Countering Violent Extremism (CVE)

Abstract

Women's equality lies at the heart of CVE: gender inequality predicts, serves, and propagates violent extremism (VE). It is important to examine the relationship between violent extremism (VE) and women's position in society. Gender inequality is one of the best indicators of violent extremism. There is significant overlap between the countries most impacted by violent extremism and the countries where women's security is most precarious. 1 Violent extremist groups have capitalized on, profited from, and weaponized the subjugation of women. The use of women's bodies to wage and justify war is apparent in all forms of violent conflict, not just in conflicts involving VE, but analyzing these dynamics with a VE-specific lens is critical to designing effective CVE programs. Understanding and treating gender equality as an integral CVE tool would not only illuminate a broader range of policy and programmatic options, it would also produce better results. Many extremist groups conflate morality with female chastity, blame broadened women's rights for societal disintegration, employ sexual violence to consolidate power, and monetize forced marriage and rape through ransom payments. 2 Even as extremist groups abuse and disempower women, they mobilize women with the false promise of increased agency. 3 Perceived gender exclusion and inequity can motivate women to join violent extremist groups. 4 Gender inequality is fundamental to the proliferation of VE, as an indicator, a weapon, and a principle reason women support violent extremist movements. To date, CVE programming has overwhelmingly been designed for and directed at men, because VE is believed to be a primarily male endeavor. However, there are an estimated 600 Western female ISIS recruits and approximately 700 women from Tunisia have reportedly joined jihadist groups in Syria. Though these numbers are still relatively low, they are not insignificant. Moreover, some women choose to support VE groups without formally joining. Research suggests these women see VE as the best means of addressing their grievances, including lack of equality and political and social agency. 5 Programs that do consider women often rely on women to sway their families and communities against VE groups, failing to consider that though women may hold this ability, they do not always hold this power. 6 Furthermore, these programs assume that women will utilize their clout to fight against violent extremist groups, when some women choose to fight for violent extremist groups. If CVE programming aims to mobilize the power of women, it must ensure not only women's empowerment, but also women's equality. The goal of this paper is to draw the connections between CVE and gender equality, highlight policies and programs that have successfully and meaningfully integrated the goals of CVE and gender equality, and provide recommendations for a transformation of CVE that accounts for gender equality as a tactical requirement for successful policies and programs.