Female ISIS Returnees: Beyond the Victim–Perpetrator Divide

The return of women from conflict zones in Syria has sparked intense debate among legal professionals and academics. Are these women primarily victims of manipulation and coercion, or do some play active roles in violent extremism? Understanding their complex experiences is essential for developing fair legal responses and effective reintegration strategies.

The involvement of women in terrorism and foreign conflict is not a new phenomenon. Across history, women have participated in political violence, insurgencies, and extremist movements in a variety of operational and ideological capacities. Female members of organisations such as the Irish Republican Army (IRA), the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Red Army Faction, Chechen separatist groups, and Palestinian militant organisations have historically engaged in recruitment, intelligence gathering, propaganda, logistics, and direct acts of violence, including suicide attacks (Ness, 2005; Bloom, 2011). In many cases, women’s participation emerged during periods of social upheaval, political repression, war, or identity-based conflict.

The academic literature examining women involved in foreign conflicts, particularly those affiliated with ISIS, has undergone a marked conceptual shift. Early analyses tended to frame women as passive actors, coerced, manipulated, or primarily occupying domestic roles. However, more recent peer-reviewed research demonstrates that women within ISIS occupied diverse and, at times, operationally significant roles, including recruitment, propaganda dissemination, logistical support, enforcement within female morality brigades (e.g., Al-Khansaa), and, in some instances, direct facilitation of violence (Margolin, 2024; Cook & Vale, 2018).

A consistent finding across the literature is that pathways into violent extremism for women are multifactorial and often distinct from those observed in men. While ideological commitment remains relevant, studies emphasise the salience of psychosocial drivers such as identity instability, perceived marginalisation, trauma exposure, and a search for belonging and meaning (Pearson & Winterbotham, 2017; Saltman & Smith, 2015). Recruitment narratives targeting women were highly gendered, frequently invoking themes of sisterhood, moral purpose, romantic fulfilment, and participation in the construction of an idealised Islamic society (Pearson & Winterbotham, 2017).

ISIS’s strategic use of gender-specific propaganda has been widely documented. Unlike earlier jihadist organisations, ISIS actively encouraged female migration to conflict zones as part of its state-building project. Women were positioned as central to the reproduction and sustainability of the caliphate through roles in family formation, ideological transmission, and community governance (Cook & Vale, 2018). Online platforms played a critical role in this process, with social media facilitating tailored messaging that blended religious rhetoric with emotionally resonant narratives of empowerment, victimhood, and communal identity (Huey & Peladeau, 2019).

Importantly, contemporary scholarship increasingly rejects binary conceptualisations of women as either “victims” or “perpetrators.” Instead, the literature supports a continuum model in which women’s involvement reflects varying degrees of agency, coercion, grooming, and ideological internalisation (Ní Aoláin, 2016; Winterbotham et al., 2020). Some women travelled voluntarily with strong ideological conviction, while others were influenced by intimate partners, family dynamics, or exploitative recruitment tactics. This heterogeneity has significant implications for both risk assessment and legal application, particularly in forensic and counterterrorism contexts.

Emerging research has also focused on disengagement, rehabilitation, and reintegration. Evidence suggests that gender-responsive, trauma-informed interventions are more effective than purely punitive approaches, particularly for women with histories of victimisation, coercive control, or complex trauma (Ellis et al., 2023; Bunn, 2023). Such approaches typically integrate psychological treatment, social reintegration supports, identity reconstruction, and family-based interventions. The literature further highlights the intergenerational risks associated with children exposed to extremist environments, including developmental disruption, trauma-related psychopathology, and ideological conditioning (Ellis et al., 2023).

Despite these advances, significant methodological limitations remain. Reviews of terrorism research note an overreliance on secondary data, limited longitudinal studies, and insufficient gender-sensitive frameworks (Margolin, 2024). Consequently, scholars increasingly advocate for more nuanced, empirically grounded models that account for gender as a central analytic variable in understanding radicalisation, participation, and disengagement processes.

References

Bunn, M. (2023). Rehabilitation and reintegration of women and children associated with violent extremism. Global Security: Health, Science and Policy, 8(1), 1–12.

Cook, J., & Vale, G. (2018). From Daesh to diaspora: Tracing the women and minors of Islamic State. International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation.

Ellis, B. H., et al. (2023). Supporting the mental health of women and children returning from ISIS-affiliated contexts. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 36(2), 345–356.

Huey, L., & Peladeau, H. (2019). Cheering on the Jihad: An analysis of women’s participation in online pro-ISIS networks. Terrorism and Political Violence, 31(5), 1025–1043.

Margolin, D. (2024). Five decades of research on women and terrorism: A review and critique. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism. Advance online publication.

Ní Aoláin, F. (2016). The ‘war on terror’ and extremism: Assessing the relevance of a gender perspective. International Affairs, 92(2), 275–291.

Pearson, E., & Winterbotham, E. (2017). Women, gender and Daesh radicalisation: A milieu approach. RUSI Journal, 162(3), 60–72.

Saltman, E. M., & Smith, M. (2015). Till martyrdom do us part: Gender and the ISIS phenomenon. Institute for Strategic Dialogue.

Winterbotham, E., Pearson, E., & Gielen, A.-J. (2020). Assessing the role of gender in extremism and terrorism. Global Network on Extremism & Technology.