Glossy Jihadist Propaganda Targeting Female Audiences (based on the materials of the “Dabiq” magazine)
The brutal propaganda of the “Islamic State” (IS), including their glossy magazine “Dabiq”, is addressed primarily to men. Our research interest is aroused by the few publications of the journal whose target audience is women. In the mainstream of countering the propaganda of terrorism, it is important to trace which quotations of ayahs and hadiths, the images of which heroes and heroines of early Islam are used by IS ideologues to describe and promote a female role model acceptable to them. The selection of references from the Koran and Sunnah is manipulative and selective. The stories of women - the heroines of the early years of Islam, who should become role models - are presented in a truncated or distorted form. The main task of this propaganda is to emphasize such traits of their character and actions that best meet the needs of the ideologues of the revival of the caliphate: readiness for self-sacrifice, stoic attitude towards death, absolute piety, readiness to accept any law if it is adopted and approved by the caliphate. The laws and regulations for women, presented in the propaganda of IS, declare adherence to the Sharia, but the ideal woman of IS is allowed and even prescribed both a divorce if the spouse does not approve of jihad under the banner of the Caliphate, and traveling without the accompaniment of a husband or relative if it is a trip to the Caliphate. For the propagandists of the caliphate, the true faith of the ideal Muslim woman is exclusively “correct” Islam, as it is represented in IS: strict Salafism of the jihadist type. IS ideologists believe that the main destiny of an ideal Muslim woman is the role of the wife or widow of a Mujahid, the mother of a Mujahid, but above all, the path of a Muhajir woman. IS propaganda directed at women is associated with the triad: a submissive wife, a pious mother, a purposeful muhajir woman, but all three hypostases have weight only if the woman is the wife or mother of an adherent of the Salafi-jihadist movement in Islam, living in the territories controlled by IS. IS ideologues' perceptions of the role of Muslim women, family and marriage is distinctly Takfirist.