Our Gendered Lens

From labels such as ‘jihadi brides’ to ‘Babes of the BNP’ Carys Evans asks why is it so difficult for us to accept the agency of women who seemingly reject our mainstream in favour of extreme ideals or violent behaviour?

In 2009 Vice magazine published a piece on ‘The Babes of the BNP’. In the article a series of questions are put to female members of the British National Party (BNP), the tone of which are facetious at best, overtly rude in all other cases. The questions, accompanied by pictures of the women, some of whom are naked and draped in flags of the Union Jack, focus at times on their interest in the BNP but mostly on their ‘favourite David’ or rumours surrounding Nick Griffin’s sexuality. For one of the women, after being asked a series of ‘and/or’ questions, all of which seem designed only to infantilize her, came the question ‘Plato or Playdough?’ The respondent gave the unsurprising answer ‘Playdough’ – unsurprising only because had her answer been different it seems unlikely it would have featured at all. The piece was written nearly a decade ago, but opening any social media platform today you can see unsettling evidence of the persistence of its underlying tone. There is a pervasive desire to mock the political inclinations of women who engage in extreme ideologies. Using humour at their expense undermines agency in women who engage in extreme politics, making them the butt of an intellectual joke and reducing our inclination to investigate their motivations effectively.

When you google ‘Shamima Begum’ one of the first suggestions to appear is ‘Shamima Begum memes’. There are thousands, compiled together in YouTube videos, shared on Instagram and liked by various people on your friends list. Each of the images works hard to make comedy of her decision to travel from her home in Bethnal Green, London when she was 15 years old to live, get married and give birth 3 times under the Islamic State. Begum is one of nearly 150 women and girls who left the UK to live in the Islamic State’s Caliphate. She, along with these other women are indicative of a set of deeply rooted, intersecting issues that lead women to join violent extremist groups. Rather than acknowledge the intricacies of Begum’s case, we are presented instead with fervent attempts to undermine her decisions through outright suggestions of her intellectual stupidity. There are many disturbing elements to Begum’s case. Some of the most notable: a frequent denial of her potential vulnerabilities, an unwillingness to investigate her motives by the state in which she was radicalised and the extreme-right sentiment it seems to have stoked. Alongside these, the developing trend that makes Begum the butt of our supposedly clever jokes points to a wider gender issue that runs deeply through our understanding of women who join extremist groups. Why is it so difficult for us to accept the agency of women who seemingly reject our mainstream in favour of extreme ideals or violent behaviour?

Carys is the Director of Programmes and Impact and an active practitioner for ConnectFutures. With years of experience working in communities across the country, Carys’ specialism is youth engagement, social integration and community-led development.

Currently studying her Master’s degree in Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of Birmingham, Carys is focusing on a range of topics including Far-Right extremism in the UK, gender in terrorism and CVE. She has extensive youth work experience and develops volunteering opportunities centered on personal development for young people and social action in communities.