We are horrified at the murder of three young girls that took place in Southport on Monday 29 July. Our whole-hearted thoughts go to their families and those that knew them. This incident is a horrific tragedy that must be seen in the context of violence against women and girls (VAWG). As with other incidents in recent years, the murders of Nicole Smallman, Zara Aleena, Bibaa Henry, Sarah Everard, Ellie Gould and Alice Ruggles, we have seen media outrage but a lack of willingness to identify this as primarily an issue of male violence.
There has been a general failure to realise the extent to which questions of gender, and in particular the “protection” of the ‘white family”, is a central part of the way the racist far right seeks to exploit social anxieties and generate support for its xenophobic agenda. This has important historic dimensions but was also, as we noted earlier, a key aspect of far right conspiracies during the Covid pandemic. The calls for ‘protecting our women and girls’, alongside calling out ‘degenerate Muslim men who abuse their women’, only reinforces the patriarchal view of women as property – this is honour abuse by any other name. While making these calls for protecting women and girls against outsiders, the far right is not concerned, even slightly, about increasing levels of domestic violence against women and girls. One of the men seen rioting in Southport and attacking police on 30 July was arrested in Southport for domestic abuse on the 31st. Men fuelled by alcohol and drugs, who have committed acts of violence on the streets, will be returning to their homes – and we all know what’s likely to happen. Services must monitor this diligently through the calls received on their helplines.
As feminists we call out abuse in all communities. The posturing of men claiming to protect “us” from men from “other” communities needs to be understood as part of the strategy to racialise male violence. The religious leaderships that have established themselves as the spokespersons of minoritised groups are unable to name this strategy and oppose the racist and patriarchal ideas that it is based on. What we need is solidarity against all male violence. We need to oppose the tacit compliance of those who stand by silently as well as condemn the hypocritical trope-ridden cheerleading of entitled press pundits who claim to speak for working people against ‘elites’.
Extracts from a much, much longer article at https://feministdissent.org/blog-posts/far-right-terror-uk/