Challenging Imaginaries of Security with Farianas’ Insurgent Feminism: Embodied Reincorporation in Post-Peace Agreement Colombia

By moving from armed struggle to “collective reincorporation” into the Colombian State, the farianas – or female ex-guerrillas of the Farc-ep – reconfigured the “combatant” identity (Boutron 2018) by leaving their weapons, an extension of their bodies. This transition to civilian life involves many transformations: identity (changing their names, reencountering family members), physical (disarmament, sickness, transformation of the body), emotional (displacement of power, nostalgia, happiness), political (negotiation with the collective, involvement in feminist movements), among others. However, one of the major shifts that occurred with the Peace Process signed in Havana in 2016 is the consolidation farianas’ feminist vision, the insurgent feminism; an occurrence that has a lot of material, symbolic and discursive consequences. In fact, what appeared to be a collective expression of female ex-guerrillas has become more complex: differences have arisen between women within the association of fariana and outside, with other feminist movements, and tensions have deepened with the political party of the Farc. Reincorporation – the transition from military structures to “civilian” ones – means a restructuration of affects and embodiment. Returning to civilian life implies disembodying combat: laying down arms is an emotionally charged event and involves a reconceptualization of the meaning of security in the realm of the “everyday”. It concerns the reframing of gender relations after the armed struggle, the processing of traumas and long-term effects of wars, the reconstruction of memory, the unlearning of collective care economy and the “privatization” of affective relationships, among other transformations. In these transitions, female ex-combatants experience different embodied experiences such as maternity, re-assignation to care work, social marginalization, traumas, oppressions, gender-based violence and setbacks in their political participation (Shekhawat 2015). Consequently, embodiment is central to reincorporation. However, affects, emotions and embodied processes are currently expelled from its analysis and, when included, they are seen as individual concerns. Furthermore, within the study of post-conflict reincorporation, practically no place is given to the embodied experience of war (McSorley 2013) and to the affective or emotional dimensions associated with armed militancy. As such, in this paper, I argue that (1) embodiment – in its material, discursive and affective dimensions – serves as an analytical point of departure to subvert the borders between feminist political economy and feminist security studies and; (2) that farianas’ insurgent feminism is an opportunity to rethink those theoretical and practical alliances and to challenge the notion of security in post-peace agreement settings. Drawing upon fieldwork conducted in Colombia during 2019, the paper: (1) conceptualizes farianas’ insurgent feminism; (2) analyzes the embodied and emotional aspects of their feminist struggle in the post-peace agreement context and, finally; (3) explores the possibilities offered by embodiment to push the theoretical and practical boundaries in gender and security studies. The ultimate goal is to propose a feminist reflection on the necessity to reconciliate material and discursive approaches to (in)security by examining farianas’ proposal of feminist and collective reincorporation where care, emotions and women’s bodies are at the center of everyday praxis of peacebuilding.