Symposium on ‘Muslimness in the Manosphere’

Date: Wednesday 7 May 2025
Time: 5:00pm-6:30pm
Place: Parkinson Building SR B.22

Speakers:
• Dr Will Barylo, University of Warwick
• Dr Sahar Ghumkhor, University of Melbourne (CERS visiting fellow)
• Dr Hizer Mir, University of Leeds
• Hussein Mohamud, Trainee Psychoanalyst

Abstract:
Toxic masculinity, as exemplified by Andrew Tate and Jordan Peterson, has been, and is still, a flash point in the culture wars that have engulfed the West. These two figures, amongst others have been instrumental in the creation of what is known as the Manosphere, a mostly online phenomenon that consists of men who wish to roll back the rise of feminism and broader women’s rights. Those who subscribe to this ideology argue that there is a crisis of masculinity in the current age and this crisis (i.e. the fading of what is called traditional masculinity) has had a devastating impact on society. Up until recently, the manosphere had mainly been identified as a White phenomenon which connects to the wider Far Right through its racist tendencies. However, this ideology has also emerged in the Muslim online space leading to a Muslim manosphere. Figures such as Daniel Haqiqatjou and Mohammed Hijab have engaged with the ideas of the Manosphere and Islamised them, using them to call for controls on what women can do, say and wear in the name of a return to a traditional, uncorrupted Islam.

The symposium is organised by the Iqbal Centre for Critical Muslim Studies and co-badged by the Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies (CERS) and the journal ReOrient.

For more information, please contact Dr Hizer Mir