Cover not available

Article published In: The Discourse of Terrorism
Edited by Encarnación Hidalgo-Tenorio and Juan L. Castro
[Pragmatics and Society 13:3] 2022
► pp. 453–476

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

From our sisters/to our sisters

The discursive construction of ideal womanhood in the official magazines of the Islamic State

 | University of Granada
Published online: 21 July 2022
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.21055.agu
Abstract
Since the proclamation of the Caliphate in 2014, an unprecedented number of women have fled to Syria to join the Islamic State (IS). This fact, a matter of national security for many countries, has spotlighted the two major official propaganda magazines of the organisation, Dabiq and Rumiyah, since both publications are considered potential recruitment tools. This paper studies the sections addressed to women in the aforementioned magazines to find out: (a) the roles of women within IS as depicted by the two official propaganda channels and (b) the legitimation strategies used by the organisation to justify their claims. To reach these aims, I will study the data considering the legitimation models proposed by van Leeuwen, Theo. 2008. New Tools for Critical Discourse Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar and Reyes, Antonio. 2011. “Strategies of legitimation in political discourse: From words to actions.” Discourse & Society 22 (6): 781–807. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar. The analysis will unveil the ideal type of woman any Muslim female joining the armed group should aspire to become.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Women joining IS: The female Jihad
    • 2.2Women in IS propaganda
  • 3.Theoretical framework and methodology
    • 3.1The narrative of legitimation
    • 3.2Corpus
    • 3.3Research questions
  • 4.Data analysis
    • 4.1Legitimation by authority
      • 4.1.1Quoting the sacred texts (Quran, Hadiths) and referring to Sharia Law
      • 4.1.2Mention of role models
    • 4.2Legitimation through emotions: Fear
    • 4.3Legitimation through altruism: The community
    • 4.4Legitimation through moral evaluation: The ideal of womanhood in IS
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (40)
References
Azzam Dhiab-Hassan, Miguel Ángel Benítez-Castro & Encarnación Hidalgo-Tenorio. 2018. Nutcracker: The JIHAD Corpus. University of Granada.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Benítez-Castro, Miguel Ángel and Encarnación Hidalgo-Tenorio. 2019. “Rethinking Martin & White’s affect taxonomy. A psychologically-inspired approach to the linguistic expression of emotion.” In Emotion in Discourse, ed. by J. Lachlan Mackenzie, and Laura Alba-Juez, 301–331. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boutz, Jennifer, Claudia Brugman, and Alia Lancaster. 2017. “Quoting the Prophet Communicative Functions of Hadith Quotation in Web-Based Arabic Discourse.” Journal of Arab and Muslim and Media Research 10 (1): 3–23. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boutz, Jennifer, Hannah Benninger, and Alia Lancaster. 2019. “Exploiting the Prophet’s Authority: How Islamic State Propaganda Uses Hadith Quotation to Assert Legitimacy.” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 42 (11): 972–996. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bunzel, Cole. 2015. “From paper state to Caliphate: The ideology of the Islamic State.” The Brookings Project on U.S Relations with the Islamic World. Analysis Paper, 19. Retrieved March 23, 2020 from [URL]
Chilton, Paul. 2004. Analysing Political Discourse: Theory and Practice. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cohen, Katie, and Lisa Kaati. 2018. Digital Jihad. Propaganda and the Islamic State. Department of Justice of Sweden. Retrieved January 24, 2020 from [URL]
Cottee, Simon. 2017. “‘What ISIS Really Wants’ Revisited: Religion Matters in Jihadist Violence, But How?” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 40 (6): 439–454. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dagli, Caner K., “The Phony Islam of ISIS.” The Atlantic, February 2015. Retrieved October 17, 2020 from [URL]
Fairclough, Norman. 2003. Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Farwell James, P. 2014. “The Media Strategy of ISIS.” Survival 56 (6): 49–55. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gartenstein-Ross, Daveed, Nathaniel Barr, and Bridget Moreng. 2016. The Islamic State’s Global Propaganda Strategy. The Hague: International Centre for Counter-Terrorism. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ghanem-Yazbeck, Dalia. The Female Face of Jihadism. 2016. EuroMeSCo, IEMed. Retrieved March 14, 2021 from [URL]
Ingram, Kiriloi M. 2016. “More than ‘Jihadi Brides’ and ‘Eye Candy’: How Dabiq appeals to Western women.” The Hague: International Centre for Counter-terrorism. Retrieved October 14, 2020 from [URL]
Jasko, Katarzyna, Arie W. Kruglanski, Ahmad Saiful Rijal Bin Hassan, and Rohan Gunaratna. 2018. “ISIS: Its History, Ideology, and Psychology.” In Handbook of Contemporary Islam and Muslim Lives, ed. by M. Woodward and R. Lukens-Bull, 1–25. Cham: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kneip, Katharina. 2016. “Female Jihad. Women in the ISIS.” Politikon. IAPSS Political Science Journal 291: 88–106. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lahoud, Nelly. 2014. The Neglected Sex: The Jihadis’ Exclusion of Women From Jihad, Terrorism and Political Violence, 26 (5), 780–802, Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, Robin. 1973. “Language and Woman’s Place.” Language in Society 21: 45–80. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marone, Francesco (ed.) 2019. Digital Jihad: Online Communication and Violent Extremism. Instituto per gli studi di Politica Internazionale. Retrieved January 18, 2020 from [URL]
Martín-Rojo, Luisa, and Teun A. van Dijk. 1997. “There was a problem and it was solved!”: Legitimating the expulsion of ‘illegal’ migrants in Spanish parliamentary discourse.” Discourse & Society 8 (4): 523–566. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McCants, William and Sohaira Siddiqui. 2015. “Experts Weigh In (Part 2): How Does ISIS Approach Islamic Scripture?.” Brookings Institution. Retrieved March 15, 2021 from [URL]
Milton, Daniel. 2016. Communication Breakdown: Unraveling the Islamic State’s Media Efforts. Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. Retrieved November 20, 2019 from [URL]
Pelletier, Ian R., Leif Lundmark, Rachel Gardner, Gina Scott Ligon, and Ramazon Kilinc. 2016. “Why ISIS’s Message Resonates: Leveraging Islam, Sociopolitical Catalysts, and Adaptive Messaging.” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 39 (10): 1–66. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Perešin, Anita. 2015. “Fatal Attraction: Western Muslimas and ISIS”. Perspectives on Terrorism 9 (3): 21–38. Retrieved March 15, 2021 from [URL]
Perry, Samuel P., and Jerry Mark Long. 2016. “‘Why Would Anyone Sell Paradise?’: The Islamic State in Iraq and the Making of a Martyr.” Southern Communication Journal 81 (1): 1–17. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reyes, Antonio. 2011. “Strategies of legitimation in political discourse: From words to actions.” Discourse & Society 22 (6): 781–807. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Saltman, Erin. M., and Melanie Smith. “Till Martyrdom do us part. Gender and the ISIS Phenomenom.” Institute for Strategic Dialogue. 2015. [URL]
Sunderland, Jane. 2004. Gendered Discourses. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tziarras, Zenonas. 2017. “Islamic Caliphate: A Quasi-State, a Global Security Threat.” Journal of Applied Security Research, 12 (1): 96–116. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Leeuwen, Theo. 2008. New Tools for Critical Discourse Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Von Knop, Katharina. 2007. The female Jihad: Al Qaeda’s women. Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 30(5): 397–414. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wignell, Peter, Sabine Tan, Kay L. O’Halloran, and Rebecca Lange. 2017. “A Mixed Methods Empirical Examination of Changes in Emphasis and Style in the Extremist Magazines Dabiq and Rumiyah.” Perspectives on Terrorism, 11 (2): 2–21.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Winter, Charlie. 2015. The Virtual “Caliphate”: Understanding Islamic State’s Propaganda Strategy. Quilliam Foundation. Retrieved October 29, 2020 from [URL]
. 2017. ICSR insight: The ISIS Propaganda Decline. London: ICSR.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2019. Researching jihadist propaganda: Access, interpretation and trauma. Resolve Network. Retrieved March 14, 2021 from [URL].
. 2020. “Redefining propaganda: The media strategy of the Islamic State.” RUSI Journal. Retrieved March 14, 2021 from [URL].
Wodak, Ruth. 2001. “The discourse-historical approach.” In Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis, ed. by Ruth Wodak and Michael Meyer, 63–94. London: SAGE.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2002. “Discourse and politics: The rhetoric of exclusion.” In The Haider Phenomenon in Austria, ed. by Ruth Wodak and Anton Pelinka, 33–60. New Brunswick, N.J. &London: Transaction.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wood, Graeme. “What ISIS really wants”, The Atlantic, March, 2015. Retrieved October 16 from What ISIS Really Wants – The AtlanticGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zakaria, Rafia. 2015. “Women and Islamic Militancy.” Dissent Magazine 62 (1): 118–125. Philadelphia: The University of Pennsylvania Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Lin, Yuting
2024. Correcting the scientific record. Pragmatics and Society 15:4 ► pp. 532 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 30 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue