Framing British ‘Jihadi Brides’: Metaphor and the Social Construction of I.S. Women

This article considers how mainstream newspapers metaphorically represented the British “jihadi brides”, women and girls who travelled to Syria to live in the self-declared “Islamic State” (I.S.). Based on an analysis of 365 articles published between 2013 and 2018, the article demonstrates that thr...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Jackson, Leonie B. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2021
In: Terrorism and political violence
Year: 2021, Volume: 33, Issue: 8, Pages: 1733-1751
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Keywords:
Islamischer Staat im Irak und in Syrien
Djihad
Frau
Junge Frau
Constructivism
Metaphor
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
Women
Jihadi brides
Description
Summary:This article considers how mainstream newspapers metaphorically represented the British “jihadi brides”, women and girls who travelled to Syria to live in the self-declared “Islamic State” (I.S.). Based on an analysis of 365 articles published between 2013 and 2018, the article demonstrates that three frequently occurring metaphors contributed to the construction of these women and I.S. in general, representing them as natural, biological and supernatural forces. These metaphors served to convert a new phenomenon into a knowable form, but in doing so evoked homogenizing and dehumanizing representations that structured the scope of possibilities for responding to the problem of the “brides”. Ultimately, these social constructions had material consequences, as demonstrated by the mood of indifference among policy-makers to the fate of British I.S. fighters and their families following the fall of the “caliphate”.
ISSN:1556-1836
DOI:10.1080/09546553.2019.1656613