Changing God’s Expectations and Women’s Consequent Behaviors – How ISIS Manipulates “Divine Commandments” to Influence Women’s Role in Jihad
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15664/jtr.1363Keywords:
Terrorist recruitment, ISIS propaganda, women and ISIS, women in jihadAbstract
Given the evidence pointing to religiosity and gender as strong predictors of risk aversion, the recruitment of women into extremist organizations seems contradictory. This article is intended to help solve the puzzle of female behavior in terrorist groups by adding some nuance to the discussion: it is not religiosity itself that influences people’s willingness to take risks, but their perception of god’s expectations about them. This is illustrated here with an analysis of ISIS’s magazine Dar al-Islam and the evolution of their messages, from portraying a god that wants submission to a god that needs women’s active participation in battle.
Published
2017-10-12
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