Women from Кosovo in ISIS: Quest for Identity, Community, and Protagonism
Women from Кosovo in ISIS: Quest for Identity, Community, and Protagonism

Summary/Abstract: This article is about women from Kosovo who have taken part in ISIS. The authors look for an answer of the question as to why a radical interpretation of Islam by a terrorist group, and a “State” based on a primitive mediaeval understanding of the Sharia, attracted women from this small, predominantly Muslim, but secularly oriented nation, making them become part of a war waged thousands of kilometers away from their motherland? Why did they voluntarily sacrifice money, time, resources, and in some cases their lives, in the name of a cause that cruelly stigmatizes individuals of their own sex? We argue that the various incentives impelling them to join ISIS can be reduced to three: the quests for community, for identity and for protagonism. On the basis of eight female life stories, we argue that these incentives are involved in any choice, but in different constellations and with different relative weights.

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