Rebel Governance of Marriage and Sexuality: An Intersectional Approach.

This article examines the noncoercive and nonviolent governance of marriage and sexuality by the Maoist insurgency in Nepal (1996–2006) and its implications for social control, political power, and gendered marginalization within the rebel group. Using abductive analysis of interviews with female ex-combatants and leaders, the study finds that despite the Maoists' claims of a "scientific," "progressive," and "modern" approach that rejected forced marriage and sexual violence, their governance of intimate relations functioned as a tool for consolidating political agendas and controlling combatants. However, this governance reproduced heteropatriarchal norms and disproportionately marginalized women at the intersection of caste, class, ethnicity, and social status, particularly affecting their postwar reintegration and personal lives. The article contributes a theoretical framework linking nonviolent rebel governance of private spheres to broader political projects, emphasizing the importance of intersectional feminist analysis in understanding the gendered dynamics of rebel governance and its lasting social consequences.