SECTION 2: ATTACKS ON GENDER AND SEXUALITY AS A STRATEGY THE ASSAULT ON GENDER AND SEXUALITY IS A DELIBERATE STRATEGY BY FASCIST AND FUNDAMENTALIST MOVEMENTS TO REINFORCE PATRIARCHAL STRUCTURES THAT NEOLIBERAL CAPITALISM RELIES UPON TO SUSTAIN ITSELF. In the rising violence of fascist and fundamentalist forces across South Asia and Southeast Asia, attacks on feminists, women, girls, and genderexpansive communities are not incidental, they are central to the project of shoring up neoliberalism in the face of a deepening crisis of political legitimacy. The assault on gender and sexuality is a deliberate strategy by fascist and fundamentalist movements to reinforce patriarchal structures that neoliberal capitalism relies upon to sustain itself. Neoliberalism’s alliance with far-right ideologies hinges on controlling bodies, labor, and social benefits, ensuring that the precariousness inflicted by capitalist exploitation remains unquestioned. Feminist and LGBTQI+ movements, by challenging these very structures – whether through advocating for bodily autonomy, contesting the unpaid labor economy, or resisting antiimmigrant legislation – strike at the heart of such projects.53 Attacks on rights related to gender and sexuality are not peripheral but are core strategies of fascist and fundamentalist movements aimed at entrenching their agendas. By targeting the autonomy of women, feminists, and LGBTQI+ communities, these forces seek to reassert patriarchal control, which serves as a foundation for their broader political and economic aims.54 The reality of heightened vulnerability and precarity faced by women and girls is seen across South and Southeast Asia. Pakistani feminist Shahnaz Rouse noted, in her critique of the specific ways in which the 53 International Research Group on Authoritarianism and Counter-Strategies (IRGAC). (2023) https://www.transcript-verlag.de/media/pdf/29/16/87/oa9783839462096h6y8fkpv6eGmu.pdf 54 Kaul, N. (2021). The misogyny of authoritarians in contemporary democracies. International Studies Review, 23(4), 1619–1645. https://doi.org/10.1093/isr/viab028 25