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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

From our sisters/to our sisters

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

| University of Granada

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 (2008) and Reyes (2011). The analysis will unveil the ideal type of woman any Muslim female joining the armed group should aspire to become.

Keywords: Islamic State (IS), women, propaganda, indoctrination, legitimation strategies
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
Published online: 21 July 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.21055.agu
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