From student activism to armed struggle: women’s revolutionary trajectories in the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party (EPRP)

This article examines the political journeys of women who participated in the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party (EPRP) as student activists, underground organizers, and armed fighters. Using archival sources, including government and EPRP documents, historical newspapers, magazines, informants, and existing literature, the paper reconstructs the varied roles played by women. It argues that women’s revolutionary involvement reflected both significant political agency and the persistent contradictions of revolutionary practice, where commitments to equality often coexisted with patriarchal structures. The study challenges male-centered interpretations of Ethiopia’s revolutionary history and contributes to broader debates on gender and revolutionary movements in the Horn of Africa.