The centrality of gender to nationalism, and to imagining the nation, has been convincingly argued by feminist scholars and activists across the world. As Rada Ivekovic says, it is probably the “first” organizing principle in any society. In this critical set of essays, she advances that argument by locating it in the context of the ethnic or communal division of countries; the gradual, and perhaps even deliberate, depoliticisation of a society that predisposes it towards violence; and finally, in the juxtaposition of nationalism and freedom itself.