mothering as connected representation of oneself when politically violent. Studying representation of the violent self through feminist lenses enable one to critically analyze the importance of motherhood narratives in global politics. Both women employ a motherhood narrative as a way to humanize themselves in response to accusations of violent crimes. A mother’s violence, in their narratives, is completely unintelligible and impossible, or becomes an unfortunate yet understandable result of a mothering instinct that dictates to protect one’s own mythical child. In both cases, the defense rests on narrating themselves as good mothers, disabling other potential narratives to be employed