The new politics of the social and authoritarianism in the Near East: gender and youth politics and movements

While authoritarian regime building and consolidation in the Near East have often been accompanied by resistance from gender and youth movements, mainstream accounts tend to overlook the constitutive relationship between authoritarian governance and oppositional mobilisation. Moving beyond institutional approaches that focus on democratic backsliding and political repression, this article and the special issue examine the emergence of the social sphere as a key site of political contestation. It argues that authoritarian regimes increasingly seek to regulate social life through family-, gender- and youth-centred policies that promote conservative norms, restrict reproductive rights, undermine gender equality and limit political opposition. Focusing on Turkey, Iran and Azerbaijan, the article analyses how these policies contribute to the expansion of the authoritarian state’s infrastructural power while simultaneously generating new forms of resistance. The contributions to this special issue demonstrate that efforts to impose paternalistic authority and Islamist-conservative moral projects under the guise of protecting the family and youth have transformed the social and cultural realms into central arenas of political struggle. In this context, gender and youth movements emerge as important actors challenging authoritarian rule and reshaping the boundaries of political contestation.