Women and War

This is a compelling photographic diary examining what happens to women when war goes on, and when it's over. Jenny Matthews has spent the last 20 years visiting countries affected by war, including Nicaragua, Mozambique, Rwanda, Angola, Sierra Leone, El Salvador, Colombia, Afghanistan, Burma and Croatia. Most civilian casualties of war are women - the photographs show the roles these women play: watching, avoiding, coping, confronting, participating; and the emotions they experience: anger, fear, despair, joy, hope, terror, anxiety and depression. The photographs reveal various common themes: women's relationship to war as mothers, living with violence, exile, the bearing of arms, the continuation of daily life, the traditional role of caring, the damage done to bodies and minds and the solitude of widowhood.