By Emily Moran

In recent years, there has been an increase in women’s involvement in terrorist organizations. This has also caused a spike in the media attention surrounding women joining terrorist organizations, and specifically, the Islamic State. The media’s attention largely surrounds Western women who join the Islamic State, which is the focus of most of the research published on this topic. There are many reasons why Western Women join the Islamic State, but there is no clear standard for why women and others from the West choose to join the Islamic State. This is a similar issue to the topic of radicalization; there is no clear, studied set of standards to define why someone joins any terrorist organization or commits a terrorist act. The research exploring why women join the Islamic State is vast, and there are many different reasons that researchers cite for these decisions. Although it is difficult to define specific reasons for why women join the Islamic State, it is clear that women must be studied as a distinct category from the overall population of the Islamic State. It must be noted that women may have largely different reasons for joining than the stereotypical narratives portrayed by Western media sources. Western media describes these women as oppressed and depict that they are manipulated into joining by their husbands, or that they want to join because they want to marry an Islamic State fighter. Once, the stereotype surrounding why women join the Islamic State is disrupted, then there can be analysis into some reasons why women choose to join.

One of these reasons potentially may be the search for a new identity. This is a common theme seen in many womens’ narrative on joining the Islamic State. Many women want a place where they are free from Islamophobia, sexism, restrictive laws, and the lack of representation that they face in Western countries. This is why it is vital to study women separately as a distinct group. It is also important to study how the Islamic State portrays itself as an organization that empowers women, and how they use stories of these women to make them sound better and entice more women to join. It is imperative to fill this gap in existing research and can be argued that if research can pinpoint and combat the narratives that encourage women to join the Islamic State, their involvement could be prevented.

Bibliography

• Apel, Dora. “Torture Culture: Lynching Photographs and the Images of Abu Ghraib.” Art Journal 64, no. 2 (2005): 88–100. https://doi.org/10.2307/20068386

• Bakker, Edwin, and Seran de Leede. “European Female Jihadists in Syria:: Exploring an Under-Researched Topic.” International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, 2015. JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep17475

• Beyond Mothers, Monsters, Whores. Accessed May 9, 2020. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/B/bo22555403.html

• Bloom, Mia. Bombshell: Women and Terrorism. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46nq58

• Bloom, Mia. “Death Becomes Her: The Changing Nature of Women’s Role in Terror.” Georgetown Journal of International Affairs 11 (n.d.)

• E-International Relations. “Gender and Countering Islamic State Radicalisation.” Accessed May 9, 2020. https://www.e-ir.info/2016/02/18/gender-and-countering-islamic-state-radicalisation/

• Hamilton, Brad. “Inside One Man’s Secret Mission to Rescue Jihadi Brides from ISIS.” New York Post (blog), March 14, 2020. https://nypost.com/2020/03/14/inside-one-mans-secret-mission-to-rescue-jihadi-brides-from-isis/

• Henty, Pip, and Beth Eggleston. “Mothers, Mercenaries and Mediators: Women Providing Answers to the Questions We Forgot to Ask.” Security Challenges 14, no. 2 (2018): 106–23.

• Hussein, Shakira. From Victims to Suspects: Muslim Women Since 9/11. Yale University Press, 2019. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvbnm3kw

• Ingram, Kiriloi M. “IS’s Appeal to Western Women:: Policy Implications.” International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, 2017. JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep17481

• Khelghat-Doost, Hamoon. “The Evolving Role of Women in Jihad: The Evolving Role of Women in Jihad.” Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses 8, no. 9 (2016): 21–26.

• Knight, Sam. “If Shamima Begum, the ISIS Bride, Is No Longer British, What Does Citizenship Mean?” The New Yorker. Accessed May 9, 2020. https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-uk/if-shamima-begum-the-isis-bride-is-no-longer-british-what-does-citizenship-mean

• Mietz, Eric. “WHAT ABOUT THE WOMEN?: Understanding and Addressing the Problem of ISIS Female Recruitment in the Western Balkans.” Belgrade Centre for Security Policy, 2016. JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep04790

• Moaveni, Azadeh. “‘Jihadi Bride’ Doesn’t Fit: We Need a New Language for Female Militants | Azadeh Moaveni.” The Guardian, February 26, 2019, sec. Opinion. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/26/jihadi-bride-shamima-begum-female-militants

• Patel, Sofia. “WOMEN OF THE ISLAMIC STATE.” The Sultanate of Women. Australian Strategic Policy Institute, 2017. JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep04246.6

• Patel, Sofia, and Jacqueline Westermann. “Women and Islamic-State Terrorism: An Assessment of How Gender Perspectives Are Integrated in Countering Violent Extremism Policy and Practices.” Security Challenges 14, no. 2 (2018): 53–83.

• Perešin, Anita. “Why Women from the West Are Joining ISIS.” International Annals of Criminology 56, no. 1–2 (November 2018): 32–42. https://doi.org/10.1017/cri.2018.19

• Pin-Fat, Véronique, and Maria Stern. “The Scripting of Private Jessica Lynch: Biopolitics, Gender, and the ‘Feminization’ of the U.S. Military.” Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 30, no. 1 (2005): 25–53.

• France 24. “Reporters - Exclusive: Rare Testimony from Jihadi Brides in Syria as IS Group ‘caliphate’ Crumbles,” March 8, 2019. https://www.france24.com/en/20190308-exclusive-video-reporters-plus-jihadi-brides-wives-syria-islamic-state-group

• Reporters, Telegraph. “Jihadi Brides Could Avoid Prosecution Because of a Legal Loophole, Terror Watchdog Warns.” The Telegraph, March 19, 2020. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/03/19/jihadi-brides-could-avoid-prosecution-legal-loophole-terror/

• Saripi, Nur Irfani Binte. “A Greater Need for Rehabilitation: A Greater Need for Rehabilitation.” Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses 7, no. 3 (2015): 26–31.

• Sjoberg, Laura, and Caron E. Gentry. “It’s Complicated: Looking Closely at Women in Violent Extremism.” Georgetown Journal of International Affairs 17, no. 2 (2016): 23–30.

• Spencer, Amanda N. “The Hidden Face of Terrorism: An Analysis of the Women in Islamic State.” Journal of Strategic Security 9, no. 3 (2016): 74–98.

• Tétreault, Mary Ann. “The Sexual Politics of Abu Ghraib: Hegemony, Spectacle, and the Global War on Terror.” NWSA Journal 18, no. 3 (2006): 33–50.

• POLITICO. “The Women of ISIL,” December 7, 2015. https://www.politico.eu/article/the-women-of-isil-female-suicide-bomber-terrorism/

• The Conversationalist. “When Britain Revoked a Jihadi Bride’s Citizenship, They Fell for ISIS Propaganda,” March 1, 2019. https://conversationalist.org/2019/03/01/when-britain-revoked-isis-bride-shamima-begums-citizenship-they-fell-right-into-the-isis-propaganda-trap/