MASCULINITIES AND PREVENTING VIOLENT EXTREMISM: MAKING THE CONNECTIONS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Traditional efforts to reduce violent extremism attempt to provide men and boys with alternatives to joining extremist groups. However, these efforts often fail to consider the gendered factors that may drive men and boys to support and join such groups. While a gender perspective on violent extremism should, of course, seek to understand and include women’s and girls’ experiences, it is crucial – given that men account for the majority of violent extremists – to consider that men and boys are gendered, as well. Specifically, there is a need to better understand the ways in which gender inequality, harmful masculinities, and violence-supportive attitudes and practices, as well as young men’s identity construction and trauma from their own experiences of violence, influence their engagement in violent extremism. Approaches that incorporate this understanding would benefit not only those men and women directly impacted by extremist violence, but society more broadly, by challenging the structures of power and violence that support genderbased violence (GBV) and gender inequality.

This paper asks the question: What do masculinities have to do with violent extremism? By “masculinities,” we mean identities; power (by some men or groups of men over others, and by men over women); individual and collective actions; and individually held and societally reinforced norms related to manhood. We also view masculinities as socially constructed, contextual, intersectional, and interacting with numerous other factors; we do not view male identity as a single explanatory factor for participation in violent extremism, but rather as one of many interacting factors, and one that is often overlooked.

Specifically, this paper attempts to change the narrative and shift the paradigm around violent extremism, from countering violent extremism after it occurs, to preventing men and boys from taking violent action in the first place. This shift requires a reframing of the conversation around preventing violent extremism (PVE), from a focus on “push” and “pull” factors to a more holistic understanding of people’s lives and identities. Violent extremism is not a discrete phenomenon, but one that occurs in relation to other forms of violence committed by and against men and boys. Therefore, solutions cannot be gender-blind, but must move toward gender-aware and eventually gender-transformative approaches – i.e., rather than largely ignoring the influence of gender norms on attitudes and behaviors, approaches must gain and incorporate an understanding, not only of how these norms influence men’s and boys’ actions and shape their vulnerabilities with regard to violent extremism, but also of the ways in which programmatic action can tackle gender inequality and prevent violent extremism at the same time, for long-lasting impact.

This paper presents an ecological model that takes men’s and boys’ identities at the individual, family, community, and structural levels into account:

• At the individual level – men’s harmful attitudes, history of intimate partner violence (IPV), gender socialization, work-life trajectories, and religious beliefs.
• At the family and community level – men’s childhood experiences, including parental involvement and the intergenerational transmission of violence, as well as their social networks and emotional connectedness as adults, and any family members or peers who are involved in violent extremism.
• At the structural level – men’s lack of economic opportunities, and their perception of loss or “failed masculinity” tied to a sense of economic or job entitlement, as well as political grievances, and the militarization of society (i.e., when military or police forces become key societal institutions, highly present, visible, and influential in the community, often to the point of shaping the population’s daily interactions).

This paper does not present an exhaustive review of existing programs. Rather, it discusses a selection of interventions that represent the spectrum of gendered approaches to PVE. Six programs that aim to prevent violent extremism are presented: Youth Spaces for Peace in Far North Cameroon; EXIT-Germany and HAYAT in Germany; an Al-Firdaws Society program in Iraq; the Ending Terrorism Through Youth Service Action Locally (ETTYSAL) Program in Tunisia; and the Mawada Project in Libya. Together, they demonstrate the varying degrees to which existing programs recognize that gender norms, and particularly masculinities, are a key and often missing piece of efforts to prevent violent extremism from occurring, as well as to deradicalize individuals who have already become participants. In particular, we highlight the Youth Spaces for Peace program (developed and implemented by Promundo, the Living Peace Institute, and ALDEPA in the Far North region of Cameroon, with support from UNICEF), which demonstrates how a gendertransformative approach – i.e., one that seeks to identify, challenge, and change harmful gender norms, relations, and power dynamics in order to promote gender equity and individual agency – can work in settings of high violence and violent extremism.

Recommendations

Researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and others working on preventing violent extremism must acknowledge that harmful gender norms, particularly those related to manhood, play a role in men and boys’ vulnerability to violent extremism, and they must work to better incorporate gender-transformative approaches into their work. Recommendations for future research, programming, and policy, include:

• Recognize that gender norms influence vulnerability to violent extremism, and that challenging harmful gender norms directly is key to PVE. Avoid research, programming, or policy that is gender-blind – that is, programming that does not consider gender norms, gendered power dynamics, and their effects.

• Understand that violent extremism is one form on a continuum of violence and that masculine norms contribute to multiple forms of violence.

• Be specific in sex and age disaggregation in order to bridge the gap between “youth” and “women.” Currently, the majority of work on violent extremism and its prevention focuses either on the role of youth – a term often used to mean young men only – or on the role of women.

• Draw lines of collaboration between the PVE and the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agendas, for their mutual benefit, ensuring the equal participation of all voices that promote peace and equality.

• Recognize the importance of involved, nonviolent fatherhood for creating positive childhood experiences and supportive family networks – both of which are recognized as strongly protective against the pull of violent extremism.

• Building on the success of psychosocial support models for individuals who have witnessed or experienced violence, provide spaces for youth – particularly young men – to gather and reflect on their own experiences of violence, learn healthy coping mechanisms, and challenge their long-held negative gender attitudes.

• Move away from military actions against specific groups, which can often act as “trigger points.” Experiences of injustice, discrimination, corruption, and abuse by security forces act as drivers for violent extremist group recruitment.