Katherine E. Brown

"Western Jihadism: A Thirty-Year History, written by Jytte Klausen" published on 15 Sep 2023 by Brill.

This chapter explores how a feminist or gender lens leads us to think about religion and global politics in transnational, intersectional and dynamic ways. Both religion and global politics are gendered in structures, ideas, and practices – often to the detriment of women, while providing new spaces and discourses for women to mobilise. We first look at how global politics and religion are structured – via the concept of secularism – and produce gendered subjects. Second, we look at how religious ideas of motherhood and sexuality affect women's bodies and agency and provide opportunities to mobilise and transform religion and politics. We then look at particular instances of global politics in practice – through the political economy, policymaking, and transnational movements. Gender analysis asks us not only to look at where women are, but also to see how gender identities, roles and ideologies intersect with other power relations to affect the distribution of resources and authority in global politics and religion.

This article examines how European “returnees” from the conflict in Iraq and Syria are managed by European governance and screening, prosecution, reintegration and rehabilitation (SPRR) processes. It explores the contestations and dynamics among professionals and practitioners involved in SPRR, and how they attempt to manage competing narratives of villain/victim. The article finds that underlying their efforts are different notions of “care” that allow for benevolent control and risk mitigation. The integration of care into governance has unevenly distributed political effects, allowing for the ongoing resilience and adaptability of the war on terror.

Traditional accounts of disasters or emergencies begin with a description of an immediate kinetic event in a specific place at a specific time with negative social effects. Disasters affect values ...

This volume offers a feminist critique of counter- and deradicalization programs, including those under the umbrella of “preventing and countering violent extremism.” Based on insights from five countries and examples from elsewhere, the book shows how, collectively, efforts rely on particular narratives of agency, security, and human rights. Putting gender at the center of the analysis reveals significant limitations in antiradicalization work—in construction, operation, and evaluation. First, these programs fail to explore or engage with how masculinity and femininity inform the radicalization process. As a result, they cannot successfully understand the personal drivers or the sociopolitical environment of these programs. Second, within the operations of these programs male radicalization is clearly and unreflectively linked to an excessive but flawed masculinity, while ideas about women’s radicalization depend on orientalist stereotypes about passivity and subjugation. Solutions for male deradicalization therefore hinge on particular ideals of masculinity that few men can obtain, and deradicalizing women is seen as a rescue mission. Third, the impact of these programs derives from a racialized paternalist logic that justifies intervention in “ordinary lives” in the name of security, yet fails to deliver. There is a gendered differential in the impact of counter-radicalization measures. Although the rhetoric of countering terrorism is often couched in a narrative of “women’s rights” and “liberal values,” the book demonstrates that the consequences are often detrimental to these precepts. The book concludes by offering an alternative way of thinking about and implementing antiradicalization efforts, rooted in a feminist peace.