For the sake of family and religion - nationalist-religious discourse on the Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence

Abstract

This article focuses on the current wave of the cultural war in Poland which was triggered after the government's decision to ratify the European Council Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. It examines the conservative, nationalist-religious discourse present in two daily mainstream Polish newspapers, Gazeta Wyborcza and Rzeczpospolita. This article begins with a description of the position of the Catholic Church in Poland, its role and main discursive strategies used in the debate on the Convention. Then it underlines the signifi cance of the nationalist-religious discourse for developing gender equality policies, focusing on an essentialist vision of feminity and masculinity, importance of the family as a private matter and an infl uential force and diversion from cultural and structural factors that foster violence.

‘Where are the equal rights?’ Far-right women challenging gender equality and human rights in Greece

“…20 The speech MP Sophia Vlachou delivered in March 2018 during the parliamentary discussion on ratifying the Istanbul Convention provides a characteristic example. While Greece, in contrast with other European countries (Warat, 2016;Darakchi, 2019;Sekowska-Kozlowska, 2020), did not witness widespread right-wing mobilization against the convention, this speech offers a stark example of how Greek Neo-Nazi women transformed discussions of gender violence into an invitation not only to spotlight theories of Muslim male violence, but also to present a counter-discourse to liberal feminist positions.…”

“…Moreover, as anti-gender mobilization continues across Europe, this Greek case study reflects a strategy of deploying anti-gender discourses that has parallels to other national contexts but is also distinct. For example, instead of directly rejecting the Istanbul Convention as a proxy for the entry of 'gender ideology', as in Poland (Warat, 2016) or Bulgaria (Darakchi, 2019), Greek Neo-Nazi activists adopted a different tactic, seizing the opportunity to weave racialized depictions of gender violence into anti-immigrant discourses, and thus to reject gender equality and international conventions as strategies to secure women's welfare. But while the Greek case reaffirms scholars' observation that gender equality discourse constitutes a powerful tool marking boundaries of cultural and political belonging, it also reveals particular uses and constraints on such discourses within local contexts.…”

And If the Opponents of Gender Ideology Are Right? Gender Politics, Europeanization, and the Democratic Deficit

“…Scholars are unanimous about the chronological beginning of the rise of antigender movements in Poland, which occurred after the controversies provoked in April 2012 by the signing of the Istanbul Convention (IC) on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (Duda 2016; Korolczuk and Graff 2018; Szwed and Zielińska 2016; Warat 2016). The arguments against the agreement were clearly expressed by conservative politicians and the right-wing media in Poland.…”

“…Polish antigender campaigns employ all the aforementioned elements (Duda 2016; Grabowska 2015; Korolczuk and Graff 2018; Szwed and Zielińska 2016; Warat 2016). However, after the existence of Equality Kindergartens in Poland was brought to light, a new element appeared in the antigender rhetoric: the notion that there had been a silent coup d’état conducted by feminists and by means of gender mainstreaming.…”

“…I now present a qualitative analysis of antigender rhetoric, focusing on the manner in which the examined discourse frames the way “genderism” is introduced and promoted. I will try to answer the question of how “genderism” operates and interacts with the state according to the narrative of its adversaries, thus complementing research on the content of “gender ideology.” This last subject has already been thoroughly examined in the case of Poland (Duda 2016; Grabowska 2015; Korolczuk 2014; Szwed and Zielińska 2016; Warat 2016). Because of my narrow analytical purposes, and having at my disposal a broader corpus of antigenderist texts, I chose to carry out an analysis of several articles written by one author, Grzegorz Strzemecki (2014), who has developed the most comprehensive and detailed thesis about “gender being the official Polish state ideology” and has consequently supported his reasoning with numerous references to the process of GM implementation.…”