Female sympathisers of ISIS as Muhajirahs in ISIS-affiliated media
List of Authors
  • Surinderpal Kaur , Ungku Khairunnisa Ungku Mohd Nordin

Keyword
  • Gender, terrorism, ISIS, critical discourse analysis, ISIS-affiliated media,

Abstract
  • International media have reported on the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS), an international terrorist organisation based in Syria and Iraq since 2014. Women, often young and unmarried, were leaving their homes and families to sneak into Syria and join ISIS, according to reports in the international media (Neumann, 2015). Sjoberg &Gentry (2011) assert that the media's portrayal of female terrorists and the factors that encourage women to support terrorist organisations have not been sufficiently investigated. This study examines the discursive strategies employed by ISIS-affiliated media outlets to represent female sympathisers as muhajirahs. Using Critical Discourse Analysis – the Discourse Historical Approach (Resigl, 2017), this paper will analyse the diverse and often contested ways in which the Self versus Other (Wodak, 2009) schemata is prominent in the representations of ISIS female sympathisers. The data were taken from ISIS-affiliated media, including the Manifesto from the Al Khannssa Brigade and six Dabiq magazines. This paper will focus on referential, predicational and argumentation strategies (topoi) in the selected ISIS-affiliated media. This paper intends to pave the way for an examination of gender and terrorism that explores the complexities of representations by examining gender through multiple lenses.

Reference
  • 1. Al Hayat Media Center, C. (2015f, November 18). Dabiq 12: Just terror. Quilliam Foundation. https://www.quilliamfoundation.org
    2. Al Hayat Media Center. (2015a, February 12). Dabiq 7:From hypocrisy to apostasy: The extinction of the Grayzon. Quilliam Foundation. https://www.quilliamfoundation.org
    3. Al Hayat Media Center. (2015b, March 30). Dabiq 8: Shari'ah alone will rule Africa. Quilliam Foundation. https://www.quilliamfoundation.org
    4. Al Hayat Media Center. (2015c, May 21). Dabiq 9: They plot and Allah plots. Quilliam Foundation. https://www.quilliamfoundation.org
    5. Al Hayat Media Center. (2015d, July 13). Dabiq 10: The law of Allah or the laws of men. Quilliam Foundation. https://www.quilliamfoundation.org
    6. Al Hayat Media Center. (2015e, August 9). Dabiq 11: From the battles of Al-Ahzāb to the war of coalitions. Quilliam Foundation. https://www.quilliamfoundation.org
    7. Barrett, R. (2017). Beyond the caliphate:Foreign fighters and the threat of returnee. https://thesoufancenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Beyond-the-Caliphate-Foreign-Fighters-and-the-Threat-of-Returnees-TSC-Report-October-2017-v3.pdf
    8. Biswas, B., and Deylami, S. (2019). Radicalizing female empowerment: Gender, agency, and affective appeals in Islamic State Propaganda. Small Wars & Insurgencies, 30(6–7), 1193–1213. https://doi.org/10.1080/09592318.2019.1649831.
    9. Bloom, M., & Lokmanoglu. A. (2020). From pawn to knights: The changing role of women’s agency in terrorism?.Studies in Conflict & Terrorism. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2020.1759263.
    10. Brown, K. E. (2016, February 18). Gender and Countering Islamic State Radicalisation.E-International Relations. http://www.e-ir.info/2016/02/18/gender-and-countering-islamic-state-radicalisation/
    11. Chilton, P. (2004). Analysing political discourse: Theory and practice. Routledge.
    12. Cook, J., & Vale, G. (2018). From Daesh to diaspora: Tracing the women and minors. International Center for the Study of Radicalization. King’s College
    13. Cunningham, K. J. (2003). Cross-regional trends in female terrorism. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 26(3), 171–195. https://doi.org/10.1080/10576100390211419
    14. De Leede, S. (2018). Western women supporting IS/Daesh in Syria and Iraq–An exploration of their motivations.International Annals of Criminology,56(1-2), 43–54. https://doi.org/10.1017/cri.2018.9
    15. Elshtain, J. B. (1995). Feminist Themes and International Relations (1991). In J. Der Derian (Ed.), International Theory (pp. 340–360). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-23773-9_13
    16. Fairclough, N. (1995). Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language.Longman.Hall, S. (1989). Cultural identity and cinematic representation. Journal of Cinema and Media, 36, 68–81. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44111666
    17. Khelghat-Doost, H. (2017). Women of the caliphate: The mechanism for women’s incorporation into the Islamic State (IS). Perspectives on Terrorism,11(1), 17–25.
    18. Klausen, J. (2015). Tweeting the Jihad: Social media networks of Western foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 38(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2014.974948
    19. Lahoud, N. (2018). Empowerment or subjugation: An analysis of ISIL’s gendered messaging. UN Women. https://arabstates.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Field%20Office%20Arab%20States/Attachments/Publications/Lahoud-Fin-Web-rev.pdf
    20. Martini, A. (2018). Making women terrorists into “Jihadi brides”: An analysis of media narratives on women joining ISIS. Critical Studies on Terrorism,11(3), 458–477. https://doi.org/10.1080/17539153.2018.1448204
    21. Masmuhah, M., Machmudi, Y., & Syauqillah, M. (2019). ISIS and the Shift in Terrorism Movement in Indonesia (2014-2018). Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Strategic and Global Studies. https://doi.org/10.4108/eai.24-10-2018.228966
    22. Neumann, P. R. (2015, September 22). Defectors: ISIS is killing Muslims, not protecting them. https://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/21/opinions/isis-defectors-neumann-amanpour/.
    23. Qazi, F. (2018). Invisible martyrs: Inside the secret world of female Islamic radicals. Behrett Kohler Publisher.
    24. Reisigl, M., & Wodak, R. (2016). The discourse-historical approach (DHA). In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of Critical Discourse Studies (3rd ed., pp. 87–122). Sage.
    25. Schmidt, S. (2014). (Re-) framing the Arab/Muslim: mediating orientalism in contemporary Arab American life writing. Transcript Verlag. https://doi.org/10.14361/transcript.9783839429150
    26. Sjoberg, L. & Gentry, C. (2007). Mothers, monsters, whores: Women’s violence in global politics. Zed Books
    27. Sjoberg, L. & Gentry, C. E. (Eds.). (2011). Women, gender, and terrorism. University of Georgia Press.
    28. Speckhard, A., & Ellenberg, M. D. (2020). ISIS in their own words. Journal of Strategic Security, 13(1), 82-127. https://doi.org/10.5038/1944-0472.13.1.1791
    29. Tarras-Wahlberg, L. (2017). Seven promises of ISIS to its female recruits. http://www.icsve.org/research-reports/seven-promises-of-isis-to-its-femalerecruits/
    30. Termeer, A., & Duyvesteyn, I. (2022). The inclusion of women in jihad: Gendered practices of legitimation in Islamic State recruitment propaganda.Critical Studies on Terrorism,15(2), 463–483. https://doi.org/10.1080/17539153.2022.2038825
    31. Toguslu, E. (2019). Caliphate, hijrah and martyrdom as performative narrative in ISIS Dabiq magazine. Politics, Religion & Ideology, 20(1), 94-120.
    32. van Dijk, T. A. (1984). Prejudice in discourse: An analysis of ethnic prejudice in cognition and conversation. John Benjamins Publishing.
    33. van Dijk, T. A. (2008). Discourse and context: A sociocognitive approach. Cambridge University Press.
    34. van Leeuwen, T. (1996). The representation of social actors in discourse. In C. R. Caldas Coulthard & M. Coulthard (Eds.), Texts and Practices: Readings in Critical Discourse Analysis(pp. 32–70). Routledge.
    35. Wagemakers, J. (2015). The concept of Bayʻa in the Islamic State’s ideology. Perspectives on Terrorism, 9(4), 98–106. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26297418
    36. Winter, C. (2015). The virtual caliphate: Understanding Islamic State's Propaganda strategy. Quilliam Foundation. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/30671634.pdf
    37. Winter, C. (2015, April 2015). Women of the Islamic State: A manifesto on women by the Al-Khansaa Brigade. https://www.quilliamfoundation.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/publications/free/women-of-the-Islamic-state3.pdf
    38. Wodak, R. (2009). The discourse of politics in action: Politics as usual. Springer.