Gendered Terrorism: The Link Between Sex and Organized Violence

Scholars cite religion, foreign occupation, economic destitution, and lack of opportunity as reasons for terrorism, but gender and masculinity are nearly absent from the conversation. Does masculinity shape the societal structures that foster terrorism? Examining the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan and the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) in Northern Ireland demonstrates how masculinity establishes the physical spaces that radicalize men and exclude women. It is the force that propels group radicalization and tears apart societies. In scholarship, masculinity is obscured by colonialism and nationalism, but examining masculinity closer illuminates societal constructions that have deep, violent, and political consequences