Nadia Al-Dayel
Sexual Suppression and Political Agency:
evoking a woman's support for the Islamic State
Published in Studies in Conflict & Terrorism
Advanced online copy
Female empowerment is contradictory to authoritative groups like the Islamic State. This assumption, however, has falsely colored our understanding of the recruitment appeal of contemporary, violent organizations. New methods are necessary to evaluate how to counteract this appeal. This article provides a novel method to address the gender dynamics of emerging terrorist organizations.
Analyzing the female "voice" of the Islamic State, Al-Dayel investigates propaganda aimed at the "Western" women, explaining how rationales of liberating oneself from patriarchal structures and challenging authority are a constant feature that indicate a new strategy of terrorist recruitment.
This article illuminates how the Islamic State provokes a sense of political agency, erupting through a challenge of power relations and authority recognition in both the citizen's awareness of the "international" conflict arena and the hegemonic patriarchal structure of the "domestic" realm.