In conflict societies a strict division of sexual labour is enforced, and highly dichotomic understandings of femininity and masculinity become hegemonic. Gendered dichotomies, self/ other, friend/enemy, masculinity/femininity, “just warrior’’/“beautiful soul” (Elshtein, 1987) contribute to postulate the “other” as an existential threat. The warrior, the conflict’s hegemonic masculinity, is a “male identity” (Karner, 1998) shaped by purging, on individual, symbolic and structural levels, typically feminine characteristics such as compassion, feeling and forgiveness.