https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9657-3625
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ABSTRACT
This article locates Turkey in discussions of gender and violent extremism (VE), probes women’s diverse roles, motivations, and constraints for and against religious radicalization, and discusses the impact of sustainable patriarchy on their agency. Building on the findings of an extensive field study on women’s recruitment to ISIS and al-Nusra from Turkey, the article disproves women’s widely assumed passivity, demonstrates other roles as sympathizers, recruiters, and perpetrators, and explores potential push, pull, and enabling factors. It also reveals the hindering effects of patriarchy on women’s preventive roles and accentuates the empowerment of both women and women’s NGOs for an effective and gender-sensitive fight against VE.
Acknowledgements
The fieldwork and the output report cited in this article are parts of a larger project ‘Improving Effectiveness of Measures to Tackle the Foreign Terrorist Fighters and Radicalization Threat’ (icare4all). We cordially thank our project assistant Eyyüp Baytok for his invaluable assistance during the fieldwork. We are also thankful to Prof. Birgül Demirtaş and Prof. Zuhal Yeşilyurt Gündüz, and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, which officially broke away from the organization in 2016 and eventually changed its name to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). In the article, we refer to the original name.
2 Most of the data assessed in this article is derived from the authors’ fieldwork and its output report. The article offers an original contribution by restructuring the primary data obtained from the field through a thematic discussion of sustainable patriarchy while addressing gender and violent extremism in Turkey.
3 Runyon and Peterson, Global Gender Issues, 2.
4 Ibid.
5 Walby, “Theorising Patriarchy.”
6 Enloe, The Big Push, 16.
7 Ibid.
8 Quoted in Bloom and Lokmanoglu, “From Pawn to Knights.”
9 Fink, Zeiger and Bhulai (eds.), A Man’s World?.
10 Bloom and Lokmanoglu, “From Pawn to Knights”.
11 See Davis, “Evolution of the Global Jihad”; Bloom, The Bombshell; and Van Knop, “The Female Jihad.”
12 Raghavan and Balasubramaniyan, “Evolving Role.”
13 Ibid., 205.
14 Gentry and Sjoberg, “Female terrorism,” 145.
15 Ibid., 151.
16 Jackson, “Framing British.”
17 Martini, “Making Women Terrorists,” 458–477.
18 Cook and Vale, From Daesh to ‘Diaspora’.
19 Cook and Vale, From Daesh to ‘Diaspora’ II.
20 Enloe, The Big Push, 131.
21 Brown, Gender, Religion, Extremism, 29.
22 Neumann, Countering Violent Extremism, 15.
23 UNESCO, “Preventing violent extremism.”
24 Neumann, Countering Violent Extremism, 15.
25 Brown, Gender, Religion, Extremism, 29.
26 Neumann, “The Trouble with Radicalization,” 874-875.
27 Schmid, “Radicalisation,” 23.
28 See Neumann, “The Trouble,” 874-875, and Borum, “Radicalization into Violent Extremism II,” 39.
29 Muhsin, “Understanding drivers,” 5.
30 Spencer, “The Hidden Face.”
31 Saltman and Frenett, “Female Radicalization,” 146-147.
32 Sjoberg and Wood, “People Not Pawns.”
33 Ibid.
34 Ibid.
35 Khalil and Zeuthan, Countering Violent Extremism, 9.
36 de Jonge Oudraat, “Preventing and Countering.”
37 UNSC Resolution 2242.
38 For further details, see Yavçan and Şen, Assessing the Role of Women.
39 See International Crisis Group, Calibrating the Response.
40 Ibid, and also footnote 2.
41 Ibid.
42 See Taştekin, Karanlık Çöktüğünde; Saymaz, Türkiye’de IŞİD; and Eroğlu, IŞİD Ağları.
43 Authors’ interview with the Bar Association, Adıyaman, November 30, 2018.
44 Ozdemir-Sarigil and Sarigil, “Who Is Patriarchal?,” 21.
45 Ibid., 23. Variations exist in sex, religiosity, cohort, and education.
46 Coşar and Yeğenoğlu, “New Grounds.”
47 Ayata and Göktengün, “Gender Politics,” 615.
48 World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap, 377.
49 Ayata and Göktengün, “Gender Politics,” 615.
50 Interview with a women’s NGO, Ankara, September 10, 2018.
51 Interview with a mother and a sister of ISIS fighters, Adana, December 18, 2018.
52 It is still the case as of late 2019 and early 2020 per International Crisis Group, Calibrating the Response.
53 Ibid.
54 Interview in Gaziantep, November 29, 2018.
55 Interview in Adana, December 18, 2018.
56 Interview in İstanbul, November 3, 2018.
57 Interview in İstanbul, November 2, 2018.
58 Interviews in Kilis and Gaziantep on November 28 and 29, 2018.
59 Interview with a Syrian refugee family in Kilis, November 28, 2018.
60 Interview in İstanbul, November 4, 2018.
61 Interview in Diyarbakır, December 2, 2018.
62 Ibid.
63 Correspondence with a women’s rights activist in İstanbul and a researcher in Diyarbakır on November 4 and December 1, 2018.
64 Interview in Adana, December 18, 2018.
65 Interview with a women’s right activist, İstanbul, November 4, 2018.
66 Interview with a security expert in Ankara, January 10, 2019.
67 Correspondence with a psychologist in Diyarbakır, December 1, 2018.
68 Correspondence with researchers in Diyarbakır, December 1, 2018.
69 Interview in Diyarbakır, December 1, 2018. Our interviewee also offers insights into the victimization of the Yazidi women and the insurmountable troubles of gender-based violence.
70 Interview with a women’s NGO member in Gaziantep, November 29, 2018.
71 Interviews with women’s NGOs in Gaziantep, Adıyaman and Diyarbakır during November 28, 30 and December 1, 2018.
72 Interview with a senior member of a faith-based humanitarian NGO, Diyarbakır, December 1, 2018.
73 Ibid.
74 Interviews with a lawyer and a Political Party youth wing member in Adana, December 18, 2018.
75 Interview in Diyarbakır with a faith-based NGO, December 2, 2018.
76 Interview in Adana, December 18, 2018.
77 Interview in Diyarbakır, December 2, 2018.
78 Interview in Adana, December 18, 2018.
79 Interviews with researchers and women’s NGOs in Diyarbakır, December 1-2, 2018.
80 Cockburn, “Militarism and War,” 105-115.
81 Interview in Adana, December 18, 2018.
82 Interview with a women’s rights activist from an Islamic Feminist platform, İstanbul, November 4, 2018.
83 Interview, İstanbul, November 2, 2018.
84 Interview with a lawyer, Adana, December 18, 2018.
85 Idris and Abdelaziz, “Women and countering violent extremism.”
86 Giscard d’Estaing, “Engaging women.”
87 OSCE, Women and Terrorist Radicalization.
88 Giscard d’Estaing, “Engaging women.”
89 Idris and Abdelaziz, “Women and countering violent extremism.”
90 UN Women, Women and Violent Radicalization, 16.
91 Interview in Adana, December 18, 2018.
92 Pratt and Richter-Devroe, “Critically Examining.”
93 Interview with a women’s NGO in Ankara, September 12, 2018.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Gülriz Şen
Gülriz Şen is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations at TOBB University of Economics and Technology in Turkey. She received her Ph.D. from Middle East Technical University (METU) and holds an MA in Conflict and Sustainable Peace Studies from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, where she studied as a Jean Monnet scholar. Her major academic interests comprise Middle East politics with a particular focus on the Persian Gulf and the Levant, gender in global politics, and the historical sociology of International Relations. She published the Turkish translation of her award-winning Ph.D. thesis on Iran’s post-revolutionary foreign policy toward the United States with METU Press in 2016. She has also authored articles and book chapters on various dimensions of Iran’s foreign policy and Middle East politics.
Başak Yavçan
Başak Yavçan is an Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations at TOBB University of Economics and Technology in Turkey. She is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher in Migration Governance at the Hugo Observatory, University of Liège. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. Her research focuses on inter-group relations and public opinion regarding refugee integration, the impact of immigration attitudes on Euroscepticism, immigrant acculturation attitudes, and the impact of media framing on public opinion. Lately, she has been working on the integration of Syrian refugees in Turkey, with a particular focus on inter-group attitudes, institutional trust, radicalization, and the effectiveness of local and national policies and interventions in promoting cohesion. She has conducted field research in various countries as part of national and international grant schemes, using both quantitative and qualitative methods.