Conceptualising 'compounded suffering' in the post-war context
Followed by drinks reception
Suffering is strongly associated with war, but not with its aftermath. In spite of its ambiguity the post-war period represents a transformation from humanitarian crisis to development and peacebuilding. Consequently references to suffering are replaced by political, economic, social ‘challenges’ and ‘issues’ that fail to accurately and fully represent the experience of most war survivors, especially women who often make up a larger percentage of the population.
Responding to this gap, this presentation conceptualises ‘compounded suffering’ as the complex amalgamation of multiple forms of suffering: mental, physical and emotional; grief, pain, agony, torture, hurt, trauma, anxiety, stress, difficulty, produced by the unique conditions of the post-war context, which in coming together, aggravates and intensifies. The post-war context produces a typology of suffering that is distinct in form and extent fundamentally because it is shaped through an acute, real and continuing threat to human life and security, preceded by the trauma and experience of extensive death, loss and destruction. Suffering is compounded by women’s ‘entanglement’ with power specific to the post-war context, where structural and other forms of violence are pervasive and ideologies and methods of war remain amidst the pretext of change and transformation.
In conceptualising, the talk seeks to acknowledge and recognise compounded suffering and, through this, to contribute to a more genuine and accurate understanding, analysis and response to women’s post-war experience.

Dr Farah Mihlar is a British-Sri Lankan activist scholar who specialises in transitional justice and minority rights. She is a senior lecturer in human rights at Oxford Brookes University (OBU) and is the lead investigator of a British Academy project on women’s justice struggles in Lebanon and Sri Lanka. Before joining OBU she was a lecturer in conflict studies for the Department of Politics at the University of Exeter. Prior to academia, Farah had a longstanding career in human rights practice, working for international organisations including the United Nations, International Crisis Group and Minority Rights Group International.
Date: 10 June 2025, 16:00
Venue: St Antony's College - Main Site, 62 Woodstock Road OX2 6JF
Venue Details: Dahrendorff Room, accessible
Speaker: Dr Farah Milhar (Oxford Brookes University)
Organising department: Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR)
Organiser: Alejandro Posada Tellez (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: alejandro.posadatellez@politics.ox.ac.uk
Hosts: Rev Dr Liz Carmichael (University of Oxford), OxPeace (University of Oxford)
Part of: OxPeace Events
Booking required?: Not required
Cost: Free
Audience: Public
Editor: Liz Carmichael