Violence Against Women

My Brilliant Friend is the first book in Italian author Elena Ferrante's 'Neapolitan Novels'. Set in a poor neighborhood in post-WWII Naples, the novel follows two girls - Elena and Lila - depicting their complex friendship spanning half a century. It is a story about how women depend on, compete with, and try to master their own destinies in a violent male world.

The Vegetarian is a Man Booker International Prize-winning novel by Korean author Han Kang. It tells the story of Yeong-hye, an ordinary housewife who, in order to reject human violence, decides to stop eating meat and eventually wants to transform herself into a tree. It is a fable about female bodily autonomy, refusal of social norms, and the quest for a purely 'harmless' existence in a violent world.

Benoîte Groult's 1975 popular feminist polemic traces misogyny through historical erasure, bodily regulation, and linguistic power while retaining limits that invite intersectional and decolonial rereading.

Following a rape survivor through one night of hospitals and police stations, Kaouther Ben Hania exposes how institutions convert the demand for care into an ordeal of proof, shame, and intimidation.

Zainab Salbi redirects attention from war’s front line to the women who maintain daily life, survive gendered violence, and are then excluded from formal peace negotiations.