Religion, Family Pressure, Life Conditions: Turkish Female Foreign Fighters in Their Own Words

ABSTRACT

The article aims to contribute to the discussion why and how women join violent extremist groups by exploring the motivational factors among Turkish ISIS women, zooming in on the level of agency in their decision. Our focus was on Turkish women as there have been no previous studies of this cohort. We used thematic analysis of the transcripts from interviews with thirty-seven Turkish ISIS women. Our analysis revealed three main motivational factors: religion, family pressure, and escaping life conditions. The first main finding of the study is that the twenty-two women who viewed religion as more than a belief were motivated by political and ideological factors and had agency and choice. Secondly, the twelve women who are motivated by family pressure continued to strictly adhere to their traditional roles as dutiful daughters or dutiful wives to their militant fathers or husbands. Thirdly, the three women who often emphasized the oppressive conditions under which they lived and a desire to gain independence and wanted to be accepted, respected, and valued prioritized escaping current life conditions. The study indicates that Turkish ISIS women are driven by different motivational factors and that most of the women in the study made a rational choice to join ISIS, be it out of political or ideological motivations or to escape oppression. In this context, the findings reported here shed light on the fact that women, like men, may resort to violence as the best means of achieving their political purpose.

KEYWORDS:

• Turkish ISIS women
• women
• agency
• Turkey
• ISIS

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

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41. Saltman and Smith, Till Martyrdom Do Us Part, 11.

42. Carolyn Hoyle, Alexandra Bradford, and Ross Frenett, Becoming Mulan? Female Western Migrants to ISIS (Institute for Strategic Dialogue, 2015), 10–11.

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48. Saltman and Smith, Till Martyrdom Do Us Part.

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51. The Carter Center, The Women in Daesh, 3.

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53. Ennaji, “Recruitment of Foreign Male and Female Fighters,” 546–57.

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55. Sara Mahmood, “Negating Stereotypes,” 11–20.

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64. Senior official in the Department of Counterterrorism, interviewed by first author, February 9, 2021.

65. Ibid.

66. A significant number of couples in Turkey get married under the practice of “imam marriage” in addition to their official marriage, and although the number married only in this manner has recently decreased, it is still very common. For more detailed information, see Türkiye’de Evlilik Tercihleri Nisan 2015, T.C.Aile ve Sosyal Politikalar Bakanlığı, https://www.ailevecalisma.gov.tr/uploads/athgm/uploads/pages/arastirmalar/tu-rkiyede-evlilik-tercihleri-aras-tirmasi-2015.pdf (accessed June 30, 2021); Evlendirme Yönetmeliği, November 7, 1985, https://www.mevzuat.gov.tr/MevzuatMetin/3.5.859747.pdf (accessed December 17, 2020).

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68. Senior official in the Department of Counterterrorism, interviewed by the first author, March 2, 2021.

69. Ibid.

70. Ibid.

71. Ibid.

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73. See note 68 above.

74. Ibid.

75. Ibid.

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86. See note 16 above.

87. Khalil, “Behind the Veil,” 19.

88. Hoyle, Bradford, and Frenett, Becoming Mulan?

89. See note 72 above.

90. See note 16 above.

91. Sjoberg and Gentry, “Mothers, Monsters, Whores.”

92. Speckhard and Shajkovci, “10 Reasons Western Women Seek Jihad”; Perešin and Cervone, “The Western Muhajirat of ISIS,” 495–09; Saltman and Smith, “Till Martyrdom Do Us Part”; Reinier Bergema and Marion van San, “Waves of the Black Banner: An Exploratory Study on the Dutch Jihadist Foreign Fighter Contingent in Syria and Iraq,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 42, no. 7 (2019): 636–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2017.1404004.

93. Marco Nilsson “Jihadiship: From Radical Behavior to Radical Beliefs,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 44, no 3, (2021): 181–97. https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2018.1538092.

94. Saltman and Smith, “Till Martyrdom Do Us Part.”

95. See note 72 above.

96. See note 40 above.

97. See note 31 above.

98. See note 72 above.

99. See note 94 above.

100. Seran de Leede, Women in Jihad: A Historical Perspective (ICCT Policy Brief, The Hague: The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, 2018), 9, https://doi.org/10.19165/2018.2.06.

101. Speckhard, Shajkovci, and Esengul, “Analysis of the Drivers of Radicalization and Violent Extremism in Kyrgyzstan, including the Roles of Kyrgyz Women in Supporting, Joining, Intervening in, and Preventing Violent Extremism in Kyrgyzstan”; Sjoberg and Gentry, “Mothers, Monsters, Whores.”

102. See note 29 above.

103. Speckhard and Shajkovci, “10 Reasons Western Women Seek Jihad”; Speckhard, Shajkovci, and Esengul, “Analysis of the Drivers of Radicalization.”

104. See note 16 above.

105. Jessica Trisko Darden, “Tackling Terrorists’ Exploitation of Youth,” AEI (2019), 6.

106. See note 72 above.

107. Darden, “Tackling Terrorists’ Exploitation of Youth,” 6–7.

108. Katharina Von Knop, “The Female Jihad: Al Qaeda’s Women,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 30, no. 5 (2007): 397–14, https://doi.org//10.1080/10576100701258585.

109. Bloom, “Changing Nature”; Bloom & Lokmanoglu, “From Pawn to Knights”; Bloom, “Bombshells: Women and Terror.”

110. See note 72 above.

111. The Carter Center, The Women in Daesh, 6.

112. Coolsaet, Facing the Fourth Foreign Fighters Wave, 48.

113. Nacev and Bogatinov, “Understanding Terrorist Motivation,” 86.

114. See note 94 above.

115. See note 38 above.

116. Schröter, “Between Romance and Kalashnikovs.”

117. Marco Nilsson, “Motivations for Jihad and Cognitive Dissonance—A Qualitative Analysis of Former Swedish Jihadists,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 45, no 1, (2022): 92–10, https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2019.1626091.

118. Katharine H. Moon, Sex Among Allies: Military Prostitution in U.S.-Korea Relations (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), 53.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Fatma Anıl Öztop

Fatma Anıl Öztop is associate professor in the Department of International Relations at Kocaeli University. Her research focuses on intrastate conflicts, female terrorists, foreign terrorist fighters, and Turkish foreign policy and has been published in various journals and books.

Nesrin Kenar

Nesrin Kenar is assistant professor in the Department of International Relations at Sakarya University. Her research focuses on conflict, peace, Yugoslavia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina.

Ali Poyraz Gürson

Ali Poyraz Gürson is professor at Okan University. Gürson has written books and articles on war, terrorism, and the PKK.