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

Abstract

Across Europe, far-right groups balance between contradictory positions on gender equality, invoking women’s rights to claim European cultural superiority over imagined patriarchal Muslim immigrants while rejecting gender rights as threatening the nation. Using discourse analysis of online party media and parliamentary speeches, we explore intersections of gender and race in Greek neo-Nazi women’s public positioning towards gender equality, showing how these seemingly contradictory positions align well with the party’s political vision. At a moment of pervasive racist uses of feminist discourse (Farris 2017; Hark & Villa 2017), Golden Dawn women supported an antifeminist position that re-signifies ‘women’s rights’ as a racial issue, in order to construct political enemies and dismantle equality projects.  By representing gender violence  –  as in debates on the Istanbul Convention  –  as exclusively committed by the ‘non-white’‘Muslim’male, and by rejecting ‘artificially constructed’ equality rights in favor of ‘natural’ rights, they claimed Golden Dawn as the only political actor genuinely promoting women’s welfare.

The Hermeneutics of Islamic Law in Reviewing Changes to the Minimum Age for Marriage

“…12 Gender Equality and Women's Rights Protection: The changes in the minimum age for marriage also aim to ensure gender equality and protect women's rights. 13 Getting married at a too young age can have negative consequences for women, such as higher health risks, limited educational opportunities, and the risk of being trapped in unhealthy lifestyles or unequal relationships. By raising the minimum age, it is expected that women will have greater opportunities to develop themselves, obtain better education, and choose when they are ready for marriage.…”