Securing the society - a woman's risk to take? : A field study on how women’s perception of safety is impacted by engaging in prevention of violent extremism

Sammanfattning: This study explores how women’s perceptions of safety is impacted by participating in a program aimed at preventing violent extremism (PVE). The theoretical framework mainly draws on literature on women and conflict prevention, sacred values and human security studies. In combining theoretical arguments from these fields, I hypothesize that women’s perception of safety will be negatively impacted by participating in PVE-programs. That is because their participation will challenge sacred gender norms by taking up leadership roles in the community that usually belong to men. As a result, hostile reactions from community members will follow, i.e. from those whose sacred values are challenged, which in turn is expected to impact women’s perception of safety negatively. This thesis applies qualitative methods and to compare between two groups of women who participate in a PVE-program through different roles, and one group of non-PVE-participating women. Semi-structured interviews were held with two PVE-participating groups (female religious leaders and female economic leaders) as well as with non-PVE-participating women in Indonesia. The purpose of this case selection is twofold. First, to examine whether the PVE-participation in itself has an effect on women’s perceptions of safety. Second, to explore whether to explore whether certain roles that women take in a PVE-program challenge sacred gender norms more than others, and as such, leads to more negative perceptions of safety. The results indicate that PVE-participants challenge sacred norms, however, these norms do not always have a gendered underpinning, but are more religious in nature than anticipated. Contrary to my hypotheses, women’s perception of safety is not necessarily negatively impacted by participating in PVE-programs. The results rather indicate that women’s perception of safety can be both positively and negatively impacted by their participation, mainly depending on how their participation is understood by others. Additionally, PVE-participating women mainly challenge gender norms before they begin their participation, instead of during its active phase. As such, the results suggest that time aspects are important to fully understand women’s perception of safety.