“The Greatness of Her Position’: Comparing Identitarian and Jihadi Discourses on Women,’ Discussion with Ashley Mattheis and Charlie Winter

This event will launch a report co-authored by Ashley Mattheis from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Charlie Winter, senior research fellow at International Center for the Study of Radicalization.

The role of women in extremist movements today is as multifaceted as it is extensive. They are active across the ideological spectrum and, in the context of identitarianism and jihadism in particular, are considered to be especially fundamental for in-group survival, both as child-bearers and vehicles for the socialization of future generations.

Through this lens, their ‘choice’ to prioritize domestic life is framed as a heroic and altruistic deed in service of the community—this is a form of extremist maternalism that couches conservative, stay-at-home values in radical terminology and bestows counter-cultural appeal upon the very idea of patriarchal subservience. This report explores this phenomenon, assessing similarities in how identitarian and jihadi extremists delineate what it is to be a woman in their respective in-groups.

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