Paper presenters
- Inger Skjelsbæk and Julie Marie Hansen: “Conceptualizing gender policies to counter violent extremism
- Maria Darwish: “Conceptually exploring extreme right masculinity: The Nordic Resistance Movement’s employment of environmentalism for masculine self-concentration
- Katrine Fangen and Lisanne Lichtenberg: Protect our women. Safeguard our Borders!
- Aya Mortag Freund: Gender specific prevention of extremism
Abstracts
Conceptualising Gender in Policies to Counter Violent Extremism
Inger Skjelsbæk (UiO) and Julie Marie Hansen (PRIO)
In recent years, increased attention has been given to the role of women in countering violent extremism (CVE). This potential role of women has been included in the United Nations Security Council’s follow-up resolutions to Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, as well as in the CVE policies of other intergovernmental organisations and governments. This policy development has been met with both support and criticism.
In this paper, we critically analyse CVE policies to better understand how the intersection between gender and violent extremism is conceptualised. We analyse how gendered identities and gendered roles are framed in CVE policy documents. Further, we analyse the contexts where gender and CVE intersect in the policy documents and what the implications are. Through these analyses, we discuss how CVE policy documents define the spheres of gendered influence in countering and preventing violence extremism.
Conceptually exploring extreme right masculinity
Maria Darwish, University of Oslo
This paper aims to examine the intersections of right-wing extremism, masculinity and environmentalism. The latter is usually associated with the political left rather than extreme right, and the feminine rather than the masculine.
In addition, research has proved extreme right subcultures to be male dominated and defined in hyper-masculine terms. Nonetheless, the neo-Nazi group the Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM) emphasize animal welfare and environmental protection in their political manifesto, challenging ideas of what violent extremism looks like today. Drawing on historical references, canonical texts, biological reductionism and contemporary ideas, NRM has developed an environmentally friendly masculinized neo-Nazism.
The paper is based on the findings of my master thesis, which explores how nature-based rhetoric may be employed to mask discrimination through a narrative analysis of NRM’s podcast Nordic Frontier. Theory on fascism and masculinity shows how dynamics of othering and a perceived crisis of the social order contribute to shape a gendered neo-Nazi identity. The paper will focus on how environmentalism serves as a building block for masculine self-construction in NRM. Finally, it will touch on how podcast as a medium contributes to normalize and promote extreme ideology.
“Protect our Women! Safeguard our Borders!” An intersectional analysis of gender in right-wing discourses in Germany
Katrine Fangen and Lisanne Lichtenberg, University of Oslo
This article analyses gender images and gender-related issues in right-wing discourses in Germa-ny from an intersectional point of view. Our analysis identifies and reveals how women and men are portrayed in German right-wing discourses while it puts special emphasis on the cultural origins of the men and women concerned, in order to reveal whether right-wing discourses on gender contain cultural differentiations. Additionally, this article analyses the strategic functions of the construction of certain gender images, as well as the role of culture in right-wing discours-es on gender. Thus, we reveal the meanings, intentions, and political objectives behind con-structed gender images in right-wing discourses. By following a grounded theory based meth-odological approach, we analysed press releases, party programmes, and social media posts from five different German right-wing parties and organisations.
Our analysis shows that conservative, traditional gender images and roles are predominant in German right-wing discourses and that the intersection between gender and cultural origin plays a crucial role in right-wing discourses on gender. Right-wing parties and organisations over-emphasize supposedly cultural differences between non-Western , Muslim immigrants and Germans to classify cultures in a racist, Eurocentric way. By presenting immigrants and Muslims as a threat to German values, they aim to legitimize the political objective of restricting immigra-tion, which is why right-wing discourses on gender and on immigration often overlap. Our anal-ysis further shows that right-wing discourses on gender produce crucial power relations as they hierarchically construct the social categories of: gender, cultural origin, and sexuality, which results in the exclusion of minorities. Considering the discourse on Muslim full body veils, right-wing parties and organisations present themselves as supporters of feminism and women’s rights. The combination of this so-called “embedded feminism” and conservative views on gen-der roles and families results in inconsistencies; right-wing “feminism” remains exclusionary and short-sighted. Another contradiction can be found regarding the role of culture; while right-wing parties and organisations oppose that gender differences are culturally shaped, they culturalize immigrant and Muslim men to present them as the dangerous “others”.
Gender specific prevention of extremism?
Aya Mortag Freund, Ph.D. and consultant at The Danish Centre for Prevention of Extremism
Citizens who are involved or at risk of becoming involved in an extremist environment need interventions that are organized on the basis of current best knowledge. As the current prevention efforts to a large extent are based on knowledge of men’s process of radicalization, there is a need to collect research and knowledge that in different ways shed light on women and gender dynamics in radicalization processes and extremist environments.
The study is based on two empirical foundations; a mapping of existing published research and interviews with researchers and practitioners.
Each of these empirical perspectives contributes to a holistic understanding of gender and extremism, by highlighting different nuances of women’s empowerment in joining extremist organizations vis-à-vis the common understanding of masculinity as pull factor in men’s process of radicalization. The analytical themes are:
- Characterization
- Motivation (push – pull factors)
- How women potentially differ from men in regards to extremism
- Interventions, methods and tools to prevent extremism where women play a central role
By triangulating interviews with practitioners about their lived experiences, interviews with researchers and Danish and international research the study seeks to shed a light on whether future preventive efforts should be gender-specific or not.