Female islamic state recruits: Migration and values, needs and images
Karimova G. Seydumanov S. Kutsenko O.
2021CA and C Press AB
Central Asia and the Caucasus
2021#22Issue 1118 - 132 pp.
T his paper presents the results of a study of the phenomenon of female migration from abroad to the IS and their return. This phenomenon emerges be-cause the organization and female recruits had to satisfy each other’s needs. A theo-retical model that allows to track the formation of values and needs of female IS recruits has been developed. This model re-flects the connections between various factors and their cumulative influence on the formation of values and needs of female re-cruits. The feasibility of using value-oriented and systems approaches in the study is de-termined by the specifics of Islamic radical 1 groups, including the IS, as self-regulating systems with significant potential for mobili-zation and mobility, as well as the division and restoration of functional structures. Also, the characteristic features of female migration to the IS were identified in con-junction with a system of binary oppositions that form the habitus of radical monotheism. The article contains the results of com-prehensive content analysis of 189 texts presented on Russian-language online resourc-es and devoted to the propaganda, recruit-ment and migration of female IS recruits. The geography of the study includes 25 states from 5 regions (Central Asia, the Middle East, the Caucasus, Europe and separately the Western Balkans). We have analyzed 167 articles related to the IS and similar groups (2013-2020), and 22 articles connected to terrorist groups (2003-2012). Out of these, 56 articles contain interview excerpts and com-plete interviews with IS volunteer recruits, both male and female, as well as with their family members and officials. The results of the study allowed to de-termine the relationship between the values and needs of female recruits and the organization itself, as well as between military and political processes and the formation of images of a passionary and victimized woman in the IS. The periods of distribution of these images coincide with two differently directed waves of migration of female recruits: to the ranks of the organization (2013-2016) and back (2016-the present time). The first wave of migration satisfied the organization’s need to increase the number of highly moti-vated members, and the second one meets the need to preserve and relocate the IS contingent to other regions. This work highlights the previously un-explored aspects of the migration of female IS recruits. The results of the study can be applied in planning and improving the activi-ties of state and civil structures aimed at re-ideologizing and rehabilitating the returning female IS recruits.
Female IS images , Female IS migration , Female IS recruit , Passionary , Values and needs , Victim
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L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan
National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Higher School of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine
L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University
National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
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