Gender Under Siege. Slow Violence and Antigender Mobilisation in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Ethnonationalist Landscape

Abstract This article explores antigender mobilisation – a global phenomenon that challenges and undermines gender equality – with a focus on Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Using a political process model of social movements, it examines antigender activities and tactics within broader social, institutional, and political contexts. Drawing on qualitative interviews and focus groups with activists, journalists, and other professionals with lived experience, the study highlights how narratives centred on tradition and family values intersect with wartime legacies, ethnic divisions, prevailing conservativism, political conditions, and international influences. In the Republika Srpska entity, such campaigns have been supported by the state and systematically coordinated, posing serious threats to women’s and LGBTQ+ rights. Elsewhere in BiH, antigender rhetoric persists but remains more fragmented. The findings demonstrate how local dynamics intersect with transnational trends, revealing the mechanisms by which antigender mobilisation undermines gender equality in a postconflict setting.