Clerical fascism (also spelled Clerico-Fascism) is an ideological construct that combines the political and economic doctrines of fascism with theology or religious tradition. The term has been used to describe organizations and movements that combine religious elements with fascism, support by religious organizations for fascism, or fascist regimes in which clergy play a leading role. The classification of clerical fascism is rejected by some scholars. For Catholic clerical fascism, the terms Catholic integralism and Catholic corporatism are sometimes used, although these may have points of disagreement with fascism.

For the broader relationship between neo-fascism and religion see: Neo-fascism and religion.

The term clerical fascism (clerico-fascismo) seems to have emerged in the early 1920s in Italy to refer specifically to the faction of the Catholic party PPI-Partito Popolare Italiano (precursor of Christian Democracy in Italy), which chose to support Benito Mussolini and his régime. It was allegedly coined by Don Luigi Sturzo, an Italian priest and Christian Democrat leader who took the opposite option and was forced into exile in 1924. Historian Walter Laqueur found the term 'clerical fascism' mentioned earlier, even before Mussolini's March on Rome (October 1922), referring to "a group of Catholic believers in Northern Italy who advocated a synthesis of Catholicism and fascism".

Maryam Rajavi (born Maryam Azodanlu in 1953 in Tehran, Iran) is the wife of Massoud Rajavi, a founder of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI). She's the "president-elect" of the National Council of Resistance of Iran., a coalition of exiled groups opposed to the Islamic Republic regime. In 1985, she became co-leader of the PMOI along with Massoud Rajavi, and together they made women a main portion of the group's fighting force.

Maryam Rajavi was born in 1953 to a middle class family in Tehran. She has a degree in metallurgical engineering. She speaks English, French and Persian. Mrs. Rajavi became acquainted with the anti-Shah movement in 1970.

In 1982 Maryam Rajavi left Iran for Paris, where the headquarters of the National Council of Resistance was located. In 1993 Rajavi was elected President-Elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an umbrella coalition of which the PMOI is the primary member organization. As President-Elect, Rajavi has continued to place women in nearly all of the leadership roles within her resistance movement, and believes that women should have equal opportunity with men to participate in social and political activities.

Gerald Lyman Kenneth Smith (February 27, 1898 – April 15, 1976) was an American clergyman and political organizer, who became a leader of the Share Our Wealth movement during the Great Depression and later the Christian Nationalist Crusade. He founded the America First Party in 1944, for which he was a presidential candidate in the election that year.

He was born in Pardeeville, Wisconsin on February 27, 1898 to Sarah and Lyman Z. Smith. He had one sister. The family moved and the children grew up in Viroqua, Wisconsin. He graduated from Valparaiso University in Indiana in 1918 with a degree in biblical studies.

The descendant of three generations of Disciples of Christ ministers, he followed his father into the ministry, becoming ordained in 1916. He first ministered in the Midwest: Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana.

Smith married Elna Sorenson in 1922. They adopted their only child, whom they named Gerald L. K. Smith Jr.

Smith moved his family to Louisiana in 1928 because his wife contracted tuberculosis, and facilities in Shreveport had a good reputation for helping those with the disease. Smith served as a minister in Shreveport, making radio broadcasts attacking local utility companies and corruption, while supporting trade unions.

Wickliffe Preston Draper (August 9, 1891–1972) was an American multimillionaire and an ardent eugenicist and lifelong advocate of strict racial segregation. In 1937 he founded the Pioneer Fund, a registered charitable organisation established to provide scholarships for descendants of original white American settlers and to support research into heredity and eugenics; he later became its principal benefactor.

Born in Hopedale, Massachusetts, he was the son of George A. Draper, a wealthy textile machinery manufacturer (Draper looms) and the descendant of a long line of prominent Americans. Wickliffe Draper graduated from Harvard in 1913. When the United States was slow to enter World War I, he enlisted in the British Army. When the U.S. eventually declared war, he transferred to the U.S. Army.

In 1924 Wickliffe P. Draper established the Draper Armor Leadership Award in 1924 as a means to competitively test the leadership of small Cavalry units in the US Army. The test was oriented to the platoon level of Horse Cavalry. The first Cavalry Leadership Test for small units was held at Fort Riley, Kansas--then home of the Cavalry School. In 1928, LTC Draper established a trust fund of $35,000 to perpetuate the award.