'Well, What is the Feminist Perspective on Iraq?'

The three volumes reviewed in this article offer a range of feminist explorations of the Iraq War. Through their gendered lenses, I argue that these books offer alternative ways of thinking about experiences, daily life and temporalities in war and post-war contexts. The books reviewed here can be loosely described as emphasising a standpoint feminist perspective, highlighting how gendered processes, practices, myths, images and expectations shape the day-to-day lives of men and women concerned with the Iraq War in both Iraq and the US. These insights can offer a challenge to the construction and reinforcement of the temporal division crafted between war and peace, making us think again about how we conceptualise violence in international politics. Al-Ali, N. and Pratt, N. (eds) (2009) Women and War in the Middle East: Transnational Perspectives. London: Zed Books. Eisenstein, Z. (2007) Sexual Decoys: Gender, Race and War in Imperial Democracy. London: Zed Books. Enloe, C. (2010) Nimo's War, Emma's War: Making Feminist Sense of the Iraq War. Berkeley CA: University of California Press. © 2012 Political Studies Association.