Representing Women and Terrorist Violence. A feminist interrogation of female agency in the gendered discourse of the public.

Abstract

Despite the growing number of women travelling to join IS,the contributions of women to IS and other terrorist organisations are largely obscured. As terrorism and violence are highly gendered concepts, the narratives of women involved in terrorist organisations prove to be problematic in both media and scholarly work.This research focusses on how stereotypes of women involved in terrorism as victims relate to women’s individual experiences of agency and how this relationship can be interpreted. Investigating the representations of women engaging in terrorism can uncover the gendered structures that affect the dominant perceptions of women in the public sphere. This thesis tries to uncover the narratives that are largely obscured by the patriarchal representations that deny women’s agency and serves to counter the strict dichotomy between agents and victims. Failing to acknowledge the differences between individual women makes it impossible to get a full understanding of women’s actions and the social structures that confine them to stereotypical feminine roles. This research will therefore highlight the political agency of women, raise awareness of their individual and diverse experiences and challenge the traditional notions of the public/private split.