The UK wants to tackle misogyny as a form of extremism

Interior Minister Yvette Cooper intends to include cases of "extreme misogyny" within a reform project to deal more effectively with all forms of extremism.

The new UK government plans to include the misogyny among the forms of extremism against which to prepare new contrast and containment measures.This was announced by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, who ordered a review of the UK's counter-extremism strategy to determine how best to tackle the threats posed by harmful ideologies.Based on these new guidelines - however yet to be implemented - the various forms of violence attributable to hatred of women will be considered on a par with the forms of those originating from far-right ideologies or radical Islam.

Reform internal security against extremism

Cooper justified the need for similar interventions due to the increase in incidents of extremism "both online and on our streets".A trend that "frays the very fabric of our communities and our democracy" added the internal affairs officer of the new Labor Prime Minister Keir Starmer.The review – expected to be completed by October – is just one of a number of policy reforms announced by Labor since elections won by a wide margin last July.According to the reform project, we will try to stem the rise of Islamist and far-right extremism in the country, as well as all other ideological forms attributable to the increase in episodes of social conflict and violence such as misogyny.A substantial chapter will cover  the causes and conduct of the radicalization of young people.

Cooper went on to say that the government intends to “mapping and monitoring extremist trends” to understand how to interrupt and divert people from them.“It will also identify any gaps in existing policies that need to be addressed to crack down on those who promote harmful and hateful beliefs and violence.”The issue had already played an important role in the electoral campaign on the eve of the last elections.On that occasion, Labor had attacked Rishi Sunak's government and the conservative front, accusing it of having seriously relaxed the government's action against demonstrations of violence.

The spiral of violence at the beginning of August 

But in recent weeks it has been Starmer's government that has had to deal with one big crisis on the internal security front.At the beginning of August, groups of protesters and far-right exponents attacked the immigrant community after a serious incident news episode happened last week which saw the death of three little girls at the hands of a seventeen-year-old Welshman of Rwandan origins.Immediately after the incident it circulated fake news from the Islamist origin of the attack, which prompted protesters to attack a mosque.The succession of events fueled a climate of division and violence that quickly spread to many British cities.Particularly violent urban riots at the hands of anti-immigration groups occurred in Hull, Liverpool, Bristol, Manchester, Stoke-on Trent, Blackpool and Belfast, with objects thrown, shops looted and police attacked.

“Extreme misogyny” as extremism to be eradicated

Labor supports this reform project by highlighting that a strategy against new and emerging forms of extremism has been missing for years.Cases of "extreme misogyny" will also be included among these, a phenomenon that can be linked to the spread of “incel” thinking, a phenomenon born in the online contexts of the United States in the nineties.The so-called incels are often solitary men who harbor anger and hatred towards women, accused of exclusively preferring the so-called "alpha males".

It has been linked to these theories the case of a mass shooting occurred at Plymouth in 2021 at the hands of 22-year-old Jake Davison, who killed five people before shooting himself to death.No further political action was taken at the time, but incidents like that and also the rise of social media influencers like Andrew Tate, a self-proclaimed misogynist, may have pushed the new government to think again.