Invisible Stakeholders

The document examines the transition of women who joined the Tigrean People’s Liberation Army (TPLF) as children and were demobilised in 1992/1993. It highlights how the TPLF's ideology of gender equality empowered these women, contrasting their internalised beliefs in equality and self-confidence with the traditional, patriarchal norms of Ethiopian civilian society. The study finds that while demobilisation led to a sense of loss regarding collective identity and practical difficulties in managing households, the experience of being a fighter provided lasting benefits in education, autonomy, and political assertiveness.

• Recruitment of girls into the TPLF was driven by a diverse range of incentives beyond forced abduction, including the desire for education, escaping early unwanted marriages, kinship ties, and political motivations, though political awareness often developed only after joining.
• Within the TPLF, a Marxist-Leninist ideology of equality was implemented, resulting in shared labor between genders—including men cooking and women engaging in combat—and strict discipline regarding sexual relations to prevent forced relationships.
• Demobilisation in 1992/1993 was often experienced as a reluctant transition from a supportive collective identity to an isolating individual existence, which some women perceived as a loss of family.
• Female ex-combatants faced significant 'culture shock' during reintegration, struggling with domestic chores they had never learned and experiencing a sudden loss of equality as they were relegated to traditional household roles.
• The communication style adopted during military service—characterized by directness and a lack of politeness—caused conflict in civilian workplaces, yet the women valued it as a more honest form of dialogue compared to the 'shy' style of non-fighter women.
• Despite the difficulties of reintegration, the women viewed their time as fighters as a positive catalyst for personal empowerment, granting them lifelong self-confidence, a belief in gender equality, and the ability to make independent decisions regarding marriage and reproductive health.
• The study challenges the prevailing narrative of child soldiers as mere victims, demonstrating that in the TPLF context, women recruited as minors emerged feeling empowered rather than victimised.

APA

Veale, A. (n.d.). Invisible Stakeholders. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/INVISIBLECHAP6.PDF

Chicago

Veale, Angela. Invisible Stakeholders. Institute for Security Studies, n.d. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/INVISIBLECHAP6.PDF.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Veale |first1=Angela |title=Invisible Stakeholders |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/INVISIBLECHAP6.PDF |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{vealendinvisible, author = {Veale, Angela}, title = {{Invisible Stakeholders}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/INVISIBLECHAP6.PDF}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }