Biopolitics, Gender Performativity, and Legal Rationality in Female Radicalization
Abstract: In recent years, female participation in jihadist movements has attracted growing academic, political, and media attention. Traditionally portrayed as victims or passive instruments, women have in fact played complex and strategic roles within organizations such as the Islamic State, contributing to propaganda, recruitment, and ideological legitimation. This article examines female radicalization through an interdisciplinary perspective, integrating gender studies, the sociology of radicalization, and biopolitical theory. It explores the historical genealogy of women’s participation, the debate surrounding the concept of jihad al-nikah, and the psychosocial dynamics that motivate adherence. Particular attention is devoted to women’s active role in producing emotional narratives and relational recruitment, as well as to the construction of a counter-narrative that distinguishes between politico-militant jihadism and the Muslim religion. The analysis demonstrates how women operate as situated agents, modulating their participation within structural and cultural constraints. The theoretical contribution of the article lies in highlighting the complexity of female radicalization, offering conceptual tools useful for future empirical research and for prevention and deradicalization strategies sensitive to the gender dimension.
Keywords: #FemaleRadicalization #Jihadism #SituatedAgency #Biopolitics #DigitalPropaganda #JihadAlNikah #GenderAndSecurity #Deradicalization #IslamAndPolitics #ElhemBeddouda #EthicaSocietas #EthicaSocietasJournal #ScientificJournal #HumanSciences #SocialSciences #EthicaSocietasUPLI #ItalianLocalPoliceUnion
Elhem Beddouda, professional educator with a degree in Sciences of Education and Training Processes from the University of Parma, with a thesis entitled “Islam and the Educational Function. Perspectives on Religious Assistance in Prison”. She is currently enrolled in the degree programme “Global Studies for Sustainable Local and International Development and Cooperation” at the same university.
Genealogy of Female Participation and the Transformation of the Body into a Political Device
Over the past two decades, female participation in jihadist movements has gained increasing centrality in academic and institutional debate. Empirical studies demonstrate that women are not merely passive subjects but actively engage in propaganda, recruitment, and ideological legitimation (Cook, 2019; Khelghat-Doost, 2018). Such transformation requires a genealogical reading. Following Foucault (1976), the body is not merely a biological reality but a surface upon which power is inscribed. Within the context of the Islamic State, the female body becomes a biopolitical device oriented toward reproducing the political project of the “Caliphate”: motherhood and marriage assume strategic functions in ensuring the organization’s generational and symbolic continuity.
The institutionalization of the al-Khansaa brigade represents an emblematic example of this rationalization of the female role (Zelin, 2016). In this framework, female subjectivity is shaped within a logic of discipline and production of life, consistent with the Foucauldian definition of biopolitics as the management of populations (Foucault, 1976).
Performativity, Situated Agency, and Identity Production
Integrating Judith Butler’s theory of performativity allows us to move beyond deterministic interpretations. According to Butler (1990), gender is not an essence but a reiterated and performative act. In contemporary jihadism, femininity is performed through narratives of purity, sacrifice, and heroic motherhood. Yet such performativity is not pure imposition: women exercise situated agency, modulating their participation within patriarchal and organizational constraints (Cook, 2019).
Radicalization can also be interpreted through Social Identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) and models of identity fusion, in which individual identity merges with collective identity, producing emotional cohesion and a readiness for sacrifice (Khelghat-Doost, 2018). Adherence is therefore not exclusively coercive, but the outcome of a process of symbolic recognition.
Sacrificial Eroticism, Transgression, and Symbolic Dimension
Incorporating Georges Bataille’s thought enables a deeper understanding of the symbolic dimension of militancy. For Bataille (1957), eroticism is the “approval of life up to the point of death,” an experience of transgression that dissolves individuality. Within jihadism, the sacralization of martyrdom produces a form of symbolic eroticization of death, where body and sacrifice become moments of collective transcendence. The promise of redemption through death reproduces a logic of excess and unproductive expenditure, akin to that described in La part maudite (Bataille, 1949). Although this dimension does not exhaust female radicalization, it contributes to explaining the symbolic intensity of adherence.
Bare Life, State of Exception, and Law
The Agambenian approach offers further theoretical depth. In Homo Sacer, Agamben (1995) describes bare life as existence reduced to pure biological being, exposed to sovereign power within a state of exception. Women in territories controlled by the Islamic State oscillate between a valorized reproductive function and extreme vulnerability. Their lives may be simultaneously sacralized and rendered sacrificial, inscribed within a parallel legal order founded upon a declared and permanent state of exception.
From a legal perspective, the phenomenon falls within the framework of counterterrorism legislation and the repression of foreign fighters. At the international level, United Nations Security Council Resolution 2178 (2014) imposes obligations on states to prevent recruitment and the financing of terrorism. At the European level, Directive (EU) 2017/541 criminalizes travel for terrorist purposes and participation in terrorist organizations. Within the Italian legal system, Articles 270-bis and 270-quinquies of the Penal Code punish association with terrorist purposes and training for terrorist activities. Female participation does not constitute an automatic mitigating factor; jurisprudence tends to assess the degree of awareness and causal contribution to the associative project.
Jihad al-Nikah and Discursive Construction
The so-called jihad al-nikah, widely circulated in media discourse, finds no codification in classical Islamic law (Kneip, 2017). Its centrality appears to be partly discursively constructed. Nevertheless, the instrumental use of sexuality as a mobilization device highlights a biopolitical dimension consistent with Foucault’s analysis of the management of bodies (Foucault, 1976). In certain post-revolutionary Syrian contexts, the term has been used to justify forms of sexual exploitation presented as religiously legitimate, despite lacking canonical juridical foundation.
Counter-Narrative and Public Policies
Distinguishing between politico-militant jihadism and Islam as a religion is essential to avoid generalized stigmatization (Mohamedou, 2017). Female radicalization does not derive from religious prescriptions per se, but from socio-political and identity dynamics. Effective prevention strategies must integrate digital literacy, psychosocial interventions, and gender-sensitive deradicalization programs. In this perspective, constructing counter-narratives grounded in empirical evidence responds to both sociological and legal imperatives.
Conclusion
Female participation in contemporary jihad represents a phenomenon that intertwines biopolitics, gender performativity, sacrificial symbolism, and international criminal law. Women emerge as situated agents within power dispositifs that discipline the body and produce political meanings. Moving beyond oversimplified readings allows for the development of more effective public policies and prevention strategies consistent with the complexity of the phenomenon.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Agamben, G. (1995). Homo sacer: Sovereign power and bare life. Einaudi.
Bataille, G. (1949). La part maudite. Minuit.
Bataille, G. (1957). L’érotisme. Minuit.
Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble. Routledge.
Cook, J. (2019). Women and jihad: The ISIS caliphate. Oxford University Press.
Foucault, M. (1976). La volonté de savoir. Gallimard.
Khelghat-Doost, H. (2018). Women of the Caliphate. Journal of Strategic Security, 11(4).
Kneip, K. (2017). Jihad al-Nikah revisited. Terrorism and Political Violence.
Mohamedou, M. M. O. (2017). A theory of ISIS. Pluto Press.
Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict.
Zelin, A. (2016). The Islamic State’s women. Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
LATEST 5 CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE SAME AUTHOR
ENLISTING TO BELONG, DYING TO FEEL NOTHING
LATEST 5 ARTICLES ON SOCIOLOGY
MILAN-CORTINA 2026: THE WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES AS A MODEL OF GENDER EQUALITY
DIGITAL VIOLENCE, BULLYING AND IDENTITY CRISIS IN THE CONNECTED ERA
LATEST 5 CONTRIBUTIONS
MILAN-CORTINA 2026: THE WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES AS A MODEL OF GENDER EQUALITY
MUSCAT AND THE IRANIAN NUCLEAR DOSSIER
Ethica Societas is a free, non-profit review published by a social cooperative non-profit organization
Copyright Ethica Societas, Human&Social Science Review © 2026 by Ethica Societas UPLI onlus.
ISSN 2785-602X. Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0