Jihadi brides at the intersections of contemporary feminism

Abstract

Contemporary feminism has reached a difficult crossroads, both in its theory and practical application. Feminist commitment to diversity and inclusion has opened space for women not traditionally considered in feminism’s domain and prompted new understandings of the forms of power against which women struggle. However, the very inclusivity of contemporary feminism now raises a series of unresolved issues. What does it mean to be a feminist today? What are the criteria for integration within a feminist agenda? And who determines the boundaries of inclusion and exclusion? This article uses the case of Jihadi brides, women who travel to join the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, to test the limits of feminist boundaries. That these women have embarked on a radical political campaign against the West prompts further revisioning of the relationship between women, gender, and feminism. In place of a unified feminist politics, women are involved today on both sides of the global conflict between Western industrialized democracy (and its allies) and violent jihadism. In this context, should feminism include all women, even those who fight against Western values and thus the rights of other women? Should feminism tolerate the intolerant? Against the background of debates about intersectionality, identity politics, and post-structuralism, this article raises the specter of a feminism that is not only non-Western but, importantly, anti-Western and considers its implications for a feminist reconstructive agenda.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Steven Lecce and the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and critiques.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ On “Third Wave Feminism,” see Stacy Gillis, Gillian Howard, and Rebecca Mumford (eds), Third Wave Feminism (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).

² For a taste of debates about feminism and diversity, see Aisha Gill and Gulshun Rehman, “Empowerment through activism: responding to domestic violence in the South Asian community in London,” in Caroline Sweetman (ed.), Gender, Development and Diversity (Oxford: Oxfam, 2004), pp. 75–82.

³ The term “jihadi bride” is a stereotype dubbed by the Western media to simplify the complex motivations behind women joining ISIS. While many female migrants intend to marry, this factor alone trivializes their decision-making. The profiles of these women and girls suggest they differ in terms of socio-economic background, ethnicity, and nationality and thus may also differ in their intentions to participate in violent Jihad. See Katrin Bennhold, “Jihad and Girl Power: How ISIS Lured Three London Teenagers,” The New York Times, August 17, 2015, available online at: <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/18/world/europe/jihad-and-girl-power-how-isis-lured-3-london-teenagers.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&r=0>. The term “jihad” itself is subject to long-standing contestation. For some, it means physical war against infidels, while for others it means striving to achieve goals or a spiritual struggle against sin. Women may join ISIS for the same reasons as men or to fulfill their own personal “Jihad.” For discussion about “jihad,” see Rudolph Peters, Jihad in Classical and Modern Islam: A Reader (Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2005).

⁴ Anna Guðrún Jónasdóttir and Kathleen B. Jones, “The Political Interests of Gender Revisited: Reconstructing Feminist Theory and Political Research,” in Jónasdóttir, Anna Guðrún, and Kathleen B. Jones (eds), The Political Interests of Gender Revisited: Redoing Theory and Research with a Feminist Face (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2009), pp. 1–16.

⁵ Naomi Wolf, Fire with Fire: The New Female Power and How It Will Change the 21st Century (London: Vintage Books, 1994), p. 151.

⁶ ISIS, also known as DAISH, is the Arab acronym for Al-Dawlah Al-Islamiyah fe Al-Iraq wa Al-Sham (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or Sham).

⁷ Carolyn Hoyle, Alexandra Bradford, and Ross Frenett, Becoming Mulan? Female Western Migrants to ISIS (London: Institute for Strategic Dialogue, 2015), pp. 1–47.

⁸ Mai Yamani (ed.), Feminism and Islam: Legal and Literary Perspectives (New York: New York University Press, 1996), p. 1.

⁹ Susan Lurie et al. “Roundtable: Restoring Feminist Politics to Poststructural Critique,” Feminist Studies 27:3 (2001), pp. 679–707.

¹⁰ Kimberlé Crenshaw, “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,” The University of Chicago Legal Forum 140 (1989), pp. 139–167.

¹¹ April L. Few-Demo, “Intersectionality as the ‘New’ Critical Approach in Feminist Family Studies: Evolving Racial/Ethnic Feminisms and Critical Race Theories,” Journal of Family Theory and Review 6 (June 2014), pp. 169–183.

¹² Bell hooks, Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics (Cambridge: South End Press, 2000); Francis Beale, “Double Jeopardy: To be Black and Female,” in Toni Cade Bambara (ed.), The Black Woman: An Anthology (New York: Signet, 1970), pp. 90–100; Deborah K. King, “Multiple Jeopardy, Multiple Consciousness: The Context of a Black Feminist Ideology,” Signs 14 (Autumn, 1988):1, pp. 42–72; Combahee River Collective, “Combahee River Collective Statement,” in Barbarah Smith (ed.), Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology (New York: Kitchen Table, Women of Color Press, 1983), pp. 264–274.

¹³ Evelien Geerts and Iris van der Tuin, “From Intersectionality to Inference: Feminist Onto-Epistemological Reflections on the Politics of Representation,” Women’s Studies International Forum 41 (2013), pp. 171–178.

¹⁴ Liz Stanley, “Introduction: On Academic Borders, Territories, Tribes and Knowledges,” in Liz Stanley (ed.), Knowing Feminisms (London: Sage Publications, 1997), pp. 14–26.

¹⁵ Susan Archer Mann, “Third Wave Feminism’s Unhappy Marriage of Poststructuralism and Intersectionality Theory,” Journal of Feminist Scholarship 4 (Spring 2013), pp. 54–73.

¹⁶ Elizabeth Scheider, “Feminism and the False Dichotomy of Victimization and Agency,” New York Law School Law Review 38 (1993), p. 387.

¹⁷ Naomi Wolf, Fire with Fire: The New Female Power and How It Will Change the 21st Century (London: Vintage Books, 1994), p. 148.

¹⁸ Nira Yuval-Davis, “Intersectionality and Feminist Politics,” European Journal of Women’s Studies 13:3 (2006), pp. 193–209.

¹⁹ Kimberlé Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color,” Stanford Law Review 43:6 (1991), pp. 1241–1299.

²⁰ Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003), p. 193.

²¹ Sylvanna M. Falcón and Jennifer C. Nash, “Shifting Analytics and Linking Theories: A Conversation about the ‘Meaning-Making’ of Intersectionality and Transnational Feminism,” Women’s Studies International Forum 50 (2015), pp. 1–10.

²² Claire R. Snyder, “What Is Third-Wave Feminism? A New Directions Essay,” Signs 34:1 (2008), pp. 175–196.

²³ Nira Yuval-Davis, “Intersectionality and Feminist Politics,” European Journal of Women’s Studies 13:3 (2006), p. 195.

²⁴ Bard, 2003 quoted in Nina Lykke, Feminist Studies: A Guide to Intersectional Theory, Methodology and Writing (New York: Routledge, 2010), p. 51.

²⁵ See Shelley Budgeon, Third Wave Feminism and the Politics of Gender in Late Modernity (New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2011); Jennifer Leigh Disney, Women’s Activism and Feminist Agency in Mozambique and Nicaragua (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2008); Claire R. Snyder, “What Is Third-Wave Feminism? A New Directions Essay,” Signs 34:1 (2008), pp. 175–196; Georgina Waylen, Engendering Transitions: Women’s Mobilization, Institutions and Gender Outcomes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007); Nira Yuval-Davis, “Intersectionality and Feminist Politics,” European Journal of Women’s Studies 13:3 (2006), pp. 193–209.

²⁶ Maxine Molyneux, “Mobilization without Emancipation? Women’s Interests, the State, and Revolution in Nicaragua,” Feminist Studies 11:2 (1985), pp. 232–233.

²⁷ Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York: Routledge, 1990); Christine Sylvestor, Feminist Theory and International Relations in a Postmodern Era (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994); Donna Haraway, Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York: Routledge, 1991); Luce Irigaray, This Sex Which Is Not One (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1985); Rebecca Walker, To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism (New York: Anchor Books, 1995).

²⁸ Chris Weedon, Feminist Practice & Poststructuralist Theory (Oxford: Blackwell: 1997), p. 8.

²⁹ Ibid., 32.

³⁰ Ibid., 33.

³¹ Susan Archer Mann, “Third Wave Feminism’s Unhappy Marriage of Poststructuralism and Intersectionality Theory,” Journal of Feminist Scholarship 4 (Spring 2013), pp. 54–73.

³² Susan Archer Mann, “Third Wave Feminism’s Unhappy Marriage of Poststructuralism and Intersectionality Theory,” Journal of Feminist Scholarship 4 (Spring 2013), pp. 54–73.

³³ Lois McNay, “Feminism and Post-Identity Politics: The Problem of Agency,” Constellations 17:4 (2010), pp. 512–525.

³⁴ A contested political concept with Eurocentric origins, the “Middle East” is used here to refer to the geographical area stretching from southwest Asia to northwest Africa.

³⁵ The “Third World” is a contentious concept that nonetheless exemplifies spheres outside the West, broadly speaking. Geographically, it refers to the non-aligned states or proxies of the Cold War, OR those developing, underdeveloped, or least developed societies designated outside the Western industrialized model of development.

³⁶ See Kumari Jayawardena, Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World (London: Zed Books, 1986); Maria Mies, Veronica Bennholdt-Thomsen, and Claudia von Werlhof (eds), Women: The Last Colony (London: Atlantic Highlands, 1988); Chandra Talpade Mohanty, “Introduction: Cartographies of Struggle,” in Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Ann Russo, and Lourdes Torres (eds), Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1991, pp. 333-358); Valentine Moghadam, Gender and National Identity: Women and Politics in Muslim Societies (London: Zed Books, 1994).

³⁷ Fatima Mernissi, Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in Modern Muslim Society (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1987); Leila Ahmad, Women and Gender in Israel: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992); Deniz Kandiyoti (ed.), Women, Islam, and the state (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1991); Haleh Afshar, Women and Politics in the Third World (London: Routledge, 1996); Lila Abu-Lughod (ed.), Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 1998), pp. 7–24.

³⁸ Georgina Waylen, “Analysing Women in the Politics of the Third World,” in Haleh Afshar (ed.), Women and Politics in the Third World (London: Routledge, 1996), p. 10.

³⁹ Chanda Talpade Mohanty, “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses,” in C.T. Mohanty, A. Russo, and L. Torres (eds), Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1991), pp. 1–44.

⁴⁰ Samuel P. Huntington. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996).

⁴¹ Alexis Jetter, Annelise Orleck, and Diana Taylor (eds), The Politics of Motherhood: Activist Voices from Left to Right (Hanover: University of New England Press, 1997).

⁴² Georgina Waylen, “Analysing Women in the Politics of the Third World,” in Haleh Afshar (ed.), Women and Politics in the Third World (London: Routledge, 1996), pp. 7–24.

⁴³ For good analysis of ISIS, see Graeme Wood, “What ISIS Really Wants,” The Atlantic, March 2015.

⁴⁴ Emily Canal, “What Life For ISIS' Female Recruits Is Like — And What Happens If They Try To Leave,” Bustle, available online at: <http://www.bustle.com/articles/62240-what-life-for-isis-female-recruits-is-like-and-what-happens-if-they-try-to> (accessed March 25, 2015).

⁴⁵ Nikki R. Keddie, “Pan-Islam as Proto-Nationalism,” The Journal of Modern History 41:1 (1969), pp. 17–28.

⁴⁶ Edward Stourton, “What's the Appeal of a Caliphate?” BBC News, October 26, 2014, available online at: <http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29761018>.

⁴⁷ Steven Kull, Feeling Betrayed: The Roots of Muslim Anger at America (Washington, DC: Brookings Institute Press, 2011), p. 167.

⁴⁸ Jay Tolston, “Caliph Wanted,” U.S. News & World Report 144:1 (2008), pp. 38–40.

⁴⁹ Reference here is to such groups as Hamas (the Islamic Resistance Movement) in Palestine, Hezbollah (Party of God) in Lebanon, Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (The Islamic Group) in Egypt, and others.

⁵⁰ The five pillars of Islam are the testimony of faith, prayer, charity (zakat), fasting during the holy month of Ramadan, and the pilgrimage (Hajj) to Mecca once in a lifetime for those who are able.

⁵¹ For background see Bernard Lewis, Islam and the West (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994).

⁵² Mainstream groups are represented by the Muslim Canadian Congress (muslimcanadiancongress.info/) or the American Islamic Congress (www.aicongress.org), both founded in late 2001, in support of liberal democratic values in their respective countries.

⁵³ Aryn Baker, “How ISIS Is Recruiting Women From Around the World,” Time, September 6, 2014, available online at: <http://time.com/3276567/how-isis-is-recruiting-women-from-around-the-world/>.

⁵⁴ This document was translated from the Arabic by Charlie Winter for Quilliam, a counter-extremism think tank based in London that focuses on Islamic extremism and terrorism. Because it was only published in Arabic, it is assumed that the document was intended mostly for Muslim women in the Gulf of Arabia and not in the Western world. For background information on Quilliam see: <http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/>.

⁵⁵ Women of the Islamic State: A Manifesto on Women by the Al-Khanssaa Brigade, translated and analyzed by Charlie Winter, Quilliam, February, 2015, pp. 1–41, available online at: <http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/publications/free/women-of-the-islamic-state3.pdf>, p. 41.

⁵⁶ “Al-Qaeda in Syria Forms Female Brigades,” Al Arabiya News, February 2, 2014, available online at: <http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/02/02/Syria-jihadist-group-ISIS-forms-women-only-battalions.html>.

⁵⁷ Aqsa Mahmoud is a Muslim woman who became well known for fleeing Glasgow to join ISIS in Syria. Her active Twitter account gained infamy as she publicized ISIS activities and actively recruited other women online. Ashley Fantz and Atika Shubert, “Recruiter: the Aqsa Mahmood Story,” CNN, February 24, 2015, available online at: <http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/23/world/scottish-teen-isis-recruiter/>.

⁵⁸ The Institute for Strategic Dialogue is an independent think tank based in London and dedicated to countering global extremism. For background see <http://www.strategicdialogue.org/>.

⁵⁹ Women of the Islamic State: A Manifesto on Women by the Al-Khanssaa Brigade, translated and analyzed by Charlie Winter, Quilliam, February, 2015, pp. 1–41, available online at: <http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/publications/free/women-of-the-islamic-state3.pdf>.

⁶⁰ Caroline Smith and James M. Lindsay, “Rally 'Round the Flag: Opinion in the United States before and after the Iraq War,” Brookings Summer (2003), pp. 1–6, available online at: <http://www.brookings.edu/research/articles/2003/06/summer-iraq-lindsay>.

⁶¹ “Democracy Now! Confronts Madeline Albright on the Iraq Sanctions: Was It Worth The Price?” Democracy Now, Friday, July 30, 2004, available online at: <http://www.democracynow.org/2004/7/30/democracy_now_confronts_madeline_albright_on>.

⁶² Rukmini Callimachi, “ISIS Enshrines a Theology of Rape,” New York Times, August 13, 2015, available online at: <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/14/world/middleeast/isis-enshrines-a-theology-of-rape.html?_r=0>.

⁶³ Evidence is mounting that ISIS engages in sex trafficking as a means to lure women. See Robert Spencer, “Jihadi Bride: ‘I rejoiced when we had our first sex slave’,” Jihad Watch, May 22, 2015, available online at: <http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/05/jihadi-bride-i-rejoiced-when-we-had-our-first-sex-slave>.

⁶⁴ Hailey Richardson, “ISIS ‘Using Paedophile Grooming Tactics’ to Lure Young Jihadi Brides,” Newsweek, March 16, 2015, available online at: <http://www.newsweek.com/isis-using-paedophile-grooming-tactics-lure-young-jihadi-brides-314140>

⁶⁵ Abigail R Esman, “Europe's Jihadist Girls: Teen Rebellion That Kills,” The Investigative Project on Terrorism, August 14, 2014, available online at: <http://www.investigativeproject.org/4514/europe-jihadist-girls-teen-rebellion-that-kills#>

⁶⁶ Personal Interview with Shahina Siddiqui, Head of the Islamic Social Services Association, Winnipeg, April 4, 2015. For background on the organization, see <http://www.issaservices.com/>.

⁶⁷ Carolyn Hoyle, Alexandra Bradford, and Ross Frenett, Becoming Mulan? Female Western Migrants to ISIS (London: Institute for Strategic Dialogue, 2015), p. 29.

⁶⁸ Tami Amanda Jacoby, Women in Zones of Conflict: Power and Resistance in Israel (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005), p. 80.

⁶⁹ See Nancy Chodorow, The Reproduction of Mothering (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978); Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982); Sara Ruddick, Maternal Thinking: Towards a Politics of Peace (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1989); Betty Reardon, Women and Peace: Feminist Visions of Global Security (Albany: University of New York Press, 1993).

⁷⁰ Sharon McDonald, “Drawing the Lines: Gender, Peace, and War,” in Sharon McDonald, Pat Holden, and Shirley Ardener (eds), Images of Women in Peace and War (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988), pp. 1–22.

⁷¹ See Cynthia Cockburn, The Space Between Us: Negotiating Gender and National Identities in Conflict (London: Zed Books, 1998); Zillah R. Eisenstein, Against Empire: Feminisms, Racisms, and the West (London: Zed Books, 2004); Jean Bethke Elshtain, Women and War (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987); Jean Bethke Elshtain, “Sovereignty, Identity, Sacrifice,” in V. Spike Peterson (ed.), Gendered States: Feminist (Re)Visions of International Relations Theory (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1992), pp. 141–154; Cynthia Enloe, Does Khaki Become You (Boston, MA: South End Press, 1983); Cynthia Enloe, Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990); Robin L. Riley, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, and Minnie Bruce Pratt (eds), Feminism and War: Confronting U.S. Imperialism (London: Zed Books, 2008); Simona Sharoni, Gender and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: The Politics of Women’s Resistance (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1995); Nira Yuval-Davis, Gender & Nation (London: Sage Publications, 1997); Nira Yuval-Davis, The Politics of Belonging: Intersectional Contestations (London: Sage Publications, 2012).

⁷² Enloe, Bananas, Beaches and Bases. For relation to ISIS see, Baker, “How ISIS is Recruiting Women From Around the World.”

⁷³ Annelise Orleck, “Tradition Unbound: Radical Mothers in International Perspective,” in Alexis Jetter, Annelise Orleck, and Diana Taylor (eds), The Politics of Motherhood: Activist Voices from Left to Right (Hanover: University of New England Press, 1997), pp. 1–20, p. 3.

⁷⁴ Kathleen Blee, “Mothers in Race-Hate Movements,” in Alexis Jetter, Annelise Orleck, and Diana Taylor (eds), The Politics of Motherhood: Activist Voices from Left to Right (Hanover: University Press of New England, 1997), pp. 247–256; Karen Jacques and Paul J. Taylor, “Female Terrorism: A Review,” Terrorism and Political Violence 21:3 (2009), pp. 499–515; Karla J. Cunningham, “Cross-Regional Trends in Female Terrorism,” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 26:3 (2003), pp. 171–195; Barbara Victor, An Army of Roses: Inside the World of Palestinian Women Suicide Bombers (New York: Rosdale Press, 2003); Laura Sjoberg and Caron E. Gentry, “Reduced to Bad Sex: Narratives of Violent Women from the Bible to the War on Terror,” International Relations (Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, 2008); Leila Khaled, My People Shall Live: The Autobiography of a Revolutionary (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1973); Linda L. Reif, “Women in Latin American Guerrilla Movements: A Comparative Perspective,” Comparative Politics 18:2 (1986), pp. 147–169; Mia Bloom, “Female Suicide Bombers: A Global Trend,” Daedalus 136:1 (2007), pp. 94–102.

⁷⁵ Carolyn Hoyle, Alexandra Bradford, and Ross Frenett, Becoming Mulan? Female Western Migrants to ISIS (London: Institute for Strategic Dialogue, 2015), pp. 1–47.

⁷⁶ I discuss the mainstreaming versus independence debate in my work, Tami Amanda Jacoby, Women in Zones of Conflict: Power and Resistance in Israel (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005).

⁷⁷ Tami Amanda Jacoby, “Fighting in the Feminine: The Dilemmas of Combat Women in Israel,” in Laura Sjoberg and Sandra Via (eds), Gender, War, and Militarism (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Security International, 2010), pp. 80–90.