Entangled Geographies of Anti-Gender Politics: Comparative Perspectives on Illiberalism, Religion, and Feminist Resistance

Abstract

This panel investigates the transnational yet contextually embedded dynamics of anti-gender politics under conditions of illiberalism and democratic backsliding. Bringing together case studies from diverse political settings from the Global East, North and South, including Turkey, Scandinavia, and Egypt, it explores how religion, nationalism, and populism intertwine to shape gendered political imaginaries and practices. The contributors examine how anti-gender actors operate across different regime types, from competitive authoritarianism to liberal democracies, by reframing gender as a site of moral crisis, national authenticity, and civilizational struggle. They address how these mobilizations adapt to distinct socio-political ecologies while forging entangled geographies of illiberal rule through shared discourses and affective registers. At the same time, the panel highlights feminist and LGBTQ+ counter-mobilizations that expose the contradictions within these illiberal projects and articulate alternative democratic imaginaries. By juxtaposing cases across divergent contexts, the panel deepens our understanding of how anti-gender politics travel, mutate, and consolidate globally, and what these processes reveal about the entanglements of gender, democracy, and religion in the reconfiguration of contemporary world politics.

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