Radicalizing female empowerment: gender, agency, and affective appeals in Islamic State propaganda

ABSTRACT

Women, from across the West, have increasingly joined Islamic extremist groups in a variety of roles. Why are women participating in movements which have a misogynistic and violent outlook? The dominant literature ascribes their motivations to conditions that make women vulnerable to extremist pulls. These include lack of marriage prospects, past experiences of sexual violence, and familial loss at the hands of ‘the enemy.’ This model of analysis sees the women as victims, rather than agents who determine their participation in extremism. Such an approach often locates women’s political motivations in a gendered private sphere, where their actions are determined by engagements with men. In contrast, the dominant descriptions of men’s religious extremism are situated through their political and public engagement as citizens. We argue that such a gendered binary does not provide a sufficient explanation of the political motivations of women who join Islamist extremist groups. Through a close reading of the Islamic State’s English-language propaganda materials, we explore how the group’s appeals to women rely on discourses of empowerment and agency. The Islamic State, we argue, reimagines Muslim women, not simply as mothers and wives, but as public agents of change in creating and shaping the global caliphate.

KEYWORDS:

• Islamic State
• women
• gender
• propaganda
• radical social movements
• emotional appeals

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The figure of the jihadi bride has one that has perplexed the West and particularly Western media. She is a figure that ruptures the idealization of the West against Islamism in that she leaves her home (often in the West) to join jihadi fighters in the East. In this way, she is a figure that challenges conventional claims about Western modernity and Islamic patriarchy, Ibrahim, “Visuality and the Jihadi Bride.”

2. In much of the literature about gender and extremism, particularly in the Islamic world, there is a recurring argument that women who fail their gender ideals (i.e. are unmarried or do not have children) are often most apt to join Islamist extremists groups. See Tzoreff, “The Palestinian Shahida”; MacEoin, “Suicide Bombing as Worship.” For details on Sally Jones see www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/12/british-isis-member-sally-jones-white-widow-killed-airstrike-son-islamic-state-syria.

3. Gartenstein-Ross et al., The Emigrant Sisters Return; and Zheng, Women in ISIS.

4. We accessed the English language versions of these magazines, which are available online. These magazines are also available in multiple other languages, including most Indo-European languages.

5. In 2014, ISIS controlled a land area of about 200,00 square kilometers, and had its own flag, currency, and police force. Rich, “How Revolutionary are Jihadist Inusrgencies?”

6. Polard et al., “Understanding the Islamic State’s Competitive Advantages”; Rich, “How Revolutionary”.

7. Wood, “What ISIS Really Wants”.

8. Morgan, The Demon Lover, 201; O’Rourke, “What’s Specific About Female Suicide Terrorism?”, see Abu-Lughod, “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving?”.

9. Sjoberg and Gentry, Mothers, Monsters, Whores; Hall, “Erasing Agency.”; and Deylami, “Saving the Enemy.”

10. Bloom, Bombshell: The Many Faces; and Shitrit, Righteous Transgressions.

11. “Daesh Recruitment, How the Group Attracts. We thank our reviewers for pointing out that Hamas shifted in its views on the role of woman, from originally stating that a woman’s role is to raise soldiers to then noting that they can and should play a more direct role. This demonstrates that groups, across an array of ideologies, have had shifting frames on the role of women. See Rajan Women Sucide Bombers for more information. i.

12. In January of 2015, Fatwa 64 was published and disseminated amongst IS fighters. The document provides specific rules and justifications for the rape of female slaves/captives.

13. Tickner, A Feminist Voyage through International Relations.

14. Loken and Zelenz, “Explaining Extremism”; Pearson and Winterbotham, “Women, Gender and Daesh Radicalisation, 450”. This article questions the gendered norms expressed in the focus groups.

15. Tickner, A Feminist Voyage .

16. Our paper does not examine the response of women to ISIS propaganda, a subject covered by numerous other studies. Rather, our focus is on unpacking the frames that the group itself has developed.

17. These targets are both second or third generation women from Muslim communities living in the West and newly converted or converting Muslims. According to research done by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue most of these women are being recruited from Europe with the highest numbers coming from Britain, France, the Netherlands and Germany with smaller numbers coming from the US, Finland, Australia, Canada, Belgium and Norway. Additionally, the recruits are quite diverse in age, socio-economic background, education, level of familial religiosity, and education. Havlicek, “The Islamic State’s War on Women and Girls.”

18. Benford and Snow, “Framing Processes and Social Movements”.

19. Ibid. While recruitment into social movements is driven by some combination of opportunity, structures, and framing; we focus on the latter.

20. Ibid. Some of the literature discusses framing as having three components: the problem, the solution, and calls for action. For our paper, we have combined the solution and the action. This does not affect the substance of our arguments on framing.

21. Snow and Benford ibid; Olesen, “Transnational Publics”.

22. Jasper, “Constructing Indignation”; and Van Stekelenburg and Klandermans, “The Social Psychology of Protest.”

23. Aminzade and McAdam, “Emotions and Contentious Politics”; and Goodwin et al., Passionate Politics.

24. Olesen, “Transnational Publics.”

25. Windsor, Terrorism and Political Violence.

26. In general, such public spaces are occupied by men who experience less restriction in Muslim families and communities.

27. We do not seek to refute the excellent analysis being done on digital recruitment. See Saltman, “Western Female Migrants to ISIS: Propaganda, Radicalisation and Recruitment”; Huey and Witmer “#IS_Fangirl”; Pearson, “Online as the New Frontline.” By contrats, we are developing a supplementary understanding of how ISIS seeks to draw in women.

28. Articles and columns devoted to women who had already joined ISIS provide an important amount of information about how women are expected to live their genders within the organization. It also signals to women, who are contemplating migrating to ISIS territory, the expectations and roles of women once they join.

29. Dabiq references a town in Syria where a final, apocalyptic battle will take place. In this battle, all of Islam’s enemies will be defeated. See Kaplan and Costa, “The Islamic State and the New Tribalism.” Rumiyah is a reference to Rome; the title likely alludes to the fall of the Roman Empire.

30. Olesen, “Social Movement Theory and Radical Islamic Activism”.

31. Within Muslim theology jahiliyyah refers to a historical period before Allah’s true word was brought forth and established. However, the Islamist thinker Sayyid Qutb popularized a modern conception of jahiliyyah in his book Milestones in which he describes the term as a turning away from Allah and His will to the subjugation and domination of humans over humans. In this way, God’s desire is ignored for the pleasure and power of individuals.

32. Malet, Foreign Fighters. Malet points out such a transnational framing is important to a number of historical rebel movements, both secular and religious, which have sought to recruit foreign fighters.

33. Dabiq, ISIS Online Magazine, 7, 42.

34. Ibid., 2, (5).

35. See note 33 above.

36. Dabiq, ISIS Online Magazine, 15, (25).

37. Loken and Zelenz, Explaining Extremism.

38. Euben, Political Theory, 43 (4).

39. Rumiyah, ISIS Online Magazine, 5 (35).

40. Ibid., 9 (19).

41. Ibid., 10 (19).

42. See note 38 above.

43. Dabiq, ISIS Online Magazine, 9 (47).

44. Bryson, Female Fighters Show ISIS’s; Lahoud, “Can Women Be Soldiers of the Islamic State?”; Pearson and Winterbotham, “The Western Muhajirat of ISIS.”

45. Rumiah, ISIS Online Magazine, 11 (16).

46. Lahoud, “Can women be soldiers of the Islamic State?”; and Peresin and Cervone, “The Western Muhajirat of ISIS.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bidisha Biswas

Bidisha Biswas is Professor of Political Science at Western Washington University. She specializes in conflict and secuurity.

Shirin Deylami

Shirin Deylami is Associate Professor of Political Science at Western Washington University. She specializes in Islamic and feminist political theory.