Beyond Healthy Skepticism: Exploring German News Media Framing of Terrorism-Affiliated Women Returnees

Abstract

Various feminist contributions to Terrorism Studies provide insight into how the media rationalizes terrorism-affiliated women through framing, but the question of how newspapers frame women returnees remains scarcely explored. Through a semantic content analysis of 63 German news articles, supplemented by interviews with journalists, this article reveals how German news media framing fosters a skeptical attitude toward women returnees. This effect is further reinforced when accompanied by a portrayal of individual returnees as irresponsible mothers. In contrast to the treatment of terrorism-affiliated women in general, the framing of women returnees does not seek to rationalize their violence, but instead provides moral guidance regarding security responses.

While the complex topic of women and violence has enjoyed a longstanding scholarly interest in multiple disciplines, studies on women’s agency in political violence, particularly in terrorism, emerged only recently. However, one phenomenon is of such recent origin that it has received little scholarly attention so far: women of European nationality who affiliated with a terrorist organization in Syria or Iraq but have recently returned to Europe, hereafter referred to as women returnees. Germany is a country particularly affected by the question of how to deal with these women. While its low absolute number of women returnees, approximately 86 by 2019,¹ makes a gender-disaggregated approach seem redundant, the increasing proportion of German women returnees reflects a new trend that scholars and policymakers alike can no longer overlook.² Meanwhile, Germany has also gained recent international attention for its targeted repatriation of terrorism-affiliated women and children. Such developments have led to rising demands for integrating a gender perspective into policies and research dealing with returnees in general and the necessity to make terrorism-affiliated women returnees an object of study in particular.³

The relevance of the phenomenon of women returnees for scholarly research becomes further apparent when looking at its characteristics and dynamics. While there remains general ambiguity about women’s agency in terrorism, the phenomenon of women returnees is characterized by a peculiar pressure to remove any uncertainties, given the pending political decision-making. Moreover, in contrast to female members of terrorist groups abroad, women returnees are in close proximity to German society and may thus create the impression of a latent security threat. Questions of how to reintegrate these women and their children, most of whom show behavioral problems,⁴ overshadow court proceedings upon return.

However, the burden of proof has long impeded the judicial and political challenge of finding the truth. Unlike in the case of male returnees, where video footage frequently testifies to their criminal acts, insights into women’s lives in terrorist organizations remain scarce.⁵ A commonly advanced explanation for this is that women’s actions are limited to the domestic context, about which little documentation exists.⁶ However, such obstacles seem to be gradually disappearing in Germany. The growing number of court cases against women returnees continuously produces new evidence. Photos, videos, or testimonies of former Yazidi house slaves increasingly provide insights into the domestic life within terrorist organizations. Nevertheless, since such insightful cases are only of recent origin, significant uncertainties and an urgency to resolve them remain. After all, the presence of the returned women in German society requires a prompt answer to the question of potential security risks. Under these circumstances, the media stands out as a particularly relevant actor.

Braden recognized women as “most newsworthy when they are doing something ‘unladylike’.”⁷ The same seems to apply to women returnees: In particular, the shock reaction that terrorism-affiliated women tend to evoke results in high media interest in women returnees.⁸ This is particularly notable considering that the media “report the news along explanatory frames.”⁹ Such framing may be defined as the ability to shape the interpretation of a phenomenon and recommend remedies as well as actions.¹⁰ Through selection and salience, the media can thus influence public attitudes toward women returnees and thereby create a “discursive space” in which the woman returnee is “constructed and renegotiated.”¹¹

The potential consequences of media framing regarding women returnees reveal why it is relevant to scrutinize them. First, such framing may impact how German society deals with women returnees in the future. Depending on the interpretation suggested through media framing, the reintegration efforts of these women and their children may be adversely affected.¹² Second, according to Laster and Erez, “terrorism is a quintessentially media-dependent form of political activity.”¹³ Several scholars share the concern that underestimating women’s agency in terrorism may strategically benefit terrorist organizations.¹⁴ On the one hand, the continuing perception of terrorism-affiliated women as exceptional may render the increased use of women in terrorist activities more attractive. On the other hand, counterterrorism policies may be subject to pressures arising from framing influences,¹⁵ leading to misguided or hampered security responses.¹⁶ Consequently, it is necessary to make the phenomenon of women returnees an object of study and especially scrutinize related media framing.

This article thus addresses the following question: How does the German news media frame terrorism-affiliated women returnees from Syria and Iraq? After a brief review of research on women’s participation in political violence, the article integrates a feminist perspective into media framing theory to offer a theoretical explanation for why and how framing rationalizes the phenomenon of terrorism-affiliated women. Entman’s definition of framing, which will be reproduced later, accompanies the argument that these women threaten culturally entrenched gender norms.¹⁷ The exculpation strategy, minimizing women’s agency, and the pathologization strategy, linking women’s violence to deviancy, explain away women’s violence to protect these gender norms.

A semantic framing analysis based on 63 German news articles on women returnees accompanied by interviews with journalists seeks to determine whether this framework is similarly applicable to women returnees. This empirical analysis reveals two novel frames: The Incredibility Frame and the Irresponsible Mother Frame. After analyzing their functionality and interplay, the author interprets their combined effect. A feminist lens proves useful in proposing an explanation for the media portrayal of women returnees and outlining opportunities for meaningfully broadening the understanding of these women and their complex agency. A discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of the research findings and an outlook on future research possibilities finally concludes this article.

Women’s Participation in Terrorism

Before feminist approaches brought gender to the forefront of analysis, research on violent women was characterized by gender essentialism, the assumption that women and men have inherently different and unchangeable characteristics. Guided by the idea of women’s inherent peacefulness,¹⁸ researchers until the 1980s mainly sought individualistic psychological explanations for female violence.¹⁹ Studies particularly explained women’s participation in terrorism by reference to sexuality or dependency on male perpetrators.²⁰

With the growing realization that the motivational factors underlying women’s and men’s participation in political violence and terrorism are not fundamentally different,²¹ critical feminist approaches gained momentum. The advent of Feminist Terrorism Studies made gender essentialist assumptions in societal and academic discussions on female terrorism the subject of critical analysis. Based on the understanding of gender as an “intersubjective social construction” assigning traits “on the basis of perceived membership in sex groups,”²² scholars increasingly problematized the androcentric concept of terrorism.²³ Arguably, two strains of research emerged from such understandings. The multitude of case studies on women in terrorist organizations has been increasingly paralleled by critical examinations of media representations regarding terrorism-affiliated women.²⁴ Although not unprecedented,²⁵ Nacos’ and Berkowitz’ respective studies on gendered framing patterns of women terrorists in the news media are seminal.²⁶ Furthermore, as will be discussed in more detail later, a variety of subsequent studies highlighted stereotypical media representations of women in terrorism and problematized them using a feminist lens.²⁷

This brief review suggests that research on women’s agency in political violence in general and terrorism, in particular, has already undergone significant development and yet still offers much research potential. According to Phelan, there is a continuing necessity to incorporate “gender analysis to fill gaps within, and further enhance our understanding of political violence.”²⁸ Notably, the phenomenon of women returnees remains underexplored. Schmidt’s research on disengagement and deradicalization practices in the U.K.²⁹ is one of the few investigations of stereotypical assumptions about women returnees. However, to the author’s knowledge, a similar analysis on media representations has not yet been carried out, even though women returnees raise “questions of agency and culpability within the mainstream media.”³⁰ With an analysis of media representations of women returnees in Germany, this article aims to contribute to filling such a gap in Terrorism Studies. This undertaking begins by creating a theoretical framework that applies a feminist perspective to media framing theory and thus enhances the understanding of the causes of media framing regarding terrorism-affiliated women.

A Feminist Perspective on Media Framing Theory

Framing as Meaning-Making Practice

Framing can be understood as a discourse-organizing practice that suggests one interpretation over others and thus has a meaning-making functionality.³¹ Media studies employ the term framing devices to describe tools used by journalists to create such meaning-making frames.³² They reflect a process characterized by selection and salience: Through “rhetorical and stylistic choices,” the news consumer is explicitly or implicitly guided to an interpretation of a complex issue.³³ One can further understand framing as a process with several components. Entman’s widely used definition reflects this approach:

[T]o frame is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation for the item described.³⁴

Using these steps as a guideline, what follows is a discussion of a feminist approach to explaining how terrorism-affiliated women are framed in the media.

A Problematic Paradox

The prerequisite for framing is the existence of something to which meaning can be attached. Consequently, Entman’s first element of the framing process is the definition of a problem. While feminist scholars have observed that Western societies generally perceive women involved in political violence as a paradox,³⁵ this seems particularly applicable to terrorism-affiliated women.³⁶ The existence of a woman with links to a terrorist organization conflicts with the traditionally held assumption of “women as inherently, naturally, biologically peaceful, and vulnerable beings,”³⁷ which feminist scholarship considers still pervasive in contemporary societies.³⁸

Women do not necessarily have to actively participate in terrorist combat to be perceived as paradoxical. Even if, as is often assumed, the role of women in Islamist terrorist groups is usually limited to the domestic context due to a strict gender hierarchy³⁹, it can be expected that they at least passively support and endorse a violent ideology. ⁴⁰ The mere thought of women accepting or willingly supporting acts of terrorist violence is, according to Åhäll, “equally provoking [and] shocking.”⁴¹ Consequently, it is the existence of terrorism-affiliated women that can be defined as the problem, following Entman’s first framing step. The mere association with terrorism suffices to conflict with “common cultural values”⁴² in the form of gender norms.

From a theoretical feminist perspective, the transition from problem definition to causal interpretation reflects a protective move. Following Alison, terrorism-affiliated women are “threatening the cultural and political security of the social group from which they come since it deviates from the norms established by that group.”⁴³ This translates into the “vested political interest” that Gentry and Sjoberg identify to protect the integrity of cultural standards traditionally set for women. ⁴⁴ Framing, especially Entman’s second step of diagnosis, is used to reconcile the existence of terrorism-affiliated women with entrenched gender norms by perpetuating stereotypes to rationalize the paradox.⁴⁵

Diagnosis: Exculpation and Pathologization

The second framing step thus consists in explaining away the phenomenon of terrorism-affiliated women to protect the traditional gender norm of women’s inherent peacefulness. Based on various identified frames in the literature on women in terrorism, one may, for theoretical purposes, distinguish between two strategies: Rationalization can either assume the form of exculpation, remaining within the boundaries of stereotypical womanhood, or pathologization, categorizing these women as deviant. Table 1 aims to provide an overview of explanatory frames identified in the literature. It also tentatively links them to both strategies while acknowledging that such categorization does not do justice to the sophisticated research on media framing of terrorism-affiliated women.

The exculpation strategy includes stereotypes that absolve women from any violence they are accused of⁴⁶ and thus reduce their agency to create the greatest possible distance between womanhood and violence. This strategy does not transgress the parameters of the traditional understanding of womanhood. Instead, it employs gender stereotypes of femininity, like naiveté, or explanatory frames such as dependency on family members.⁴⁷ Accordingly, under the exculpation strategy, womanhood is understood as restraining a woman’s capabilities for an agency in terrorism.

However, if this strategy becomes inadequate due to, for example, “incontrovertible evidence”⁴⁸ of criminal actions, another approach becomes a substitute: The pathologization strategy considers women accused of violence as “products of femininity gone awry.”⁴⁹ Compared to the ideal of peaceful womanhood, they are deemed deviant women whose agency in terrorism can only be explained by perversion.⁵⁰ For example, it takes sexual dysfunction as an explanatory factor for violent behavior.⁵¹ The pathologization strategy thus counters the transgression of traditional norms by defining terrorism-affiliated women’s behavior as abnormal. Following this approach, a woman’s perverted womanhood distorts her capability for an agency in terrorism.⁵²

This fits wider patterns of classification as well. Grabe et al. observed that the media treats women whose crimes do not violate gender norms more leniently than those who do. The latter consistently receive “harsher journalistic treatment.”⁵³ Both strategies enable the perpetuation of traditional gender norms of womanhood as inherently peaceful. The disclosure of what is considered deviant lays out what is deemed normal womanly behavior and thereby protects traditional gender norms.⁵⁴

Moral Evaluation and Its Consequences

The full meaning-making function of framing becomes only apparent in linking causal diagnosis with moral evaluation and recommendation for action, Entman’s third and fourth framing steps. If framing follows the exculpation strategy, moral and practical implications are evident: Minimizing women’s agency diminishes their responsibility, suggesting a relatively lenient approach toward them. This resonates with the empirical findings on more lenient court sentences for terrorist-affiliated women as opposed to their male counterparts.⁵⁵

The implications of the pathologization strategy are more complex. These women are treated as double deviant since they “have broken criminal law and social expectations of proper female behavior.”⁵⁶ According to Sjoberg and Gentry, the respective woman has thus “failed” twice: as a member of society and as a woman.⁵⁷ This double transgression in moral evaluation reinforces the clear separation of womanhood and agency in terrorism and suggests a punitive approach to the women concerned.

As the previous theoretical examination has shown, the existing literature revolves around the paradox of terrorism-affiliated women in general. This raises the question as to the extent to which one can apply such a framework to women returnees. On the one hand, women returnees fit into a broad conceptualization of agency in terrorism. Their voluntary departure to join a terrorist organization, together with the assumption of at least passive support, are equally paradoxical. This suggests similar media framing processes with regard to women returnees. On the other hand, this article has previously identified women returnees as a distinctive group. Unlike female members of terrorist groups abroad, women returnees are in close proximity to German society and thus give the question of the extent of women’s involvement in terrorism particular urgency.

Therefore, it is necessary to examine whether the feminist explanations for media framing of terrorism-affiliated women also apply to women returnees and whether strategies other than pathologization or exculpation are employed. By asking how terrorism-affiliated women returnees from Syria and Iraq are framed in German news media, this article hopes to extend the feminist approaches previously discussed to the subgroup of terrorism-affiliated women returnees. Doing so would be a further step in highlighting the relevance of feminist approaches in Terrorism Studies.

Methodology

Data Selection

Most studies on framing take the media as a research object, including feminist approaches.⁵⁸ The news media lends itself to an analysis of media representations considering its noted influence in the public discourse on women returnees. Furthermore, it has been identified as “suitable material to investigate how societies understand and explain female terrorism.”⁵⁹ Inspired by Nacos’ seminal research of framing patterns on women in terrorism and politics, this article’s analysis is confined to news articles.⁶⁰ Due to considerable national differences in numbers and the treatment of women returnees, the author decided against a cross-national comparative study. Instead, the geographical scope of the analysis is limited to Germany. It is one of the European countries with the highest absolute number of departures to Syria and Iraq. Moreover, statistics suggest that the number of returning women is particularly increasing relative to other European countries.⁶¹ The fact that the German judiciary still lacks a uniform prosecution practice also makes the country particularly interesting for analyzing the phenomenon of women returnees.⁶²

In accordance with the theoretical framework, news articles form the basis of the empirical analysis. The following criteria were decisive in the data selection process: The articles on women returnees were to include women with German nationality only as well as women with dual nationality and a migration background. To obtain a data basis for a solid yet feasible analysis, the author decided to select four women from each group. Thus, by using eight women returnees as the starting point for data collection, this contribution seeks to generalize findings within a manageable cohort. With the respective returnee’s name as a search term, the author collected an extensive number of online news articles from national and regional German news media since these are particularly publicly accessible and circulate widely.

After discarding standardized news agency texts, a dataset of 63 news articles was obtained, consisting mainly of news articles from the five news media with the largest circulation in Germany (Tables 2, Appendix A). As the media usually focus on specific cases for reasons of competition or political orientation, it was not possible to sample an equal number of sources per woman returnee. Nevertheless, the sources are reasonably balanced in their political orientation. Overall, 40.9% of news articles were rather center-left and 57.1% rather conservative. Furthermore, four online interviews with some texts’ authors from different newspapers complemented the textual analysis, and the author finally conducted an additional interview with a federal counterterrorism institution for contextualization purposes (Tables 3).⁶³

Table 2. Interview list.

Designation	Date	Format	Institution
KODEX 2021	08/04/2021	(Online) Interview	Kompetenzzentrum für Deradikalisierung und Extremismusprävention im Land Bremen (KODEX) [Competence Center for Deradicalization and Prevention of Extremism in the State of Bremen (KODEX)]
Welt 2021	31/03/2021	(Online) Interview	WELT
Süddeutsche 2021	07/04/2021	Telephone Interview	Süddeutsche Zeitung
Bild 2021	09/04/2021	Telephone Interview	BILD-Zeitung
Tagesspiegel 2021	12/04/2021	(Online) Interview	Tagesspiegel

Appendix A. Newspaper articles list.

Designation	Reference
Augsburger Allgemeine 08/02/2015	Heckel, Stephanie, Klaus Kiesel, and Etienne Le Marie, “Hexenjagd gegen Angehörige der Allgäuer Islamistin,” Augsburger Allgemeine, February 8, 2015, https://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de/bayern/Allgaeu-Hexenjagd-gegen-Angehoerige-der-Allgaeuer-Islamistin-id32925662.html.
Bild 05/02/2015	Völkerling, Jörg, Burkhard Wittmann, and Oliver Grothmann, “Andrea, die Gotteskriegerin aus dem Allgäu,” Bild, February 5, 2015, https://www.bild.de/regional/muenchen/muenchen/gotteskriegerin-aus-dem-allgaeu-39636270.bild.html.
Bild 05/02/2015	Völkerling, Jörg, “Andrea, die Deutsche bei al-Quaida,” Bild, February 5, 2015, https://www.bild.de/news/inland/al-qaida/andrea-die-deutsche-bei-al-qaida-39650506.bild.html.
Bild 25/02/2015	Gerke, Ann-Kathrin, “Deutsche Terror-Braut bekommt Bewährungsstrafe,” Bild, February 25, 2015, https://www.bild.de/politik/inland/terrorismus/terror-braut-vor-dem-kadi-39915760.bild.html.
Bild 16/05/2019	Altendorf, Noel, Jan-Henrik Dobers, and Marco Zitzow, “ISIS-Witwe lebt unbehelligt in Hamburg,” Bild, April 16, 2019, https://www.bild.de/regional/hamburg/hamburg-aktuell/kein-haftbefehl-gegen-dschihadistin-isis-witwe-lebt-unbehelligt-in-hamburg-61276820.bild.html.
Bild 03/05/2019	Stegmüller, Hagen, “Ich musste immer kochen, putzen und waschen,” Bild, May 3, 2019, https://www.bild.de/regional/stuttgart/stuttgart-aktuell/stuttgart-isis-braut-jammert-vor-gericht-ich-musste-immer-kochen-61647526.bild.html.
Bild 09/09/2019	Altendorf, Noel, Jan-Henrik Dobers, and Marco Zitzow, “Sie bekam Geld von ISIS und eine Kalaschnikow,” Bild, September 9, 2019, https://www.bild.de/regional/hamburg/hamburg-aktuell/ihr-mann-deso-dogg-wurde-in-syrien-getoetet-isis-witwe-in-hamburg-festgenommen-64513432.bild.html.
Bild 11/11/2019	Pauly, Anne, and Björn Stritzel, “Tränen-Zusammenbruch bei ISIS-Prozess,” Bild, November 11, 2019, https://www.bild.de/politik/inland/politik-inland/isis-rueckkehrerin-derya-oe-vor-gericht-traenen-auftritt-bei-prozess-in-duesseld-65971370.bild.html.
Bild 25/11/2019	Stritzel, Björn, and Anne Pauly, “ISIS-Frauen sagen gegeneinander aus,” Bild, November 25, 2019, https://www.bild.de/politik/inland/politik-ausland/prozess-gegen-derya-oe-und-mine-k-isis-frauen-belasten-sich-gegenseitig-66270166.bild.html.
Bild 26/11/2019	Stritzel, Björn, and Anne Pauly, “Zeugin nimmt ISIS-Braut in Schutz,” Bild, November 26, 2019, https://www.bild.de/politik/inland/politik-inland/achter-prozesstag-zeugin-nimmt-isis-braut-in-schutz-66300558.bild.html.
Bild 10/12/2019	Stritzel, Björn, and Anne Pauly, “ISIS-Braut weint zum Prozess-Abschluss,” Bild, December 10, 2019, https://www.bild.de/politik/inland/politik-inland/isis-braut-wird-bei-den-plaedoyers-emotional-drei-jahre-haft-gefordert-66613072.bild.html.
Bild 17/12/2019	Stritzel, Björn, and Anne Pauly, “Hier geht die Ex-ISIS-Braut wieder in Freiheit,” Bild, December 17, 2019, https://www.bild.de/politik/inland/politik-inland/urteil-verkuendet-zwei-jahre-und-neun-monate-haft-fuer-isis-braut-66749454.bild.html.
Bild 04/05/2020	Wieberneit, Anja, “Terror-Prozess gegen ISIS-Rapper-Witwe,” Bild, May 4, 2020, https://www.bild.de/regional/hamburg/news-inland/omaina-a-35-aus-neugraben-terror-prozess-gegen-isis-rapper-witwe-70435214.bild.html
Bild 07/05/2020	Wieberneit, Anja, “ISIS-Rapper-Witwe beklagt Nacktkontroll,” Bild, May 7, 2020, https://www.bild.de/regional/hamburg/hamburg-aktuell/teror-prozess-in-hamburg-isis-rapper-witwe-beklagt-nacktkontrolle-70509174.bild.html.
Bild 20/12/2020	Scholtyseck Thilo, and Björn Stritzel, “Leonora M. (21) kommt zur U-Haft in den “Roten Ochsen,” Bild, December 20, 2020, https://www.bild.de/regional/sachsen-anhalt/sachsen-anhalt-news/isis-braut-verhaftet-leonora-m-kommt-zur-u-haft-in-den-roten-ochsen-74557510.bild.html.
Bild 09/01/2021	Leopold, Christian, “ISIS-Braut Leonora M. (21) kommt aus U-Haft frei,” Bild, January 9, 2021, https://www.bild.de/regional/sachsen-anhalt/sachsen-anhalt-news/bundesgerichtshof-isis-braut-leonora-m-21-kommt-aus-u-haft-frei-74802172.bild.html.
Bayerischer Rundfunk 21/02/2020	Röhmel, Joseph, “Vorwurf Kriegsverbrechen: Mutmaßliche IS-Anhängerin vor Gericht,” Bayerischer Rundfunk, February 21, 2020, https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/vorwurf-kriegsverbrechen-mutmassliche-is-anhaengerin-vor-gericht,Rqwtshy
Bayerischer Rundfunk 29/04/2020	Röhmel, Joseph, “Freiheitsstrafe für IS-Rückkehrerin aus Unterfranken,” Bayerischer Rundfunk, April 29, 2020, https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/freiheitsstrafe-fuer-is-rueckkehrerin-aus-unterfranken,RxYKVZ4.
Bayerischer Rundfunk 26/10/2010	Röhmel, Joseph, “IS-Prozess München: Angeklagte beantragt weitere Verteidigerin,” Bayerischer Rundfunk, October 26, 2010, https://www.br.de/nachrichten/deutschland-welt/is-prozess-um-verdurstetes-maedchen-angeklagte-bricht-schweigen,SRGSWD3.
Berliner Zeitung 03/11/2020	Rossow, Leoni, “Berliner ISIS-Braut vor Gericht - ‘Habe die Straftaten nicht begangen’,” Berliner Zeitung, November 3, 2020, https://www.bz-berlin.de/tatort/menschen-vor-gericht/berliner-isis-braut-vor-gericht-habe-die-straftaten-nicht-begangen
Deutsche Welle 08/04/2019	Von Hein, Matthias. “Jennifer W., der IS und das getötete Jesidenmädchen.” Deutsche Welle, April 8, 2019. https://www.dw.com/de/jennifer-w-der-is-und-das-get%C3%B6tete-jesidenm%C3%A4dchen/a-48250742.
Deutsche Welle 09/04/2019	Felden, Esther, “Die IS-Rückkehrerin Jennifer W. und der Blick in den Abgrund,” Deutsche Welle, April 9, 2019, https://www.dw.com/de/prozess-gegen-jennifer-w-beginnt-blick-in-den-abgrund-des-is/a-48265366.
FAZ 25/02/2015	Haneke, Alexander. 2015, “Nicht ohne ihre Töchter,” FAZ, February 25, 2015, https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/inland/bewaehrungsstrafe-fuer-islamistin-nicht-ohne-ihre-toechter-13449531.html.
FAZ 05/07/2019	Soldt, Rüdiger, “Ehefrau eines IS-Kämpfers in Stuttgart verurteilt,” FAZ, July 5, 2019, https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/ehefrau-eines-is-kaempfers-in-stuttgart-verurteilt-16270885.html.
FAZ 18/07/2019	Truscheit, Karin, “Ich habe mich nicht getraut, ihn davon abzuhalten,” FAZ, July 18, 2019, https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/inland/mutter-sagt-in-is-prozess-als-zeugin-gegen-jennifer-w-aus-16291666.html.
FAZ 07/08/2019	Haneke, Alexander, and Timo Frasch, “IS-Rückkehrerin in Bayern verhaftet,” FAZ, August 7, 2019, https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/inland/islamischer-staat-is-rueckkehrerin-in-bayern-verhaftet-16322878.html.
FAZ 18/12/2019	Burger, Reiner, “Die Schuld der Ehefrauen,” FAZ, December 18, 2019, https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/inland/duesseldorf-oberlandesgericht-verurteilt-junge-is-rueckkehrerin-16540724.html.
MDR 08/01/2021	Köppl, Simon, “Experte: Trotz Haftentlassung wird weiter gegen IS-Rückkehrerin Leonora M. ermittelt,” MDR, January 8, 2021, https://www.mdr.de/nachrichten/sachsen-anhalt/halle/halle/is-rueckkehrerin-leonora-moegliche-haftentlassung-ermittlungen-gehen-weiter-100.html.
Spiegel 26/02/2015	Diehl, Jörg, and Fidelius Schmid, “Der Irrweg der Dschihad-Bräute,” Spiegel, February 26, 2015, https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/islamismus-wie-andrea-b-aus-dem-allgaeu-in-den-dschihad-zog-a-1020691.html.
Spiegel 24/01/2018	Diehl, Jörg, and Fidelius Schmidt, “Wie gefährlich ist die Frau, die schon zum zweiten Mal einen IS-Kämpfer heiratete?” Spiegel, January 24, 2018, https://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/fall-sibel-h-wie-gefaehrlich-sind-frauen-beim-is-a-1189009.html.
Spiegel 24/05/2018	Diehl, Jörg, and Fidelius Schmidt, “Haftbefehl gegen Islamistin Sibel H. abgelehnt,” Spiegel, May 24, 2018, https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/offenbach-kein-haftbefehl-gegen-islamistin-sibel-h-a-1209348.html.
Spiegel 26/06/2018	Diehl, Jörg, and Fidelius Schmidt, “Ermittler nehmen deutsche Dschihadistin fest,” Spiegel, July 26, 2018, https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/baden-wuerttemberg-dschihadistin-sabine-s-festgenommen-a-1220358.html.
Spiegel 29/05/2019	Ramm, Wiebke, “In der Sonne angekettet bei 45 Grad,” Spiegel, April 9, 2019, https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/muenchen-liess-jennifer-w-in-falludscha-ein-kind-verdursten-a-1262017.html.
Spiegel 29/05/2019	Ramm, Wiebke, “Dem V-Mann in die Falle getappt,” Spiegel, April 29, 2019, https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/jennifer-w-wie-die-polizei-der-mutmasslichen-is-frau-auf-die-spur-kam-a-1265041.html.
Spiegel 06/05/2019	Ramm, Wiebke, “Als Jennifer mit Jacques zum IS fuhr,” Spiegel, May 6, 2019, https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/mutmassliche-is-frau-wie-die-polizei-jennifer-w-auf-die-spur-kam-a-1266056.html.
Spiegel 03/06/2019	Ramm, Wiebke, “Jennifer W. will ihren Mann entlasten,” Spiegel, June 3, 2019, https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/mutmassliche-is-terroristin-jennifer-w-welches-verhaeltnis-hat-sie-heute-zu-ihrem-mann-a-1270634.html.
Spiegel 24/06/2019	Ramm, Wiebke, “Schlimmer als die anderen furchtbaren Geschichten,” Spiegel, June 24, 2019, https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/jennifer-w-hat-sie-eine-fuenfjaehrige-verdursten-lassen-a-1274078.html.
Spiegel 20/09/2019	Ramm, Wiebke, “Ein wichtiger Zeuge fehlt noch,” Spiegel, September 20, 2019, https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/muenchen-prozess-gegen-mutmassliche-is-frau-ein-wichtiger-zeuge-fehlt-noch-a-1287899.html.
Spiegel 14/10/2019	Ramm, Wiebke, “Temperaturen bis über 60 Grad,” Spiegel, October 14, 2019, https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/muenchen-gutachter-sagt-im-prozess-gegen-mutmassliche-is-frau-jennifer-w-aus-a-1291515.html.
Spiegel 04/05/2020	Jüttner, Julia, “Dreimal verheiratet, einmal geschieden, zweimal verwitwet,” Spiegel, May 4, 2020, https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/hamburg-deso-doggs-witwe-omaima-a-als-mutmassliche-is-terroristin-vor-gericht-a-84e096a1-e27e-44c0-a716-c530a26c2b46.
Spiegel 07/05/2020	Jüttner, Julia, “Uns fehlte es an nichts,” Spiegel, May 7, 2020, https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/islamischer-staat-deso-dogg-witwe-vor-gericht-uns-fehlte-es-an-nichts-a-61e08412-bfa8-4bf6-a27c-969ac23ef81a.
Spiegel 02/10/2020	Jüttner, Julia, “Von wegen naive Kriegergattin,” Spiegel, October 2, 2020, https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/islamischer-staat-deso-dogg-witwe-verurteilt-von-wegen-naive-kriegergattin-a-59f11208-909d-433e-8e4c-395b1bbe569e.
Spiegel 12/12/2020	“Bundesregierung holt deutsche IS-Anhängerinnen aus Gefangenenlager,” Spiegel, December 12, 2020.
Spiegel 20/12/2020	Gebauer, Matthias, and Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt, “IS-Rückkehrerinnen in Deutschland gelandet - eine Festnahme,” Spiegel, December 20, 2020, https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/islamischer-staat-deutsche-is-anhaengerinnen-aus-syrischem-gefangenenlager-gerettet-a-2de204fd-2f56-4de6-b93d-5eea83c29b99.
Spiegel 22/03/2021	Jüttner, Julia, “Pistole unterm Niqab,” Spiegel, March 22, 2021, https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/islamischer-staat-neue-vorwuerfe-gegen-witwe-von-deso-dogg-pistole-unterm-niqab-a-6863bce9-1797-4f0c-9943-b5f0dd2ae8e0.
Süddeutsche 27/10/2015	Schnell, Lisa, “Allgäuer Islamistin kommt mit Bewährungsstrafe davon,” Süddeutsche, October 27, 2015, https://www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/bgh-entscheidung-allgaeuer-islamistin-kommt-mit-bewaehrungsstrafe-davon-1.2710171.
Süddeutsche 08/10/2020	Ramelsberger, Annette, “IS-Anhängerin Jennifer W. bricht ihr Schweigen,” Süddeutsche, October 8, 2020, https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/islamismus-is-jennifer-w-is-rueckkehrerin-1.5059149.
Süddeutsche 26/10/2020	Ramelsberger, Annette, “Anwälte sollen 18 000 Euro zahlen,” Süddeutsche, October 26, 2020, https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/verfahren-gegen-islamistin-jennifer-w-anwaelte-sollen-18-000-euro-zahlen-1.5094654#:∼:text = Gerade%20hat%20das%20Amtsgericht%20M%C3%BCnchen,in%20den%20Zeugenaussagen%20hingewiesen%20haben.
Süddeutsche 10/03/2021	Ramelsberger, Annette, “Ein Kind, festgebunden in der Sonne,” Süddeutsche, March 10, 2021, https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/is-prozess-jennifer-w-1.5231508.
Tagesspiegel 09/09/2019	Jansen, Frank, “Omaima A. soll ihre Kinder nach ‘IS-Ideologie’ erzogen haben,” Tagesspiegel, September 9, 2019, https://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/denis-cusperts-witwe-festgenommen-omaima-a-soll-ihre-kinder-nach-is-ideologie-erzogen-haben/24995402.html.
Tagesspiegel 04/11/2020	Keilani, Fatina, “War Zeynep G. so naiv, wie sie vor Gericht vorgibt?” Tagesspiegel, November 4, 2020, https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/das-leben-als-is-braut-war-zeynep-g-so-naiv-wie-sie-vor-gericht-vorgibt/26591470.html.
Tagesspiegel 25/11/2020	Keilani, Fatina, “Der Terrorprozess gegen die IS-Rückkehrerin und die mühsame Wahrheitssuche,” Tagesspiegel, November 25, 2020, https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/kalaschnikow-im-wohnzimmer-der-terrorprozess-gegen-die-is-rueckkehrerin-und-die-muehsame-wahrheitssuche/26658810.html.
Tagesspiegel 23/03/2021	Jansen, Frank, “Omaima A. ließ offenbar versklavte Jesidinnen für sich arbeiten,” Tagesspiegel March 23, 2021, https://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/zweite-anklage-gegen-hamburger-is-frau-omaima-a-liess-offenbar-versklavte-jesidinnen-fuer-sich-arbeiten/27032572.html.
Welt 27/10/2015	Crolly, Hannelore, “Schieße Ungläubigen mit Kalaschnikow den Kopf ab,” Welt, October 27, 2015, https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article148079037/Schiesse-Unglaeubigen-mit-Kalaschnikow-den-Kopf-ab.html.
Welt 04/07/2019	Naber, Ibrahim, “Das neue Leben der IS-Witwe Omaima A.,” Welt, July 4, 2019, https://www.welt.de/print/die_welt/politik/article196324861/Das-neue-Leben-der-IS-Witwe-Omaima-A.html.
Welt 09/09/2019	Fengler, Denis, “Deso-Dogg-Witwe nach drei Jahren verhaftet,” Welt, September 9, 2019, https://www.welt.de/regionales/hamburg/article199977550/Islamischer-Staat-Deso-Dogg-Witwe-nach-drei-Jahren-verhaftet.html.
Welt 25/09/2019	Christiansen, Frank, “Vom Rotlichtmilieu ins IS-Frauenhaus,” Welt, September 25, 2019, https://www.welt.de/regionales/nrw/article200927386/Vom-Rotlichtmilieu-ins-IS-Frauenhaus.html?cid=onsite.onsitesearch.
Welt 22/05/2020	Woldin, Philipp, “Terrorprozess gegen Cuspert-Witwe beginnt im Mai,” Welt, April 22, 2020, https://www.welt.de/regionales/hamburg/article207435873/Terrorprozess-gegen-Cuspert-Witwe-beginnt-im-Mai.html.
Welt 04/05/2020	Woldin, Philipp, “Sie erzog die Kinder zur IS-Ideologie. Er ging Ungläubige töten,” Welt, May 4, 2020, https://www.welt.de/regionales/hamburg/article207639353/IS-Unterstuetzerin-Omaima-A-Sie-erzog-die-Kinder-zur-IS-Ideologie-Er-ging-Unglaeubige-toeten.html.
Welt 04/05/2020	Gienke, Eckart, “Witwe von Denis Cuspert weist Terrorismusvorwürfe zurück,” Welt, May 4, 2020, https://www.welt.de/regionales/hamburg/article207732581/Islamischer-Staat-Cuspert-Witwe-weist-Terrorismusvorwuerfe-zurueck.html.
Welt 07/09/2020	Sprengel, Bernhard, “Bundesanwaltschaft fordert fast fünf Jahre Haft für Cuspert-Witwe,” Welt, September 7, 2020, https://www.welt.de/regionales/hamburg/article215217036/Cuspert-Witwe-Staatsanwalt-fordert-hohe-Haftstrafe-fuer-Omaima-A.html.
Welt 02/10/2020	Woldin, Philipp, “Nicht nur Hausfrau - Dreieinhalb Jahre Haft für Cuspert-Witwe,” Welt, October 2, 2020, https://www.welt.de/regionales/hamburg/article217052764/Witwe-von-Deso-Dogg-Omaima-A-in-Hamburg-zu-Haft-verurteilt.html.
Welt 22/03/2021	Woldin, Philipp, “Neue Vorwürfe gegen Cuspert-Witwe,” Welt, March 22, 2021, https://www.welt.de/regionales/hamburg/article228906397/IS-Rueckkehrer-nach-Deutschland-Neue-Vorwuerfe-gegen-Cuspert-Witwe-Omaima-A.html.

Data Analysis

A framing analysis in the form of a qualitative text-based content analysis was carried out with all 63 news articles, using the qualitative analysis software ATLAS.ti 8.4 for assistance. Following Touri and Koteyko, the researcher used a deductive approach in a first coding round and subsequently examined the data for indicators of frames already identified in the literature.⁶⁴ Inductive open coding was then employed to identify additional frames.⁶⁵ Given scholarly disagreement about how to empirically identify frames, the author decided to take Pan and Kosicki’s overview of potential indicators of framing devices as a guideline.⁶⁶ These include syntactic structures, use of external sources, lexical choices, and rhetorical structures. ⁶⁷ Thus, this study employs a semantic content analysis as a method, assuming that syntactic, lexical, and rhetorical choices allow inferences about the frames’ meaning-making functionality.

Concurrently, the analysis used statistical functions of ATLAS.ti 8.4. On the one hand, this enabled the examination of codes’ co-occurrences and facilitated establishing connections between them that were subsequently further analyzed. On the other hand, the weight of each frame could thus be determined based on the frequency distributions of the framing devices. The additional interviews allowed a discussion of external influences on the occurrence of a frame and supported subjective interpretations.⁶⁸ All quotations were translated by the author.

Reflexivity and Limitations

A framing analysis conducted by a single female researcher using open coding inevitably includes subjective elements. To minimize the risk of subjective bias in identifying frames, the author used software tools and supplementary interviews.⁶⁹ While the analysis cannot offer any conclusions about actual effects on the reader, it may inspire a subsequent discourse analysis researching this. Although the phenomenon of women returnees is discussed mainly in news articles, and there may thus be limited ability to construct one’s “own frames in opposition to those offered in the news,”⁷⁰ other influences on public attitudes remain.

The Lack of Explanatory Framing

A holistic look at the sample of news articles and the sparse results of a first theory-guided coding round confirms the previous supposition. Framing patterns that rationalize the paradox of terrorism-affiliated women do not seem to apply to women returnees. With a few exceptions, such as the recurrent designators “Ex-ISIS bride”⁷¹ and “ISIS widow”⁷² in conservative news media, the empirical analysis does not reveal any of the frames identified in previous research on terrorist-affiliated women.

However, this absence is not surprising given the peculiarities that distinguish women returnees from terrorist-affiliated women in general. The ambiguity about women’s role in terrorism renders the extent of the threat to traditional gender norms that framing seeks to protect still unknown. Specifically, the urgency underlying the challenge of women returnees may prioritize the determination of guilt in individual cases and temporarily put aside efforts to explain away the paradox as such. The observation that most articles analyzed deal with individual court cases of women returnees in Germany and have the urgency for clarity as an underlying theme reflects this. The heightened interest in the actions and convictions of individual women is also due to the fact that decisions on threat assessment and reintegration opportunities are still pending. Should there be any framing patterns, one can thus expect that these are not yet explanatory but accompanying the process of resolving ambiguity in individual cases.

Several articles nevertheless reveal an expectation of gaining general knowledge about women’s roles in terrorist organizations. For example, one news article asks whether they were “just brides and housewives, clueless and thus difficult to prosecute” or also exerted an ideological influence on their children, participated in terrorist actions, or encouraged others to do so.⁷³ Another poses the question as to whether these women are terrorists.⁷⁴

Coincidentally, a certain suspicion is also evident, reflecting previous criticism of the German legal treatment of women returnees and pointing to the key role of women’s court testimonies. One newspaper notes that women returnees have at times successfully portrayed themselves as innocent.⁷⁵ Indeed, a subsequent open-coding process revealed recurring patterns that accompany the court cases in a strikingly critical manner. In the following, this article demonstrates that the German media do frame women returnees as well. However, these frames do not explain away the phenomenon as such but suggest a particular interpretation of women returnees during their court proceedings.

The Incredibility Frame

With women’s role in terrorist organizations remaining not wholly investigated and evidence being rare, court testimonies especially attract media interest. The women’s statements are of particular interest insofar as they can offer the possibility of a rare, informative insight into domestic life within a terrorist organization. However, this interest is necessarily accompanied by the question of whether these testimonies reflect the truth. According to a security expert, any self-incrimination in court is tactically imprudent.⁷⁶ But do the women’s statements go beyond non-self-incrimination and even reflect deliberate self-staging? An analysis of news articles points to recurring linguistic structures whose combination seems to favor an interpretation of these women as non-credible. What this article refers to as the Incredibility Frame can be identified in 46% of all 63 analyzed news texts. Moreover, 11% even include more than three text fragments containing its framing devices. The following semantic analysis demonstrates how this frame operates through a particular contrast, a reinforcing sarcastic undertone, and a story metaphor.

Contrast

A frequently recurring pattern is the juxtaposition of skepticism or negative judgment expressed by a credible authority with individual women’s statements. This furthermore often takes the form of a combination of indirect and direct speech. Overall, the effect is to frame the woman returnee as not credible. It is now worth examining the two elements of the contrast, recurring syntactic patterns, and their interaction in greater detail.

The first element is a reference to various authorities’ judgments on the woman’s credibility. These can be eyewitnesses, like police officers or guards basing their assessment on overheard conversations or professionals from civil society organizations. One commonality is that their professional perspective lends them credibility and gives their statements on the woman’s credibility high verisimilitude. This matches Pan and Kosicki’s argument that references to experts or external authorities can establish factuality.⁷⁷ However, this external reference is most often the assessment of the judicial authority, either the court or the attorney general. The court’s “extremely skeptical”⁷⁸ attitude tends to be presented concisely and regularly, even without justification.

Furthermore, the object of skepticism is sometimes already dismissively referred to as a narrative. Phrases like “But the court found this narrative implausible at that time”⁷⁹ or “The court did not believe her version”⁸⁰ appear repeatedly and suggest a skeptical evaluation of a woman’s statements. This potential influence is particularly strong when an article refers to evidence. For example, one describes how the Senate President does not believe the evidence to match the person that the accused claims to be.⁸¹

Referring to an authority’s skepticism may have two effects. First, it can make any judgment of implausibility appear well-founded. The reader may be tempted to agree with the authority’s judgment and take the woman’s implausibility as factual. Second, by reporting how these authorities point out inconsistencies in the woman’s testimonies, the texts reinforce the accusation of self-staging. Notably, this also seems to work vice versa: Where the court considers the woman’s account a “(…) comprehensive, unsparing life report,”⁸² the articles refrain from a judgmental stance.

References to an authority’s skepticism tend to be contrasted with the defendant’s testimony. However, the way the news articles enable these women to speak favors doubts about their plausibility as well. Overall, through the choice of terms like “by her own account (…)”⁸³ or “allegedly,”⁸⁴ the articles tend to distance themselves from the woman’s statements. The texts of those authors who suspect the woman’s manipulation of gender stereotypes to mitigate punishment employ linguistic devices to devalue any narrative. This becomes evident in the usage of indirect speech, for example. In German, it is common to use the subjunctive mood for indirect speech. This has the effect of not reproducing the third-person statements factually but to uphold a distance: Instead of confirming the sentence’s content, evaluation is left to the reader. The German language thus leaves room for potential doubt. Particularly relevant are sentences beginning in indirect speech but terminating with a quote. Direct speech usually creates immediacy and credibility by giving the reader the illusion of being in the speaker’s presence. However, since the employment of the subjunctive in indirect speech at the beginning of the sentence structure may already suggest a doubtful attitude, a subsequent quote instead has the effect of reinforcing skeptical interpretations. Quoting parts of the woman’s explanations word for word offers the largest possible surface for criticism. Direct quotes highlight certain statements in the defendant’s confession, such as the attempt to justify the possession of weapons with security concerns⁸⁵ or the evaluation of the departure as “the biggest stupidity of [her] life.” ⁸⁶ Instead of enabling the defendant to speak, such quotes expose the woman’s words, facilitating the interpretation of such statements as manipulated narratives.

Together, these two elements create a meaning-laden contrast which the following excerpt conclusively demonstrates:

According to the Senate’s conviction, A. was ‘fascinated by the idea of an Islamic State’ (…). During the trial, however, A. claimed that she had simply wanted to ‘take a look’ at ISIS, ‘which everyone was raving about’. The judges were convinced that A. was not that naive.⁸⁷

In this case, the Senate is an authority figure whose assessment the reader may be inclined to take as factual. The syntactic structure, consisting of direct and indirect speech, enables the reader to interpret the woman’s remarks as manipulating self-presentation. Overall, the juxtaposition has the effect of rendering the woman’s statements implausible. The purpose of this rhetorical framing device could be to suggest to the reader to adopt a fundamentally critical or even disparaging attitude toward the statements of women returnees. A tabloid journalist confirmed that these contrasts are a popular means of highlighting contradictions and thus suggesting a skeptical stance.⁸⁸

Sarcasm and the Story-Metaphor

The previous contrast is not the only framing device of the Incredibility Frame. Other stylistic elements such as a sarcastic undertone and metaphorical references support it. Sarcasm refers here to a stylistic approach related to irony and involving an intention of criticism.⁸⁹

First, there appears to be a humorous disparaging tone regarding the women’s explanatory statements. This is especially the case when they resemble stereotypes and may thus be interpreted as self-staging. When a woman explains her departure with naiveté, the sarcastic undertone of the respective passage suggests that the text evaluates this explanation as self-staging. Examples for this sarcastic tone are excerpts such as “However, B. had to realize (…)”⁹⁰ or “However, already on the second day it turned out (…).”⁹¹ Equally pejorative is the lexical choice of the designator “trip”⁹² to describe a woman’s departure to Syria or Iraq. Elsewhere, texts ridicule supposedly humanitarian motives of the woman: Following a paraphrase of a woman claiming that images of dead children had motivated her departure, one article comments that “The horror images of the ‘Islamic State’ seemed to have made less of an impression on her.”⁹³ Sometimes, a narrative is also taken up in an exaggerated way to illustrate its supposed ridiculousness: “She knew that the husband does not go out fighting from nine to five and then sits comfortably on the sofa.”⁹⁴

Second, calling statements a “story” serves to characterize claims as fictional. Thus, the texts cast doubt on or even preclude any verisimilitude. Various news articles contain references to storytelling, such as the description of one woman’s situation as a “convoluted story,”⁹⁵ for example. Furthermore, the German verb vortragen tends to be a preferred lexical choice when a defense lawyer speaks in her client’s name. This is jurist jargon and may be translated with to contend. However, it may be that some readership not accustomed to this vocabulary might intuitively understand this term in its storytelling context as to recite, which suggests the interpretation of the woman’s claims as fictional. That some texts intend this misinterpretation becomes evident by phrases directly following such verbs, which describe the woman’s explanations as “the story of a child (…).”⁹⁶

Recurring syntactic and rhetorical structures thus reveal the three stylistic elements of the Incredibility Frame. The preceding semantic analysis demonstrated that this frame has the meaning-making functionality that framing theory ascribes to frames. Through the use of contrasts, indirect and direct speech, and tones, the texts repeatedly suggested an interpretation of the women’s statements as implausible. Before embedding these findings theoretically, the article now analyzes the use and occurrence of this frame. It seeks to determine factors that favor the use of this frame and explore what its employment is related to. Since the previous semantic analysis may be highly subjective, the article will now draw on journalists’ statements on their texts and attitudes, as well as the results of a co-occurrence inquiry. Subsequently, the discussion turns to another frame that arguably acts as a catalyst for the Incredibility Frame.

Journalists’ Personal Skepticism

The general skepticism of some authors of the analyzed texts toward the testimonies of these women suggests that the Incredibility Frame and its accompanying moral cues are indeed reflecting journalistic choices. Such skepticism reflects increasing warnings of underestimating women returnees, which this article has previously identified as influential on the general discourse on women returnees in Germany. In general, these result from a combination of recent warnings that women returnees might attempt to escape punishment through self-staging and instructive historical accounts where “innocent femininity was successfully used in pleas for the accused woman.”⁹⁷

All interviewed authors shared the belief that women returnees on trial aim at the best possible defense strategy. Some even believed that they seek to exculpate themselves and deliberately diminish their agency by, for example, using gender stereotypes of pacifist femininity to gain judicial leniency. One journalist stressed that one must look closely at these women and not see them as “just harmless housewives.”⁹⁸ Another called some defendant strategies “ridiculous” in light of recent and new evidence.⁹⁹ Others saw no need for the use of stereotypes yet confirmed a belief in self-staging.

On several occasions, authors assumed that organizations like ISIS do not allow women much agency due to strict gender roles. Thus, explanations of supporting functions would reflect a reality that is “cleverly used for self-promotion.”¹⁰⁰ The interviews also confirmed that such a critical stance is intensifying. One author pointed toward increasingly available means to assess the credibility of the women’s statements. By “opening the black box of the household,” one could take more informed stances on the women’s accounts.¹⁰¹

The combination of journalists’ skepticism and their understanding of journalistic duties is crucial with regard to the Incredibility Frame. Despite the journalistic norm of impartiality and balanced reporting, some believed that it was impossible to maintain neutrality and that there would always be some subjectivity.¹⁰² The common practice of talking to prosecutors who raise doubts would inevitably lead to bias. This recalls the centrality of reference to authority in the Incredibility Frame. Some journalists explained the opinionated nature of their articles with their understanding of news articles as discursive media. Depending on the type of text, it would be possible to criticize, comment, and question plausibility. One journalist even spoke of an educational function of the media. He considered it essential to inform about the currently emerging insights about women’s role in terrorist organizations and take a fundamentally critical stance toward all statements on ISIS.¹⁰³ This attitude and the vehement criticism of it voiced by others strengthen the proposition of an Incredibility Frame. Skeptical articles were seen as adopting an irresponsible style of lecturing and trying to steer the reader morally.¹⁰⁴ These statements support the Incredibility Frame and suggest that journalists’ attitudes play a role in its usage.

Co-Occurrences

Some tools of the qualitative data analysis software ATLAS.ti 8.4 enable an investigation of the co-occurrence of codes. Although no detailed analysis can be provided here due to space constraints, they enable a preliminary overview of how the framing devices of the Incredibility Frame are related to other factors. For example, a co-occurrence analysis reveals that the use of this frame is case-dependent. Three factors that stand out are worth mentioning. As several journalists confirmed,¹⁰⁵ the frequency of the frame increases when a covered case involves celebrities. Additionally, framing devices often co-occur with relatively new allegations of slave trade. Finally, a co-occurrence analysis suggests that texts do not exhibit the Incredibility Frame when the accused woman reported personal life crises such as sexual abuse.

Moreover, based on the assumption of case-dependency and recognizing women returnees as a diverse group,¹⁰⁶ it may also be investigated how intersectional factors such as the women’s age, origin, or familial status are related to the usage of the Incredibility Frame. The analysis could not produce any meaningful findings regarding the first two. Only in an individual case, where the woman departed as a minor, could one assume that this prevented the frame’s occurrence. It also does not seem to make any difference whether the woman has a migration background or not.

However, the co-occurrence analysis revealed one striking insight: Not only do most articles that frame women returnees as not credible also repeatedly refer to motherhood but there is also even frequent overlap of framing devices of the Incredibility Frame and references to motherhood. 49% of all texts refer both to this frame and motherhood, and in 26 instances, motherhood is even referred to within framing devices of the Incredibility Frame. In the following, another frame, the Irresponsible Mother Frame, is analyzed and introduced as a catalyst for the Incredibility Frame.

A Catalyst: The Irresponsible Mother Frame

The Irresponsible Mother Frame characterizes certain women as irresponsible mothers. This facilitates a negative attitude toward the woman in question and the basic skepticism necessary for the Incredibility Frame. The following analysis identifies the general framing devices of this frame and scrutinizes its interplay with the Incredibility Frame.

If a woman departed to Syria or Iraq with her children, this is particularly emphasized. The designation of this act as an “abduction”¹⁰⁷ implies a morally reprehensible and criminal act, gaining further gravity by identifying the destination as “Jihad,”¹⁰⁸ “ISIS-ruled territory,”¹⁰⁹ or “war zone.”¹¹⁰ This presents the mother as a criminal per se who has violated her maternal duty to protect. Meanwhile, the descriptions of the children contain emotional appeals. The articles either directly highlight the children’s age or frequently use the adjectives “small”¹¹¹ or “underage.”¹¹² For example, the following description of one woman’s departure combines both effects and paints a clear picture of an irresponsible mother: “Repeatedly, the investigators heard nursery rhymes and children’s songs. Because W.’s five-year-old daughter was sitting on the back seat. She was supposed to go with them to ISIS.”¹¹³

The limited but steadily growing evidence that now exists from terrorist households consists mainly of women’s chat messages showing photographs and video recordings, also of children. The news articles particularly foster an interpretation of some women as irresponsible mothers by referring to this visual material: “One day, B. took a mobile phone picture of her daughter. It shows the little girl, just three years old, with a Kalashnikov around her neck.”¹¹⁴ When available, texts describe video material in similar detail: “(…) the son in camouflage and with a pistol, the fully veiled daughter with an ISIS flag.”¹¹⁵

The presence of such evidence significantly impacts the meaning-making capacity of the Irresponsible Mother Frame and its interplay with the Incredibility Frame. First, they allow the derivation of conclusions about women’s role in terrorist organizations, such as the strict ideological education of children, for example. Short, concise statements, like “(…) raised her children to be future soldiers,”¹¹⁶ give these conclusions factuality. Thus, the reader is encouraged to assume that the woman’s failure as a mother, expressed through negligence, indoctrination, and instrumentalization of her children, is a fact. Moreover, photo and video material testify to an ideological conviction that appears irreconcilable with a victim role.

Second, this evidence provides the basis for specific charges and guilty verdicts. This adds significance to the court’s opinion, which is contrasted with the defendant’s testimony within the Incredibility Frame. The text is thus able to point not only to the court’s conviction of maternal negligence but also to the specific charge of failure to fulfill her duty in looking after the welfare and education of children.¹¹⁷ Herein lies the catalyzing function of the Irresponsible Mother Frame. If a woman’s guilt is assumed from the outset, the reader is predestined to take a critical stance toward the accused. Contrasts like “Despite everything, B. claims in court: ‘The children were safe’. The authorities in Germany saw things differently: She lost custody while still in Syria (…)”¹¹⁸ have a meaning-making function in that they enable the reader to consider adopting a disparaging attitude toward the woman returnee as appropriate. The statements of a journalist lend weight to the previous analysis. According to him, the fact that a woman had grossly violated her maternal duties by taking her children to a war zone, giving birth in an “insane system of injustice,” and indoctrinating them “does not necessarily make the view of these women more empathetic.” What this article refers to as a catalyzing function of the Irresponsible Mother Frame, he called an effect of “reverse emotionalization.” One would already have difficulties understanding how a mother could be capable of exposing her children to a terrorist environment, which burdens the evaluation of her person from the outset.¹¹⁹

Without going into further detail, it should be briefly noted that the absence of the Incredibility Frame goes along with a lack of the Irresponsible Mother Frame, reinforcing their close interplay. When an article does not cast doubt on a woman’s credibility, maternal qualities either remain unquestioned, or the picture of a loving mother is painted. The topic of motherhood then appears, for example, in relation to the loss of a child,¹²⁰ or if a sense of responsibility for the children motivated the decision to flee.¹²¹ Likewise, in the articles that do not refer to irresponsible motherhood, the Incredibility Frame cannot be identified either.

Discussion

In the following, this article embeds the results of the previous empirical analysis in a theoretical discussion. It was initially established that the phenomenon of women returnees is distinct from the broader category of terrorism-affiliated women due to their proximity to society and underlying uncertainties about their involvement in terrorism in need of urgent clarification. Furthermore, if one conceptualizes agency in terrorism broadly, even the departure to Syria or Iraq and passive membership in a terrorist organization is violence-related and hence considered ‘unwomanly’ behavior. However, due to sparse evidence, it is not yet certain to what extent individual woman returnees were involved in violence beyond this. The preceding analysis has shown that while German news articles do not frame women returnees using rationalizing strategies, they nevertheless exhibit framing patterns. Instead of explaining away violent behavior, they seem to suggest a critical attitude toward women during the court proceedings. With these insights, how might the theoretical framework combining feminist and media framing theory be adapted to women returnees? The feminist theory that offered an explanation for the framing of terrorism-affiliated women based on Entman’s framing steps is now adapted to the empirical research results and thus analytically extended.

Already the first step of problem definition, the starting point of the framing process, may be supplemented by the critical factors of uncertainty and urgency. The problem is thus not only the existence of a terrorism-affiliated woman but also the urgency of removing all uncertainty associated with the respective woman returnee’s role in the terrorist organization. As long as it is still ambiguous what needs to be explained or to what extent the norm of peaceful womanhood is threatened, texts cannot yet include any explanatory strategies that would otherwise be likely under the second framing step of causal diagnosis. The lack of answers for the following questions prevents a rationalization of the phenomenon of women returnees: What was the actual relationship of each woman to violence? Was she merely a passive member, and can her behavior still be explained through the exculpation strategy? Or does the extent of the woman’s involvement in political violence and terrorism necessitate applying the pathologization strategy to protect the gender norm of peaceful womanhood?

However, such uncertainties are decreasing as evidence mounts. The general cultural assumption identified earlier that women’s role is limited to activities within the domestic context due to a strict gender hierarchy is unrefuted. Nevertheless, the evidence reveals the possibility of women’s involvement in violent-related activities within a domestic context. The nature of this evidence and the available insights into women’s role in terrorist organizations is impactful. On the one hand, it consists of testimonies of former Yazidi domestic slaves suggesting that women may be involved in slave trade. However, their responsibility remains unclear, and insightful judicial processes have only recently begun. On the other hand, there is increasing evidence of news, photo, and video material from women’s mobile devices. This material primarily reveals the indoctrination of children, sometimes even by the mother herself, or they reflect maternal consent to this. The mounting evidence suggests that women’s agency in terrorist organizations may go beyond mere passive membership, including raising and indoctrinating their children according to terrorist ideology.

Consequently, the threat to the norm of peaceful womanhood, motherhood even, seems to be trending upwards. This contrasts with testimonies of accused women, offering explanations in their defense strategies. If the second framing step is to be a causal diagnosis for the defined problem of women returnees characterized by uncertainty and urgency, then this can only be an emphasis on the tension between mounting evidence suggesting agency in terrorism and the women’s statements denying this.

That the effect of the frames which the empirical analysis identified will only be mentioned now in relation to the third and fourth framing steps reflects a general shift of emphasis from causal diagnosis to moral evaluation. As the preceding semantic analysis has shown, news texts contrast the women’s testimonies with existing evidence or evaluative statements of higher authorities and thus negatively expose them. They thereby deny women any credibility, sometimes even in a sarcastically or derogatory manner. The Incredibility Frame has a meaning-making effect in that it takes a clear side in the conflict between the women’s statements and the mounting evidence and tries to impart this interpretation to the readership. Therefore, this frame is both an expression of rising skepticism and a concrete moral recommendation of not believing these women.

After recognizing that this frame often overlaps with references to motherhood, this topic was further explored. According to a gender-essentialist view, a mother is especially peaceful and averse to violence. However, the increasing evidence paints a contradictory picture of the accused mothers and thus requires responses to what Åhäll has identified as a “special tension” between motherhood and agency in political violence.¹²² Fact-based accusations and convictions of maternal negligence facilitate the media’s characterization of these women as deviant mothers, as evident in the Irresponsible Mother Frame. This frame does not explain why the woman is part of the terrorist organization but has a protective function for peaceful motherhood, nevertheless. The behavior toward their children makes them “products of femininity gone awry,” as identified by Gentry and Sjoberg.¹²³ The seemingly factual role of the deviant mother precludes using the exculpation strategy since deviant motherhood clearly transgresses traditional gender roles. Hence, the Irresponsible Mother Frame has a catalyzing effect on the Incredibility Frame. If a woman is characterized as an irresponsible mother, the statements of the accused trying to limit their agency appear as mere attempts to achieve an exculpation strategy by distancing themselves from any violence through gender-stereotypical narratives and staging themselves as victims. The usage of frames highlighting them as irresponsible mothers makes future treatment with the pathologization strategy more likely. Therefore, one could hypothesize that in the future, when it comes to explaining women’s violence in terrorist organizations, the pathologization strategy will be used. In what way remains to be seen.

Conclusion

Studies on the media portrayal of terrorism-affiliated women have only recently enriched terrorism research. However, the phenomenon of women returnees, an increasing challenge for states like Germany, and accompanying media framing has still received little scholarly attention. Therefore, this article sought to examine how the German news media frames terrorism-affiliated women returnees from Syria and Iraq. After establishing a theoretical framework that married feminist theory on how society understands violent women with framing theory, the author conducted a qualitative framing analysis based on 63 German news articles to determine how women returnees are framed in German news media. Instead of explanatory frames identified in the literature on terrorism-affiliated women in general, the empirical analysis revealed two frames that accompany the women’s trials and suggest a skeptical attitude toward some women returnees.

First, the Incredibility Frame encourages an evaluation of women’s court statements as non-credible. A semantic analysis demonstrated that this frame functions mainly through a recurring contrast of statements by authority figures and the accused women. It furthermore found that the combination of indirect and direct speech played a unique role and exposed rhetorical devices like a sarcastic undertone or a story-metaphor. Interviews with journalists confirmed initially subjective conclusions.

Second, the analysis identified an Irresponsible Mother Frame, highlighting a failure to fulfill motherly duties, as a catalyst for the Incredibility Frame. Examining the interplay between the two suggested that the emphasis on some women as irresponsible mothers might further encourage the reader to interpret the women’s statements as not credible. Given these findings, the article ultimately proposed modifying the theoretical framework and applied a new perspective to Entman’s framing process suitable to the phenomenon of women returnees.¹²⁴

Their existence and the urgency of clarifying individual women’s agency in terrorism become the problem to be framed. Due to the ongoing tension between mounting evidence and contradictory statements by women returnees, news texts can neither resort to the exculpation nor the pathologization strategy to rationalize terrorism-affiliated women’s behavior. The emphasis thus shifts to moral evaluation instead. Here, the Incredibility Frame and its facilitator, the Irresponsible Mother Frame, operate to suggest skeptical attitudes toward women returnees from Syrian and Iraq in the German news media. While this may be read as an answer to the research question, caution is advised as these frames cannot be generalized to all women returnees.

Nevertheless, this study offers insights that, first, expand the theoretical understanding of society’s approach to terrorism-affiliated women with insights regarding the subgroup of women returnees and, secondly, have practical relevance. In particular, the finding that news texts do not, as suggested by the framework regarding the framing of terrorism-affiliated women, contain attempts at rationalization but instead portray women returnees as irresponsible mothers and not credible, represents such an addition to the existing literature. Moreover, the identified skepticism induced by the Incredibility Frame and the catalyzing function of the Irresponsible Mother Frame reaffirm the feminist assertion of a persisting tension between womanhood and terrorism.

By using a feminist perspective, one can not only examine the current media portrayal of women but also problematize the consequences of its persistence for society’s understanding and treatment of women returnees. For example, one can expect a society that continuously perceives violent women as paradoxical increasingly to pathologize women returnees in order to resolve the tension between womanhood and terrorism. However, if precipitous pathologization becomes the norm, this may even result in overestimating some women’s agency in terrorism. In this case, the Incredibility Frame will lead to a renewed misjudgment of terrorism-affiliated women in general and woman returnees in particular.

Furthermore, reducing complexity lies in the nature of framing. If women are increasingly reduced to, for example, their role as mothers, any understanding of women returnees is necessarily incomplete. In effect, framing thus risks blindness to a “complex matrix of agency” by privileging monocausal interpretations of women’s agency in terrorism over multicausal ones. ¹²⁵ Accordingly, only when society ceases to perceive violent women as paradoxical and the media neither pathologizes nor exculpates them will women be fully understood as actors with complex linkages to terrorism and possibly ambivalent agency in terrorist groups and activities.

However, if framing continues to prevent a holistic understanding of women returnees and the necessary ambiguity tolerance, this may adversely impact reintegration efforts and risks of recidivism.¹²⁶ Even leaving aside the topic of women returnees, any tendency away from ambiguity tolerance and toward simplifying complex phenomena is concerning for how society and counterterrorism policy generally deal with potential security risks.

Accordingly, it is highly relevant to continue observing how the media frames women returnees and how general social attitudes toward this group develop. To this end, it would be fitting to place the present findings in a broader social context. A vital step to shed further light on the topic of women returnees would be conducting a discourse analysis that considers media representations, such as those analyzed in this article, in a larger societal discourse on women returnees and national security. Equally valuable would be a comparative study to determine whether and how non-German media advance similar skeptical attitudes toward women returnees through framing.

In a broader sense, one may further ask what lessons can be shared in dealing with these women, as the phenomenon of women returnees and their integration is a Europe-wide challenge that is only just unfolding and offers much future research potential. Finally, as this article has demonstrated, it is imperative to establish gender as a category of analysis in terrorism research so that the diagnosis that “terrorism has a gender problem”¹²⁷ can be shelved.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Andreas A. Nøhr, Barbara Gruber, and the two anonymous peer reviewers for their valuable feedback, and Timothy K. Wilson for his support in finalizing this article. Special thanks also go to the German Academic Exchange Service and the German Academic Scholarship Foundation for supporting the author in her academic development.

Disclosure Statement

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

Notes

1 According to the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution, women represent 25% (268) of the 1070 individuals who travelled from Germany to Syria or Iraq since 2012. Cook and Vale (2019) indicate a proportion of 32.12% until 2019. Together, these figures suggest an absolute number of German women returnees until 2019 of approximately 86.

2 Thomas Renard and Rik Coolsaet, “Returnees: Who Are They, Why Are They (Not) Coming Back and How Should We Deal With Them?” (Paper 101, Egmont-Royal Institute for International Relations, Brussels, 2018), 4, https://www.egmontinstitute.be/content/uploads/2018/02/egmont.papers.101_online_v1-3.pdf (accessed March 3, 2021).

3 CTED, “Gender Dimensions of the Response to Returning Foreign Terrorist Fighters: Research Perspectives” (CTED Trends Report 2019, UN Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee, New York, 2019), https://www.un.org/sc/ctc/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Feb_2019_CTED_Trends_Report.pdf (accessed March 3, 2021).

4 Interview by author: KODEX 2021.

5 Renard and Coolsaet, “Returnees,” 50.

6 Joana Cook and Gina Vale, “From Daesh to ‘Diaspora’ II: The Challenges Posed by Women and Minors After the Fall of the Caliphate,” CTC Sentinel 12, no. 6 (2019): 8.

7 Maria Braden, Women Politicians and the Media (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1996), 4.

8 Karla J. Cunningham, “Cross-Regional Trends in Female Terrorism,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 26, no. 3 (2003): 173; Kathy Laster and Edna Erez, “Sisters in Terrorism? Exploding Stereotypes,” Women & Criminal Justice 25, no. 1–2 (2015): 83–99; Brigitte L. Nacos, “The Portrayal of Female Terrorists in the Media: Similar Framing Patterns in the News Coverage of Women in Politics and in Terrorism,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 28, no. 5 (2005): 446.

9 Ibid., 436.

10 Robert Entman, “Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm.” Journal of Communication 43, no. 4 (1993): 51–58.

11 Elizabeth Gardner, “Is There Method to the Madness?” Journalism Studies 8, no. 6 (2007): 911.

12 CTED, “Gender Dimensions,” 5; Interview by author: KODEX 2021; Rachel Schmidt, “Duped: Examining Gender Stereotypes in Disengagement and Deradicalization Practices.” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism (2020): 3.

13 Laster and Erez, “Sisters in Terrorism?” 88.

14 Ibid., 87; Mia Bloom and Ayse Lokmanoglu, “From Pawn to Knights: The Changing Role of Women’s Agency in Terrorism?” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism (2020): 10; Brittany M. Wickham, Nicole M. Capezza, and Victoria L. Stephenson, “Misperceptions and Motivations of the Female Terrorist: A Psychological Perspective,” Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma 29, no. 8 (2019): 953–68.

15 Nacos, “The Portrayal of Female Terrorists in the Media,” 448.

16 Karla Cunningham, “Countering Female Terrorism,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 30, no. 2 (2007): 113–29; Schmidt, “Duped,” 2.

17 Entman, “Framing,” 51–58.

18 Jean B. Elshtain, Women and War (New York: Basic Books, 1995).

19 See Dorothea Middendorff and Wolf Middendorff, “Changing Patterns of Female Criminality in Germany,” in The Increase of Female Criminality in the Contemporary World, ed. Freda Adler (New York: New York University Press, 1981), 122–33; Anita von Raffay, “Hoffnung, ein Prinzip des Terrorismus,” Analytische Psychologie 2, no.1 (1980): 38–52.

20 See Antony, H. H. Cooper, “Women as Terrorist,” in The Criminology of Deviant Women, ed. Freda Adler and Rita J. Simon (London: Houghton Mifflin, 1979): 150–58; Robin Morgan, The Demon Lover: On the Sexuality of Terrorism (New York: W.W. Norton & Co-Inc., 1989).

21 See Terri T. Patkin, “Explosive Baggage: Female Palestinian Suicide Bombers and the Rhetoric of Emotion,” Women & Language 27, no. 2 (2004): 79–88; Elizabeth Pearson and Emily Winterbotham, “Women, Gender and Daesh Radicalization: A Milieu Approach,” The RUSI Journal 162, no. 3 (2017): 60–72; Anne Speckhard, “The Emergence of Female Suicide Terrorists,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 31, no. 11 (2008): 995–1023.

22 Caron E. Gentry and Laura Sjoberg, Beyond Mothers, Monsters, Whores: Thinking About Women’s Violence in Global Politics (London: Zed Books, 2015): 24.

23 See Caron E. Gentry, “Thinking about Women, Violence, and Agency,” International Feminist Journal of Politics 14, no. 1 (2012): 79–82; Caron E. Gentry, “Gender and Terrorism,” in Routledge Handbook of Gender and Security, ed. Caron E. Gentry, Laura J. Shepherd, and Laura Sjoberg (New York: Routledge, 2019), 140–50; Laster and Erez, “Sisters in Terrorism?” 83–99; Laura Sjoberg, “Feminist Interrogations of Terrorism/Terrorism Studies,” International Relations 23, no. 1 (2009): 69–74.

24 For case studies, see for example Mia Bloom, Bombshell: Women and Terrorism (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012) or Carrie Hamilton, “The Gender Politics of Political Violence: Women Armed Activists in ETA,” Feminist Review 86 (2007): 132–48.

25 See Rhiannon Talbot, “Myths in the Representation of Women Terrorists,” Éire-Ireland 35, no. 3–4 (2000): 165–86.

26 Nacos, “The Portrayal of Female Terrorists in the Media,” 435–51; Dan Berkowitz, “Suicide Bombers as Women Warriors: Making News Through Mythical Archetypes,” Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 82, no. 3 (2005): 607–22.

27 See Gardner, “Is There Method to Madness?”; Caron E. Gentry and Laura Sjoberg, “Terrorism and Political Violence,” in Gender Matters in Global Politics: A Feminist Introduction to International Relations, ed. Laura J. Shepherd, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 120–30; Laster and Erez, “Sisters in Terrorism?” 83–99; Sjoberg and Gentry, Women, Gender, and Terrorism.

28 Alexandra Phelan, “Special Issue Introduction for Terrorism, Gender and Women: Toward an Integrated Research Agenda,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism (2020).

29 Schmidt, “Duped.”

30 Bloom and Lokmanoglu, “From Pawn to Knights,” 2.

31 William A. Gamson and Andre Modigliani, “Media Discourse and Public Opinion on Nuclear Power: A Constructionist Approach,” American Journal of Sociology 95, no. 1 (1989): 3; Todd Gitlin, The Whole World Is Watching: Mass Media in the Making & Unmaking of the New Left (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980): 7.

32 Zhongdang Pan and Gerald M. Kosicki, “Framing Analysis: An Approach to News Discourse,” Political Communication 10, no. 1 (1993): 59; Baldwin van Gorp, “Strategies to Take Subjectivity Out of Framing Analysis,” in Doing News Framing Analysis: Empirical and Theoretical Perspectives, ed. Paul D’Angelo and Jim A. Kuypers (New York: Routledge, 2010), 84–109.

33 Joseph N. Cappella and Kathleen H. Jamieson, Spiral of Cynicism: The Press and the Public Good (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997): 39–40; Van Gorp, “Strategies to Take Subjectivity Out of Framing Analysis,” 84–5, see also: Gitlin, The Whole World Is Watching.

34 Entman, “Framing,” 52.

35 See Nacos, “The Portrayal of Female Terrorists in the Media,” 446.

36 Gentry and Sjoberg, “Terrorism and Political Violence,” 126; Meredith Loken and Anna Zelenz, “Explaining Extremism: Western Women in Daesh,” European Journal of International Security 3, no. 1 (2018): 47; Eva Herschinger, “Political Science, Terrorism and Gender,” Historical Social Research 39, no. 3 (2014): 50.

37 Ibid., 60.

38 Miranda Alison, “Women as Agents of Political Violence: Gendering Security,” Security Dialogue 35, no. 4 (2004): 447–63; Gardner, “Is there Method to Madness?” 909–29.

39 Cunningham, “Countering Female Terrorism,” 118; Gentry and Sjoberg, “Terrorism and Political Violence,” 129.

40 Julia Handle, Judy Korn, Thomas Mücke, and Dr. Dennis Walkenhorst, “Rückkehrer*innen aus den Kriegsgebieten in Syrien und im Irak” (Schriftenreihe Heft 1, Violence Prevention Network, Berlin, 2019), https://violence-prevention-network.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Violence-Prevention-Network_Schriftenreihe_Heft_1_Rueckkehr-2.pdf (accessed February 20, 2021); Patkin, “Explosive Baggage,” 28.

41 Linda Åhäll, “Motherhood, Myth and Gendered Agency in Political Violence,” International Feminist Journal of Politics 14, no. 1 (2012): 107.

42 Entman, “Framing,” 52.

43 Alison, “Women as Agents of Political Violence,” 461.

44 Wickham, Capezza and Stephenson, “Misperceptions and Motivations of the Female Terrorist,” 953–68; Francis Heidensohn, Women and Crime (New York: New York University Press): 106; Gentry and Sjoberg, Beyond Mothers, Monsters, Whores, 12–3.

45 Gardner, “Is There Method to Madness?” 909–29; Rebecca S. Cruise, “Enough With Stereotypes: Representations of Women in Terrorist Organizations,” Social Science Quarterly 97, no. 1 (2016): 33–43.

46 Ibid., 38; Loken and Zelenz, “Explaining Extremism,” 52.

47 Nacos, “The Portrayal of Female Terrorist in the Media,” 437.

48 Schmidt, “Duped,” 11.

49 Gentry and Sjoberg, “Terrorism and Political Violence,” 127.

50 Heidensohn, Women and Crime, 97; Talbot, “Myths in the Representation of Women Terrorists,” 165–86.

51 Laura Sjoberg and Caron E. Gentry, “Reduced to Bad Sex: Narratives of Violent Women from the Bible to the War on Terror,” International Relations 22, no. 1 (2008): 5–23.

52 Ibid., 9–10.

53 Maria E. Grabe, K. D. Trager, Melissa Lear, and Jennifer Rauch, “Gender in Crime News: A Case Study Test of the Chivalry Hypothesis,” Mass Communication and Society 9, no. 2 (2006): 156.

54 Gentry and Sjoberg, Beyond Mothers, Monsters, Whores, 24.

55 Schmidt, “Duped,”; Ester E. J. Strømmen, “Jihadi Brides or Female Foreign Fighters?” (GPS Policy Brief 01/2017, PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace and Security, Oslo, 2017), https://www.prio.org/utility/DownloadFile.ashx?id=1219&type=publicationfile (accessed March 15, 2021).

56 Francis Heidensohn, Crime and Society (London: Macmillan, 1989): 110.

57 Sjoberg and Gentry, “Reduced to Bad Sex,” 7.

58 See Cappella and Jamieson, Spiral of Cynicism; Gitlin, The Whole World Is Watching; Pan and Kosicki, “Framing Analysis,” 55–75; On feminist contributions see: Braden, Women Politicians and the Media; Pippa Norris, Women, Media, and Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).

59 Herschinger, “Political Science, Terrorism and Gender,” 57–8.

60 Nacos, “The Portrayal of Female Terrorist in the Media,” 435–51.

61 Cook and Vale, “From Daesh to ‘Diaspora’ II,” 21; Daniel H. Heinke, “German Foreign Fighters in Syria and Iraq: The Updated Data and Its Implications,” CTC Sentinel 10, no. 3 (2017): 17; “Zahlen und Fakten,” Islamismus- und -islamistischer-Terrorismus, Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, last modified 2021, accessed March 17, 2021, https://www.verfassungsschutz.de/DE/themen/islamismus-und-islamistischer-terrorismus/zahlen-und-fakten/zahlen-und-fakten_node.html#doc678982bodyText2.

62 Deutscher Bundestag, “Drucksache 19/27314” (Deutscher Bundestag, Berlin, 2021), 2, https://dip21.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/19/273/1927314.pdf (accessed March 5, 2021).

63 Kompetenzzentrum für Deradikalisierung und Extremismusprävention im Land Bremen [Competence Centre for Deradicalization and Prevention of Extremism in the State of Bremen].

64 Maria Touri and Nelya Koteyko, “Using Corpus Linguistic Software in the Extraction of News Frames: Towards a Dynamic Process of Frame Analysis in Journalistic Texts,” International Journal of Social Research Methodology 18, no. 6 (2015): 604.

65 Ibid., 603.

66 Pan and Kosicki, “Framing Analysis,” 55–75.

67 Examples for analyses of or reference to each indicator named include Stefania Vicari, “Measuring Collective Action Frames: A Linguistic Approach to Frame Analysis,” Poetics 38, no. 5 (2010): 504–25 for syntactic structures, Pan and Kosicki, “Framing Analysis,” 55–75 for use of external sources, Gamson and Modigliani, “Media Discourse and Public Opinion on Nuclear Power,” 1–37 for rhetorical structures, and Van Gorp “Strategies to Take Subjectivity Out of Framing Analysis,” 84–109 for lexical choices.

68 Ibid., 86.

69 Touri and Koteyko, “Using Corpus Linguistic Software,” 601–16.

70 Cappella and Jamieson, Spiral of Cynicism, 49.

71 Bild 17/12/2019.

72 Welt 04/06/2019.

73 Welt 02/10/2020.

74 Welt 04/05/2020.

75 FAZ 18/12/2019.

76 Interview by author: KODEX 2021.

77 Pan and Kosicki, “Framing Analysis,” 60.

78 Welt 27/10/2015.

79 Welt 22/03/2021.

80 Spiegel 02/10/2020.

81 Ibid.

82 FAZ 18/12/2019.

83 Spiegel 26/02/2015.

84 Spiegel 22/03/2021; see also: Bild 04/05/2020; Bild, 07/05/2020; Welt 09/09/2019; Spiegel 04/05/2020; Spiegel 07/05/2020.

85 Bild 05/02/2015.

86 Spiegel 07/05/2020.

87 Spiegel 02/10/2020.

88 Interview by author: Bild 2021.

89 Josiane Boutonnet, “Irony: Stylistic Approaches,” in Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics, ed. Keith Brown, 2nd ed. (Boston: Elsevier, 2006), 28–31; John Haiman, “Sarcasm as Theater,” Cognitive Linguitics 1, no. 2 (1990): 181–205.

90 Welt 27/10/2015.

91 FAZ 25/02/2015.

92 Spiegel 22/03/2021.

93 Spiegel 26/02/2015.

94 Spiegel 02/10/2020.

95 Spiegel 03/06/2019.

96 Süddeutsche 08/10/2020.

97 Hamilton, “The Gender Politics of Political Violence,” 132–48; Heidensohn, Women and Crime, 107; Interview by author: I KODEX 2021; Schmidt, “Duped,” 7–8.

98 Interview by author: Welt 2021.

99 Interview by author: Bild 2021.

100 Interview by author: Süddeutsche 2021.

101 Interview by author: Welt 2021.

102 Interview by author: Tagesspiegel 2021.

103 Interview by author: Welt 2021.

104 Interview by author: Tagesspiegel 2021.

105 Interview by author: Welt 2021; Interview by author: Bild 2021; Interview by author: Tagesspiegel 2021.

106 Cook and Vale, “From Daesh to ‘Diaspora’ II,” 3; CTED, “Gender Dimensions,” 7.

107 Bild 05/02/2015.

108 FAZ 25/02/2015.

109 Welt 09/09/2019.

110 Tagesspiegel 23/03/2021.

111 FAZ 25/02/2015; see also: Welt 27/10/2015.

112 Welt 22/05/2020; see also: Welt 09/09/2019.

113 Spiegel 06/05/2019.

114 Welt 27/10/2015.

115 Welt 04/05/2020; Spiegel 04/05/2020; Welt 09/09/2019; Welt 22/04/2020.

116 Welt 04/05/2020.

117 Welt 27/10/2015; Spiegel 04/05/2020; Spiegel 22/03/2021; on violation of duty to look after and care for children, see also Bild 09/09/2019; Spiegel 02/10/2020; Spiegel 22/03/2021; Welt 09/09/2019; Welt 22/04/2020; Welt 04/05/2020; Welt 07/09/2020; Welt 02/10/2020, Welt 22/03/2021.

118 Bild 25/02/2015.

119 Interview by author: Welt 2021.

120 Tagesspiegel 04/11/2020.

121 FAZ 05/07/2019.

122 Åhäll, Motherhood, Myth and Gendered Agency,” 110; see also Patkin, “Explosive Baggage,” 86; Speckhard, “The Emergence of Female Suicide Terrorists,” 995–1023.

123 Gentry and Sjoberg, “Terrorism and Political Violence,” 127.

124 Entman, “Framing,” 51–58.

125 Laster and Erez, “Sisters in Terrorism?” 88.; see also Cruise, “Enough With the Stereotypes,” 38.

126 CTED, “Gender Dimensions,” 5; Schmidt, “Duped,” 3.

127 Gentry, Disordered Violence, 88.

Appendix

Table 1. Simplified overview of frames on terrorism-affiliated women.

Frame	Examples	Strategy	Source
Family Frame	• Dependence on close contacts or family members	E	Nacos 2005 Gentry and Sjoberg 2015
	• Mothering role within terrorist organization	P
	• Vengeance driven by maternal or romantic loss	P
Sexualization Frame	• Sexual dependence on men	E	Heidensohn 1985 Sjoberg and Gentry 2008 Loken and Zelenz 2018
	• Sexual desire/Erotomania	P
	• Sexual dysfunction	P
Naiveté Frame	• Illusion	E	Talbot 2000 Nacos 2005 Loken and Zelenz 2018 Schmidt 2020
	• Seduction	E
Monster Frame	• Mental derangement	P	Gentry and Sjoberg 2015 Schmidt 2020

Abbreviations. E = Exculpation Strategy, P = Pathologization Strategy.