From their formation until their rupture, Iraqi right-wing groups have been dominated by misogynistic ideas. This article contains a critical analysis of the Iraqi right-wing and manosphere phenomenon examining their transformation based on the experiences of the women and men who were their victims.

In June 2021, the first author of this article posted a tweet on Twitter (now X), praising the courage of Ihab Al-Wazni’s mother, who took into the streets amid a male security presence to demand accountability and justice for the assassination of her son. In the tweet, I commended her act as a feminist act in its essence because it was “a cry against injustice.” That simile had an emotional dimension. I was trying to remove the stigma attached to the word nasawiya [feminism] by referring to an ordinary Iraqi mother, wearing a hijab and abaya, who was struggling to regain the stolen right of her murdered son. I sought to overcome the widespread demonisation of feminism as a Western import that contradicts local customs and traditions. The tweet received a positive reaction. However, the next day, I received messages from a group of friends warning me that a page called ‘Men Without Borders’ had taken a screenshot of the tweet and published it on their Facebook page, accompanied by accusations stemming from the refusal of its admins to associate feminism – which they considered a morally corrupt concept – with being a noble woman who embodies all of the meanings of honour that feminism denies. Their words opened the door for derogatory and offensive comments about myself and my reputation.  

The experience was disturbing. However, the support of several female colleagues and friends reporting on the page and the post, and communicating with its admins, helped to calm my fears. Still, none of their attempts was successful, and the post remained. The page continued with its immoral and scornful approach towards women in general and feminists in particular.  

I thought this page was a single and random case at the time. Back then, it never occurred to me that it was the tip of the iceberg of an online global, regional, and local phenomenon known as the ‘manosphere.’ Despite their diverse ideologies, these digitally networked groups of men share one idea or discourse: an intense hatred of women and opposition to any discourse supporting women’s emancipation or disseminating consciousness about their rights. The danger of these groups does not stop here. Many of those subscribing to this phenomenon harm women in many ways. What happened to me was only a drop in the ocean compared to what has happened to other women. The second author of this article has also been subjected to insults, offensive comments, bullying and other immoral practices over the past years because of her views that do not appeal to these different groups. When they tried to hack her Facebook account, she finally decided to withdraw her public presence on social networking sites permanently.  

Locally, the roots of this phenomenon go back to groups that used to call themselves the ‘Iraqi right.’ These groups began to emerge in 2014. Over the years, what seemed to be a homogeneous mass fragmented into several sub-groups, with the label yameen [right] disappearing gradually. More recently, it has been replaced by new adjectives that adhere to similar ideologies and practices.  

In this article, we try to critically analyse this phenomenon and its transformations, focusing on the experiences of its victims: women and men. We draw on interviews with some of their victims, and conversations with social media users who contacted us after posting on X to engage with people who have encountered the online right groups and their accounts or interacted with them. Further, we draw on months of online observations and data collected from such accounts on Instagram, Facebook, Telegram, and X. To protect our participants, we have used pseudonyms and have not revealed the titles of the manosphere pages and accounts.   

What is important to us is that readers become aware that ideological differences never justify abuse, threat, or personal harm to others. These acts can destroy lives forever, while the abuser lives their life normally and fully with no care for the safety and dignity of their victims.   

Before addressing the local phenomenon, it is necessary to briefly introduce its genesis in the Western world, including where it first manifested before becoming a source of inspiration for others in the Arab world and beyond.    

The spectrum of far right and manosphere groups   

There is some overlap between the far right and the manosphere. Both are similar in their decentralisation and the many contradictions in their ideologies. Groups belonging to the far right or extreme right formed a movement in the West which began in the 1990s and adopted the ideology of racial superiority or white supremacy. They began to crystallise more with the development of modern technology and the Internet. Digital groups have formed under the umbrella of the extreme right, most notably those that have come to be known as the alt-right. They include incoherent groups of white supremacist nationalists, anti-Semites, anti-immigrants, anti-Islamists, fascists, neo-Nazis, Holocaust deniers, and conspiracy theorists. Alt-right discourse is not just ink on paper or confined to forums and digital pages. On the contrary, it has materialised on the ground in the form of violent hatred and terrorist attacks, perhaps the most notorious of which was the terrorist attack on two mosques in the city of Christchurch in New Zealand in 2019.  

Conversely, the manosphere consists of digitally- networked groups of men, spread across different digital spaces where patterns of dominant and traditional masculinity are expressed. The manosphere intersects with the alt-right in their intense misogyny and anti-feminism. The manosphere can be categorised into several subcultures: men’s rights activists, male separatists known as Men Who Go their Own Way (MGTOW), Pick-Up Artists (PUA), who rely on misogynistic seduction techniques, incels (involuntary celibacy), and others. While these sub-cultures differ in their ideas and visions to the extent that they can be hostile to each other, they have one thing in common: their hostility to feminism and women’s rights. As is the case of the far right, these ideologies have real-life implications, including hate crimes and violence beyond digital spaces.   

Manosphere groups have their own linguistic codes, terminology, and discourse. One of the most important of those terms which have simultaneously been spreading in the Arab and Iraqi manosphere is the term ‘Red Pill’. Some studies classify those adopting the Red Pill philosophy into a subculture itself, which indicates the complex overlap between the manosphere groups.   

Borrowed from the 1999 science fiction film, The Matrix, the idea of the Red Pill finds its roots in a fictional world created by machines to enslave humans. It draws from the following scene between Neo, the character played by American actor Keanu Reeves, and Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), whom he recruits to liberate humanity: “Morpheus offers Neo two pills to choose from: You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your own bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the Red Pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember, all I am offering is the truth, nothing more.”   

According to its proponents, the Red Pill would alert men to what they see as the dangers of feminism, presenting it as an ideology aimed at enslaving men and centred around their oppression. As  Moroccan scholar Abdelilah Farah noted in his study of the Moroccan Red Pill community, the problem with the reality created by the Red Pill groups is that it is based on hostility, exclusion and hatred of women. It is “not based on sound facts or evidence, but rather a complex set of speculations and justifications that can sometimes be naïve.”  

Whether we are talking about the Iraqi right-wing or the Iraqi manosphere, we find that many of their ideologies and narratives have been borrowed from their Western counterparts, with some modifications that fit the Arab/Islamic context. In the case of Iraq, however, the intersection between all these digital societies is more complex and blurred, and their impact on women’s lives is even more severe and deadly. The irony is that despite unthinkingly importing from the Western context, the Iraqi manosphere often tarnishes feminism as a Western import, which they claim stands against the values and norms of the local community.  

In what follows, we will discuss the local version of this phenomenon in the form of two waves. The first wave is characterized by the popularity of the Iraqi right as a self-identification. The second wave has witnessed the fading of this terminology and identity without the disappearance of its main pillars. Rather, it has been replaced by other labels, with more discrepancies emerging among the Iraqi right individuals, according to their backgrounds. The second wave saw the emergence of the Iraqi manosphere and its intersection with right wing groups.  

First wave: proud right-wingers   

The year 2014 marked the genesis of several unorganised groups on social media that defined themselves as the Iraqi right. The participants in the founding wave were a group of Iraqi atheists and irreligious people living in Iraq or abroad.  

Maysaa, a journalist and political activist familiar with their activities since this early stage, recalls how it all started with the foundation of a Facebook group in late 2013, representing the gathering of atheists and non-religious, including those on the right.   

Kareem, a writer and journalist, also learned about the practices of the right from the beginning. He recounted to us, “In the beginning, the Iraqi right wing represented a group of young people who rushed  to become atheists, meaning their departure from religion did not make them reject many of its teachings, especially those related to women”.   

“They could not get rid of the remnants of tribalism and its social traditions. Getting out of religion is difficult. What is even more difficult is breaking away with customs and social norms,” Kareem said.  

However, their ideas and ideologies had not been visibly formed. It is worth noting here that we have consciously decided to use ‘ideologies’ and ‘ideas’ in the plural to emphasize the absence of a single ideology on which all right wingers agree. They are heterogeneous, with differences and contradictions existing among them. This discrepancy is often primarily due to their distinct religious backgrounds: Islamic or atheist. As blogger Nabeel describes, such incongruities and disagreements led to a divorce between them in the second wave, as we will discuss later. The contestation prompted some prominent names to leave group pages and collective accounts. In Nabeel’s words, they have even started to “tweet outside the flock” individually, establishing new accounts, groups, and pages with an Islamic background. In the next section, we provide a review of their most widespread ideologies.  

Ideas and ideologies  

After the formation of the aforementioned Facebook group in 2013, it was only a short time before public Facebook pages were launched which promoted the ideas of the Iraqi right. Nabeel, who has observed the activities of these pages since their inception, told us how an Iraqi Facebook page has constituted the core of the Iraqi right and is still active. He added that those who closely follow the content of that page would notice that “their ideas are based entirely on a Western conservative right-wing heritage, and they are deeply immersed in it. It was their main reference point, which was interesting at times and ridiculous at others. Many embrace “its outputs such as traditional capitalism, social Darwinism and anti-equality in all its forms”, while “others often embrace Nazism”. Some would also “praise Donald Trump.”, added Nabeel.   

On the economic level, members of the Iraqi right criticise and ridicule socialism, embrace capitalism and present themselves as its advocates. They defend neoliberal policies, privatisation, and profit, objecting to people’s right to public services such as education, health, and social welfare. According to Kareem, the problem was not in adopting capitalist ideology per se but in believing in a “brutal version devoid of sympathy for the poor and the weak, whose purpose is to raise money even if this means crushing the poor.” Such tenets appear to be in harmony with social  Darwinism. In addition to supporting a grotesque version of capitalism, they oppose environmental and animal rights activists and deny and dismiss global warming and climate change as a  conspiracy. In doing so, they undermine their repercussions, viewing them as natural phenomena that have occurred over centuries. They do not need international political and economic interventions or policies to confront them. Some of these groups are against human rights theoretically or practically, opposing social justice and equality, celebrating racist behaviours, and rejecting democracy. It is, therefore, not surprising that most of them view the monarchy as the only model of successful governance. They express nostalgia for the age of monarchy even though they had not lived it themselves. Such nostalgic behaviour is demonstrated in how they admire and dream about monarchy, wishing they were under its rule. One can notice how their pages are filled with pictures of King Faisal I and II, regent Abdul Ilah and Nuri al-Said. Some would support colonialism and the British Mandate upon discussing historical events, and oppose Iraq’s 1920 Revolution.  

They claim that, unlike countries that were not colonised, colonised nations benefited from colonialism, which was an essential factor in their progress and renaissance. They present the former as examples of failed states. They would support the U.S. occupation on a similar basis when discussing the present. Some support normalisation with Israel, while others hate Jews based on religious beliefs, admiring Hitler and the Nazis. Some adopt the ideologies of the alt-right, unapologetically declaring their admiration for Donald Trump, while others discriminate and incite against minorities. Further, some praise the example of Saudi Arabia and the UAE and their governance and economic policies. As for the irreligious Iraqi right wingers, especially those living in Western countries, many of them believe in white supremacy and adopt racist attitudes akin to the positions of the Western extreme right towards immigrants and Muslims.  

Identifying with the Western far right, they show this superiority in their intense fondness for classical architecture because of its association with authenticity, superiority, fanaticism, as well as domination and power. Many loathe (post)-modernity arts and architecture. On their social media accounts, they glorify classical and Renaissance period paintings, sculptures, architecture, and arts. The Islamic right wing- so to speak- admire Islamic architecture and civilisation and speak about its glories by using images of Muslim scientists and philosophers in their account profiles.   

Based on her observations of their accounts, Maysaa believes that the Iraqi right quickly began to multiply and attract individuals who work in the media sector, so-called intellectuals, including translators and media professionals, owners and managers of civil society and NGO public pages that are alleged to promote the concepts of human rights and social justice. Some of them are backed by powerful or partisan parties, Maysaa asserted. It seems that conservative and reactionary content, presented with a scientific and cultural flavour that conforms with religious and tribal customs, has the power to appeal to many.  

Nietzschean right wingers   

As the digital outreach of these accounts expanded, other lines of thought gradually became more apparent. Most of these account holders started to present themselves as intellectuals and elites, adopting a superior position. They were influenced by Western philosophers and thinkers, the most important of which is the German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche. Just as the Nazis and fascists appropriated Nietzsche to legitimize their world view, he was a source of inspiration for far and alt right movements in the Western world. Perhaps such appropriation was partly due to his problematic ideas about enlightenment, modernity and morality.  

It is argued that many of Nietzsche’s  ideas were misunderstood and that his name has been wrongly associated with fascism by some Western writers. Hugo Drochon, author of Nietzsche’s Great Politics, has warned against such misrepresentation. In 2018, Drochon predicted that misinterpreting Nietzsche would make him the philosophical and intellectual weight of the alt-right and far-right movements. This seems to have been the case. The Iraqi right preceded this prophecy, as they were greatly influenced by Nietzsche. Even though they did not read or understand the German philosopher fully, they dealt with his output selectively. They had a tendency to write their posts poorly, trying to reproduce Nietzsche’s texts that have been translated by the Tunisian translator, Ali Misbah. His photos and quotes fill their pages and personal accounts. They mimic Nietzsche’s haircut, moustache, and photo poses when they take pictures of themselves.   

Right-wing followers of scientism  

The Iraqi right-wing groups are full of paradoxes. For example, someone can be influenced by Nietzsche, who is known for his criticism of science and scientists and a sceptic of modern science despite his defence of scientific methodology. At the same time, they might describe themselves as adherent of ‘scientism’. Contrary to Nietzsche’s philosophy of scientific knowledge, scientism “represents an orientation that ates back to Europe in the late Renaissance. In its beginning, it contributed, in one way or another, to the spirit of scientific research, calling for a focus on the empirical method based on evidence. Nevertheless, in later eras, it shifted from a call based on valid premises (the use of science to explain the universe) to an ideology (science provides answers to everything) similar to any other ideology.” Nonetheless, based on our research, we found that most of the so-called right-wing scientism followers adopt the term only because they publish scientific articles compiled or translated on topics about evolution, medicine, and science such as physics and the universe. In other words, they may be ignorant of the concept’s meanings. In doing so, they attract many followers from different backgrounds and orientations. As many of our interviewees observed, they can plagiarise by translating such content. Plagiarism can manifest itself when sources for the translated articles are not provided within their posts. They sometimes cite themselves as the source of the translation. Even when they cite the source, their translation is not always accurate or faithful to the original text.    

It is not surprising, therefore, that those right wingers who adopt scientism would underestimate the value of literature. They view novels and poetry as creative products that are useless to humanity. Others underrate and mock the Iraqi novel and poetry, especially prose. They target and attack women poets, writers, journalists, and any woman who is appreciated by society, achieves remarkable achievements and of whom other women are proud. It is indeed neither productive nor constructive to praise women’s literary products based on their gender.  To respect the value of women as writers and as human beings, their outputs as writers must be addressed through the lens of solid and objective criticism. However, right wingers deal with women writers and poets through personal attacks, bullying, mockery and even defamation. Maysaaa told us that one satirical right wing page, which sets the path for other similar pages, was initially launched only for this purpose: ridiculing and bullying young women writers.   

As such, it can be argued that their attack on women writers did not only stem from their belittling of literature but also because it is in harmony with their anti-egalitarian and anti-feminist vision and with their overt and covert misogynistic ideas. Regardless of other diverse ideologies, right wingers are unanimous in their anti-feminism, and are in constant agreement on this position.  

Anti-feminism  

Right-wing pages and accounts do not shy away from their anti-feminist stance. If anything, they speak and boast loudly about it. The holders of these accounts define themselves as anti-feminists and dedicate most of their pages to exposing feminism. According to them, building a good society requires keeping women in the same traditional positions and roles assigned to them by the patriarchy. This view underpins the acts and discourse of individuals and groups, regardless of their backgrounds.  

Moreover, these pages advocate traditional masculinity, virility, and a powerful cohesive patriarchy. They demand a return to traditionalism and speak of their fear of the collapse of Western civilization due to identity politics, political correctness, leftism, feminism, queer and wokism. Recently, the right wing has been warning against what they call “gender ideology.” Considering all the above, these hostile attitudes also emanate from their rejection of equality in general, quality being the cornerstone of feminist thought and its movements. As Nabeel, who is not a feminist, suggested, they are undoubtedly enemies of “everything that smells (left)”.  

It is one thing to oppose feminist thought and reduce its multiple schools. This is unfair as it demonises feminist discourses and approaches. It is another thing to target feminists or activists and the men who support them, or the different ‘Other’, by smearing, shaming, threatening, blackmailing, and defaming them. Some right wingers of the first wave were also complicit in these acts, according to the testimonies of their victims. This does not mean that all Iraqi right-wingers who oppose feminism have harmed others. However, they did not denounce such shameful acts and behaviours or boycott their perpetrators online or offline. Were they satisfied with such acts? Or did they find them insignificant? Or did they not know about them? The latter is unlikely since most of these practices occurred on their public and private pages and groups. In any case, we do not have definitive answers to these questions. Yet there is evidence derived from the victims’ accounts that what they were subjected to   by some right wingers amounts to crimes or “cyberterrorism”, as Kareem puts it. The effects have practical impact on the ground. However, the perpetrators are never held accountable or, in the very least, socially condemned, as we detail in the next section.  

Digital terrorism against the ‘Other’  

Since the establishment of the Iraqi Facebook groups for atheists, some right-wing members have targeted the women in the group. Kareem recounts how the belief was that secular, liberal or irreligious women were easily accessible. “When they became atheists, they thought that space was open to them for freedom, specifically sexual freedom, and that secular women were sexually available,” Kareem added. They hated women who rejected them. Maysaa added that, within that group, they took revenge on female members by blackmailing, shaming, and using threatening practices that continue against women and feminists to this day.     

In our interviews, victims explained the types of intimidation tactics that are used. For example, right wingers collect screenshots of posts and comments by female feminists and women’s rights activists from their pages or groups after they join these pages using fake accounts with female names. They would then post the screenshots on their accounts and pages, accompanied by incitement and demonisation, mobilising people to target these women. They attack their accounts by reporting or hacking them, forcing women to deactivate or delete them. They also hack personal accounts and phones to steal photographs, images and information. They publish and share the hacked content, according to the writer and novelist (K.K.), referring to their chat groups or “dens” on applications such as Messenger and Telegram, where he was once added to one of those groups.   

In most of the private chat groups that have been created to harm women, they exchange photos and screenshots of their victims, particularly those who speak about or give their opinions on feminist issues. Their goal is to intimidate them and silence their voices by bullying, shaming, blackmailing, and launching defamation campaigns. These very same methods are used by the Iraqi manosphere and the new right in the second wave in dealing with women and those who disagree with them.   

Using access, they now have to the accounts and information of targeted women and girls, they communicate with their family members, relatives, and university and work colleagues to insult, threaten, discredit them, or incite their families against them. They also send them altered or hacked personal photos to humiliate and shame them.  

Posting a woman’s photo, even if she is wearing a hijab, accompanied by expressions of demonisation, incitement, and insults, can jeopardize her life or future. Worse still is the manipulation of images using Photoshop to appear pornographic or as nude content. They then post the images on pornographic sites and publish them on channels and accounts on Twitter and Telegram which promote prostitution and pornography. Many of their victims faced physical and psychological violence by their families and were denied access to the internet and telecoms as a result. Some were prevented from going to university. Others disappeared for long periods to then then return online to talk about their experience. Some have disappeared entirely. Others have been killed. Nermeen, a feminist blogger, recalled with fear and bitterness what happened to one of the targeted girls, who was a teenager at the time. Private photos of her were published in an Iraqi men’s group. When her family heard about the pictures, they felt this to be a scandal and killed her as a result.    

Nermeen herself met a young man on Facebook and spoke with him for a while. However, it later turned out that he was affiliated with the right-wing community and befriended the local Iraqi manosphere groups. In one of their smearing campaigns, he sent some of Nermeen’s photos to one of the campaign’s leaders, who lived outside Iraq. “This is feminist,” he told him.  

He then began publishing derogatory posts about Nermeen and told his group: “Wait for me; I will post pictures of Nermeen for you.”  

Nermeen recalled those days with agony and fear: “These were dark days. I could not sleep and panicked. I was afraid to open the internet and social media and find my photos published. I imagined that I would find my photos distributed in all their and other men’s groups, and they would reach my family and acquaintances. I was saying it was only a matter of time before the photos would be published in Iraq. I wanted to kill myself. Killing myself sounded better than someone in my family killing me by putting a bullet in my head or murdering me in a horrible way.”   

This was a small part of what Nermeen had to go through. It is worth mentioning here that her photos appeared harmless and were not revealing or nude. However, Nermeen explained to us that, upon finding what might be deemed to be defamatory and scandalous posts where identities are revealed, most families would not support their daughters or stand with them to confront the abusers. Instead, they would blame their daughters and take revenge on them because they are seen to be responsible for the scandal. “We are talking about mere posts; imagine what might happen if they see photos disseminated online”, Nermeen exclaimed. In other words, the family can pose the greatest danger to women because they do not believe or support them. The right wing and the manosphere know this, and so they play on the lack of family support.  

Susan, a women’s rights activist, told us about a a post which appeared related to her: “Who among you has nude photos of her?” They took her personal photos that she had posted on Instagram and put them on a porn website. She added, “A group of friends and I stayed up late at night trying to write to the website, asking to delete the photos”. Then they started impersonating me on Instagram, posting my pictures and fabricating posts and comments in my name.” Susan continues, “Even in the case when they disagreed with a man, in order to hurt him, they would take a picture of his wife or daughter and photoshop it into a pornographic image”.  

The second wave: The Iraqi manosphere and the (neo) Iraqi right  

From our field observations and interviews, we conclude that 2019 marked a turning point in the phenomenon of the Iraqi right for several reasons. Firstly, new pages, accounts, and groups began to formulate that did not necessarily affiliate with the right but were more connected with the manosphere. Personal accounts and public pages called  “al-haba al-hamra’” (The Red Pill) and their like: the blue and black pill (sometimes with Islamic or nationalist modifications), as well as ‘tha zelma’ [a slang word for man] and many more were launched. As in the case of the right, the manosphere has an intellectual reference, drawing from Greek books and philosophies that legitimise its ideology and reinforce the idea that “the feminist agenda destroys women, brainwashing them in order to support feminism.” The new groups cite European history, particularly the Middle Ages. Islamist-oriented accounts cite “sacred” religious texts and Islamic history and heritage. These movements also draw on evolutionary psychology to crystallize their idea that “is based on a philosophy that rejects modern and progressive feminism, and instead believes in a genetically deterministic conception of sex: it asserts that gender has inherent roles because of ‘physical characteristics.’”  On a global scale, these groups and pages oppose women’s education and employment.   

The situation takes a more radical dimension in the Iraqi context, resulting in harsher reactions mainly due to a political, social, and religious environment that nurtures reactionary ideas with little institutional or societal resistance. For example, they attribute women’s education and work in mixed-gender spaces to women’s corruption. We can notice how they sometimes warn against marrying workers. However, at other times, they would then encourage marrying provided that these women are submissive and obedient. They argue that the men have the right to seize their salaries because they are their wives. They falsely blame their inability to find job opportunities on women who, according to them, hijack such opportunities, overlooking structural economic conditions, rampant corruption, mismanagement, and state policies as the main reasons for unemployment.  

Red Pill groups have linguistic codes through which the masculine self is constructed. Men are divided into categories. For example, there is the “alpha male”, referring to “those animals that occupy the highest rank in their group. Males and females can be alpha depending on the animal species. For example, some male animals have the exclusive right to reproduce, and use violence and threats to maintain their place in the group when they face opposition from other males.”    

The Iraqi manosphere and right groups are often visible online, either with their real identities and photos revealed or using fake accounts. On such accounts, they repeatedly circulate and post pictures using Giga Chad, a term that now refers to everything that embodies masculine attractiveness. Their pages have distinctive logos, symbols, images, and posts that reflect their ideas, concepts and preferences. One of the things they have in common is their interest in the same favourite shows such as Matt Walsh’s “What is a Woman,” an anti-transgender documentary film and what they call ‘gender ideology.’ They also tend to like programs that appear to be favoured by their right-wing counterparts and the Western manosphere. These programs are often seen as critical of the violent practices of the protagonist male characters. But they chose to see these characters as fascinating, turning a blind eye to their negative aspects and their violent narcissism and masculinity. For example, the films Fight Club and American Psycho, whose main character was played by Christian Bale,   have become iconic to them. The same can be said about Tony Soprano, a mafia man who heads a criminal organisation in long-running American drama series, The Sopranos.  

In other words, the Red Pill groups and the manosphere, in general, specialise in their enmity towards feminism captured by their masculine and patriarchal discourse that perpetuates an inferior view of women. However, there is no rupture between the manosphere and the right. Both are intertwined, feeding into each other through their interaction online, quoting and referencing one another. Nonetheless, during this wave, specifically in 2020, the differences between the Iraqi Islamic right and the atheist sphere intensified. Some right-wing Arab pages from an Islamic background engaged in this division, mocking the pioneers of the Iraqi right, describing them as “the Atwani right” in reference to the problematic videos of the Iraqi wedding photographer Zuhair Al-Atwani, in a clearly sarcastic manner, accusing some of stealing translations and plagiarising ideas from each other.   

Second, considering the above, this wave witnessed the decline of the term ‘Iraqi right’ without disappearing completely. It was replaced with new descriptive terms, including ‘traditionalists’, ‘conservatives’, and ‘reactionaries.’ New pages and public or individual accounts began to use similar terminology and slogans, and it became difficult to separate the Iraqi manosphere from the right. However, the ideologies of the latter are still widely circulated. Although such pages and accounts do not explicitly use the label ‘rightist’, they adopt and interact with the familiar Iraqi right-wing discourse and the names associated with the first wave. According to Maysaa, many of these are undoubtedly supported by powerful parties through their entanglement with Islamist institutions, emerging parties, and political funding networks.  

In addition, there are signs of an emergent cultural movement led by members of the first-wave Iraqi right and their second-wave followers through the foundation of publishing houses or collaborations with existing publishers by offering consultation and translating books that channel their ideologies.  

For example, on one of their pages, Esther Vilar 1971’s anti-feminist book The Manipulated Man was recommended for translation. Her book gained popularity after appearing in the Western manosphere and was picked up by Arabs and Iraqis. For the Western Red Pill community, the book is a must-read for any new member because it resonates well with their beliefs and misconceptions about women. As the Moroccan scholar Abdulilah Farah describes, the book is “about the relationship between men and women, the true nature of women and how women exploit men to achieve their goals through sexual seduction. For example, Vilar sees jobs, universities and gatherings in general as an environment where women can hunt and exploit their prey [men]”. On Goodreads, a reviewer of the book called it “a Nazi manifesto against women.”   

In the Iraqi manosphere/right-wing community, we noticed a positive interaction with the book, with happy and welcoming comments about its launch into the Iraqi book market. One comment, for instance, thanked the publishing house and the bookstore for selling it, and another replied: “We had the honour of pushing it to print in coordination with Maulana [our boss] X and the translators.” The writer and novelist K.K. calls their translations of these books the phenomenon of “dark enlightenment”, characterised by its critique of modernity, equality and democracy and calls for a return to traditional hierarchical social structures. He told us that “these books are not popular and despised in America and Europe. They are like the waste of books of capitalists and the European right. The houses that adopt the publication of their translations do so to create a right wing Arab cultural circle that can cosy up to the Gulf petrodollar.” The list of such translated publications thus far includes books by conservative or far-right populists, such as Thomas Sowell, author of Social Justice Fallacies, Colombian writer and philosopher Nicolás Gómez Dávila, Swedish writer Daniel Friberg, a prominent figure in Sweden’s neo-fascist and global alt-right movement, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Austrian school economist and right wing libertarian/anarcho-capitalist philosopher, and Alain de Benoist, leader of the French new right, to name but a few.  

The third reason for the shift in the second wave was the Tishreen protests, which were another factor for divisions among members of the Iraqi right. Most of the Iraqi right and their followers did not support the protests when they first erupted. Instead, they criticised and mocked them and were sceptical about the protestors. This position has continued until now and is highlighted on each anniversary of the movement. However, their tone has become less severe, and they justify their stance by saying that they are against revolutions and protests in general because they are for the masses. Some criticise the October protests because they were not led by an elite who possessed the specific characteristics and qualifications they desired. A group from the right-wing community has resorted to online ridicule, dedicating their pages to bullying and slandering the protesters, icons of Tishreen and the victims. They do not hesitate to insult them, to cancel and socially stigmatise them. Their attitudes have also caused disagreements between them and some of their followers.   

Nevertheless, a group of them supported the protests and became activists, dedicating their accounts and platforms to engage with the protestors, which was another cause for the fragmentation, albeit temporarily. According to some of our interviewees, among those right wingers who supported Tishreen were some of those who incited against women and participated in smear campaigns. When they stood with Tishreen, their past actions were erased, and they did not need to offer an apology. Many people who witnessed their actions have since forgiven them, thinking they have changed. It was only a matter of time before they showed their true colours towards feminism and activists. With the new acceptance they gained following Tishreen from the ordinary simple audiences who follow their pages, channels, podcasts and programs on some satellite channels, their hostility-laden words and discourse have become heard, believed, read and have had impact. It is important to note that some of the Tishreeni right supporters later retracted their support for Tishreen and began to denounce and scorn the protests like their other fellow right groups.  

Mesofeminism and misogyny: An ideology across differences  

As in the first wave, hatred of feminism, women, and other vulnerable groups remains the ideology that unites the Iraqi manosphere. A similar analogy can be found in the unity between the alt-right, Islamists and conservative Muslims in the Western world. With the rise of feminist voices on social media platforms, especially during and after the October protests, the inflammatory and inciteful rhetoric escalated. In recent years, social media platforms have facilitated communication between Iraqi women who can express their individual and collective views on feminist issues. They use social media as a platform to talk about equality, sexism, harassment, and exploitation, raising their voices to contribute to spreading feminist awareness about the reality of their oppression by the patriarchal system. They have been able to practice feminist awareness digitally by creating several feminist pages and groups through which they can speak up about the need to change the situation and reclaim their deprived rights. Their presence has not appealed to the Iraqi right, who have reacted by attacking them from the outset. Until now, they and other manosphere groups, conservatives, and traditionalist subjects continue to adopt intimidating tactics to terrorise women in general and feminists in particular in the digital space, hindering their ability to express and raise awareness. When the Clubhouse voice app was launched in 2020, for example, feminists’ chat rooms on that app were invaded by these groups. Individuals from the Iraqi right and the manosphere started to enter those rooms in order to shout at the activists, offend them, and make video recordings of their conversations. These recordings were manipulated by taking feminists’ words out of context and then reshaping and reframing them to divert and distort their messages to escalate people’s attacks on them and reinforce the misconception that feminists are evil and dangerous to society.  

Today, these right-wing and manosphere groups are more extreme than ever, with their debates and opinions revolving, for example, around the importance of women returning to past conditions where they were denied education and employment. They also stress the use of abuse, rape, and the detention of women. This distorted discourse explains why they and their Western and Arab peers in the manosphere communities generally view suspicious figures such as Andrew Tate as their role models. They resort to profanity towards those who disagree with them and often react with the laughing emoji as a flimsy way to deride and offend their opponents. They use words like ‘feminist, leftist, communist, gay, and Tishrini [in reference to Tishreen protestors] as insults.  

Subtitles of notorious Western figures have significantly accelerated the spread of this inflammatory content on social media applications. Jordan Peterson, a Canadian psychologist, is a case in point, especially before his provocative remarks about the war on Gaza, which shocked his Muslim followers. His videos about gender roles and biological and psychological differences between men and women are available on YouTube with Arabic subtitles. They are also shared in WhatsApp chat rooms. One video showing Peterson discussing the “scientifically proven” differences between men and women, especially in “egalitarian societies,” has obtained 1.7M views.  

These anti-gender campaigns are perhaps the closest example of the hostile narrative towards feminism and women’s rights, on the one hand, and the interaction between the Iraqi and Western right on the other. Some right wing atheists, as well as Islamists, have been involved in mobilising people to support the campaign. Those in charge of these campaigns of intimidation and incitement, which included clerics, MPs and politicians, also benefited from Western rightwing videos translated by some members of the right wing and the Iraqi manosphere. The translated content quickly disseminated rumours, lies and hysteria, many of which were transmitted from the West, which contributed to feeding the campaign. A former atheist and right-winger who was active in  Islam incited against female activists, posted their photos and accounts on his pages, and translated and republished most of the videos and news about those Westerners who are anti-homosexual. On his social media accounts, he disseminated requests to Islamist bodies, authorities, and clerics, asking them to issue fatwas to prohibit gender and feminism. He was then platformed by one of the Shiite Islamist channels, where he has become a regular guest in their programs, shows, and seminars.ⁱ  this campaign and claimed that he had converted back to Islam incited against female activists, posted their photos and accounts on his pages, and translated and republished most of the videos and news about those Westerners who are anti-homosexual. On his social media accounts, he disseminated requests to Islamist bodies, authorities, and clerics, asking them to issue fatwas to prohibit gender and feminism. He was then platformed by one of the Shiite Islamist channels, where he has become a regular guest in their programs, shows, and seminars.ⁱⁱ   

Meanwhile, groups have formed on Telegram that censor and hunt those who defend gender, republishing their posts with their identities revealed, known as doxing, in a stigmatizing and inciteful manner, like the tactics of the first wave. As Maysaa recalls, they do not attack their victim individually but assault “like hyenas”, pouncing on them. The victims here include women and men who t stand with feminism or women’s rights.   

Tariq was one of their male victims. In 2020, he had an account under a fake name in which he supported women’s rights and feminists. Some right-wingers followed him, and despite their provocation and sometimes transgression, Tariq decided to be tolerant and patient, arguing with rather than blocking them. He said, “This did not help me in anything. On the contrary, their hostility increased, and they kept publishing screenshots of my posts with offensive comments plus accusations of trying to flatter women, calling me pejorative labels such as: Shakeeb [in reference to a male character in an Iraqi show], “simp” (A man who invests a significant amount of his time and money in a woman who is not romantically interested in him.), ‘their sister’, ‘castrated’, etc.”   

Recently, Tariq decided to post his photos on his account. They were immediately taken and published on one of the pages of the right-wingers, whose name carried a derogatory epithet for men defending women. Their posts were characterised by appearance-targeted bullying, focusing on his appearance as the reason for his alleged subjugation to women. “I argued with many of them, but they always reacted with the laughing emoji, allowing for a torrent of abusive comments. They attacked my page like ‘cockroaches’ with the aim of slandering me in all the possible means and using anything I said or posted against me in malicious ways. A few months ago, I had to delete my old page when they posted a screenshot of one of my comments related to my ex-wife when she was my wife, in which I was addressing a person describing him as ‘my wife’s friend’. So, they exploited that comment when it was posted on a satirical manosphere account by changing and distorting the intended meanings of the words ‘friend’ and ‘friendship’. My page was shortly targeted, and I was accused of being a cuckold, so I deleted my page. I had enough of all the cruelty of their words, portraying me as someone far from my true self.”   

Why do they act like that?  

In this lengthy article, we have tried to analyse a complex phenomenon from several aspects. However, we did not explain these groups’ behaviour, for this would require academic or specialist attention and further studies by researchers and experts. Structural factors concerning the state’s role, laws, and institutions in addressing or exacerbating such practices will need to be considered in future research. In conclusion, we touch upon the explanations given by victims according to their experience with the right or the manosphere and the extent to which their discourse and practices pose a danger to the victims and society at large. Our interviewees suggested that their behaviour might have emerged from psychological and emotional stress, including their loss of self-esteem, failure to forge romantic relationships, as well as to their upbringing and the male violence that they might have been subjected to as children and could not get forget. But nothing can justify destroying other peoples’ lives, particularly women’s, through defamation, blackmailing, and other kinds of abuse. Although morality is a loose and flexible concept, with standards that vary from one person to another, there are general ethics and principles for dealing with others. In this regard, when Nabeel wrote to us, he was clear about not believing in or supporting what he called the ‘feminist project’ or even the platforms on which we write.  

Nonetheless, he said a sense of responsibility dictated that he shares his testimony with us. Dealing with rivals ethically is the right course of action. Kareem, on the other hand, distinguished between the harmful right and the educated right, who have a “solid and reasonable vision”, even if we might disagree with it.. The problem is that this vision is less visible and cannot be communicated, Kareem added. Indeed, the issue is not about the different ideologies but rather the way they are selectively and reductively presented, undermining the potential for a constructive and fruitful debate to emerge. Moreover, the problem lies in the resulting antagonism, feeding racist, dogmatic, populist, supremacist discourses echoing the discourses of the Western right, which is rising politically, with recent far-right triumphs in Argentina and the Netherlands.  

Worse still is alienating and hating anyone who has a different position, so much so that they can be defamed and smeared in the most appalling way. Those unfamiliar with the accounts of the manosphere, or who do not post anything that can infuriate them, do not know how dangerous and harmful they are. Nabeel believes that the Iraqi manosphere, especially the Red Pill groups, is just some “teenagers and reckless people who do not even deserve to be written about.” According to Nabeel, “the idea of Red Pill is still new to Iraqi adolescents and is adopted only by a few individuals whose numbers are much less than those in the Gulf region. If the Iraqi right deserves to be briefly reported on as an existing trend, the Red Pill is nothing but an online frivolity. In my opinion, these people are as absurd as those who demand a change in the Iraqi flag or advocate Mesopotamian identity.” This statement is a reductive and inaccurate proposition because it ignores the connection between violent language and discourse and material and physical violence, plus the fact that misogyny is deeply rooted in the patriarchal system and its laws, customs, heritage, and texts    

Maysaa refutes the claim that they are not dangerous, asking, “How can they not be dangerous? These are real people who have sisters, daughters, wives. They exist in the street and in society, one which is devoid of strong laws and solid institutions and where tribal customs prevail.”   

Iraqi right-wing, traditional, conservative and manosphere pages such as The Zelma and Red Pill, which promote “patriarchal philosophy,” continue to appeal to young people and teenagers. They are adopting its discourses and ideas, which are not limited to the digital sphere but are practiced offline in everyday life.   

Hind, a female university student who was abused by those who seem to follow the ideas spread by the above network of patriarchal groups, recounted her experience at the university where she studies: “They are rampant and hostile, and resentful of women. I don’t know what they’re after exactly. Their impact has gone beyond the online student groups in which they are present. I know that they abuse female students and enjoy doing so. They talk about them scornfully, deride them, whether in the classroom or outside. We don’t feel safe even in our universities.”  

But how can someone who reacts with a laughing emoji to a post about Gaza’s victim children understand the suffering of Hind and others? This was Tariq’s experience, which he shared with us with sorrow. “When I saw one of the founders of the Iraqi right put a laughing emoji against one of these posts, I thought to myself, “If he is laughing at the killing of children, what do I even mean to him?”