- Record: found
- Abstract: found
- Article: found
Gendered Islamophobia in the Case of the Returning ISIS Women: A Canadian Narrative
Abstract
In February 2019, the case of Shamima Begum, hit the headlines. Begum, one of the three East London girls who had left the UK for Syria in 2015, was located in a refugee camp in Syria. Tagged as an “ISIS bride,” Begum's case raised the profile of Muslim women who had voluntarily left their home countries to join the Islamic State and were now seeking to return. In this paper, I focus on the Canadian women returnees who were and, in some cases, remain wives of ISIS soldiers. I pay particular attention to how they are framed in the Canadian media and the audience response to their portrayals. Against a backdrop of the media's representation of these women, I examine the comments that audience members posted after a three-part series on the returning ISIS members was broadcast on the Global Television Network during the month of October 2018. Global TV is a 24/7 news channel that can be streamed online on various platforms. I contend that the construction of the returning wives and the responses the series elicited are reflective of the larger currents of racism and Islamophobia that circulate within Canadian society and that have become amplified since the inception of the War on Terror. However, they take on a distinct hue with respect to the framing of gendered agency and critically heighten the affective charge around the issue of returning ISIS fighters and the women who joined the movement. In this sense, the technology making online commenting possible has escalated the extent and intensity of Islamophobia. This article also seeks to demonstrate how Islamophobia is yoked to and animates an anti-government discourse. Thus, in contrast to Canada's projected national image as a benign, multicultural nation, the user-generated comments paint a picture of a white nation that is overrun with and taken advantage of by racialized minorities.
Content
Author and article information
REFERENCES
Agamben, Giorgio. 1998. Homo Sacer, Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Alvi, Sajida Sultana, Homa Hoodfar, and Sheila McDonough, eds. 2003. The Muslim Veil in North America, Issues and Debates. Toronto: Women's Press.
Arat-Koç, Sedef. 2002. “Hot Potato: Imperial Wars or Benevolent Interventions? Reflections on ‘Global Feminism’ Post September 11th.” Atlantis, 26, no. 2: 433–44.
Ayotte, Kevin J., and Mary E. Husain. 2005. “Securing Afghan Women: Neocolonialism, Epistemic Violence, and the Rhetoric of the Veil.” NWSA Journal, 17, no. 3: 112–33.
Bahdi, Reem. 2019. “‘All Arabs are Liars’: Arab and Muslim Stereotypes in Canadian Human Rights Law.” Journal of Law and Social Policy, 31: 92–123.
Bakht, Natasha. 2008. “Victim or Aggressor? Typecasting Muslim Women for their Attire.” In Belonging and Banishment: Being Muslim in Canada, edited by Natasha Bakht, 105–13. Toronto: TSAR Press.
Beydoun, Khaled A. 2016. “Islamophobia: Toward a Legal Definition and Framework.” Columbia Law Review, 116: 108–25.
Bhattacharyya, Gargi. 2008. Dangerous Brown Men: Exploiting Sex, Violence and Feminism in the War on Terror. London and New York: Zed Books.
Biswas, Bidisha, and Shirin Deylami. 2019. “Radicalizing Female Empowerment: Gender, Agency, and Affective Appeals in Islamic State Propaganda.” Small Wars and Insurgencies, 30, no. 6–7: 1193–1213.
Bjørgum, Maren Hald. 2016. “Jihadi Brides: Why do Western Muslim Girls Join ISIS?” Global Politics Review, 2, no. 2: 91–102.
Bloom, Mia. 2005. “Mother. Daughter. Sister. Bomber.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 61, no. 6: 54–62.
Brock, Andre. 2012. “From the Blackhand Side: Twitter as a Cultural Conversation.” Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 56, no. 4: 529–49.
Bullock, Katherine. 2017. In Brief: Defining Islamophobia for a Canadian Context. Toronto: Tessellate Institute.
Bullock, Katherine, and Gul Joya Jafri. 2000. “Media (Mis)Representations: Muslim Women in the Canadian Nation.” Canadian Woman Studies, 20, no. 2: 35–40.
Chao, En-Chieh. 2015. “The-Truth-about-Islam.Com: Ordinary Theories of Racism and Cyber Islamophobia.” Critical Sociology, 41, no. 1: 57–75.
Cloud, Dana L. 2004. “‘To Veil the Threat of Terror’: Afghan Women and the ‘Clash of Civilizations’ in the Imagery of the U.S. War on Terrorism.” Quarterly Journal of Speech, 90, no. 3: 285–306.
Dabashi, Hamid. 2011. Brown Skin, White Masks. London and New York: Pluto Press.
Dhamoon, Rita, and Yasmeen Abu-Laban. 2009. “Dangerous (Internal) Foreigners and Nation-Building: The Case of Canada.” International Political Science Review, 30, no. 2: 163–83.
Diakopoulous, Nicholas, and Naaman Mor. 2011. “Towards Quality Discourse in Online News Comments.” CSCW, 133–42.
DiManno, Rosie. 2019. “It's Canada's Duty to Repatriate the Brides of Daesh.” Metro News. Accessed February 28, 2019. https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2019/02/27/its-canadas-duty-to-repatriate-the-brides-of-isis.html
Dossa, Shiraz. 2008. “Lethal Muslims: White-Trashing Islam and the Arabs.” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 28, no. 2: 225–36.
Döveling, Katrin, Anu A. Harju, and Denise Sommer. 2018. “From Mediatized Emotion to Digital Affect Cultures: New Technologies and Global Flows of Emotion.” Social Media + Society, 4, no. 1: 1–11.
Entman, Robert M. 1990. “Modern Racism and the Image of Blacks in Local Television News.” Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 7, no. 4: 332–45.
Erjavec, Karmen, and Melita Poler Kovačič. 2012. “'You don't Understand, This is a New War!' Analysis of Hate Speech in News Web Sites' Comments.” Mass Communication and Society, 15, no. 6: 899–920. doi: 10.1080/15205436.2011.619679.
Graf, Joseph, Joseph Erba, and Ren-Whei Harn. 2017. “The Role of Civility and Anonymity on Perceptions of Online Comments.” Mass Communication and Society, 20, no. 4: 526–49. doi: 10.1080/15205436.2016.1274763.
Green, Matthew. 2018. “No Comment! Why More News Sites are Dumping their Comment Sections.” KQED. Accessed by January 24, 2018. https://www.kqed.org/lowdown/29720/no-comment-why-a-growing-number-of-news-sites-are-dumping-their-comment-sections
Grewal, Inderpal. 2003. “Transnational America: Race, Gender and Citizenship After 9/11.” Social Identities, 9, no. 4: 535–61.
Hassan, Farzana. 2019. “Welcoming Back ISIS ‘Brides’ Sets Dangerous Precedent.” Toronto Sun, Accessed February 28, 2019. https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/hassan-welcoming-back-isis-brides-sets-dangerous-precedent
Hirji, Faiza. 2011. “Through the Looking Glass: Muslim Women on Television. An Analysis of 24, Lost, and Little Mosque on the Prairie.” Global Media Journal: Canadian Edition, 4, no. 2: 33–47.
Hoyle, Caroline, Alexandra Bradford, and Ross Frenett. 2015. Becoming Mulan? Female Western Migrants to ISIS. London: Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
Hughey, Matthew W., and Jessie Daniels. 2013. “Racist Comments at Online News Sites: A Methodological Dilemma for Discourse Analysis.” Media, Culture & Society, 35, no. 3: 332–47. doi: 10.1177/0163443712472089.
Ibrahim, Yasmin. 2019. “Visuality and the ‘Jihadi-Bride’: The Re-Fashioning of Desire in the Digital Age.” Social Identities, 25, no. 2: 186–206. doi: 10.1080/13504630.2017.1381836.
Jacoby, Tami Amanda. 2015. “Jihadi Brides at the Intersections of Contemporary Feminism.” New Political Science, 37, no. 4: 525–42.
Jafri, Gul Yoya. 1998. The Portrayal of Muslim Women in Canadian Mainstream Media: A Community Based Analysis. Ontario: Afghan Women's Organization.
Jiwani, Yasmin. 2010. “Doubling Discourses and the Veiled Other: Mediations of Race and Gender in Canadian Media.” In States of Race, edited by Sherene Razack, Malinda Smith, and Sunera Thobani, 59–86. Toronto: Between the Lines Press.
Jiwani, Yasmin, and Ahmed Al-Rawi. 2019. “Intersecting Violence: Representations of Somali Youth in the Canadian Press.” Journalism, 146488491982550. doi: 10.1177/1464884919825503.
Jiwani, Yasmin, and Ahmed Al-Rawi. 2020. “Hashtagging the Quebec Mosque Shooting: The Twitter Discourse of Mourning, Nationalism and Resistance.” In Affect, Algorithms and Propaganda: Interdisciplinary Research for the Age of Post-Truth, edited by Megan Boler and Elizabeth Davis, 204–25. California: Routledge.
Jiwani, Yasmin, and Matthew Dessner. 2016. “Barbarians in/of the Land: Representations of Muslim Youth in the Canadian Press.” Journal of Contemporary Issues in Education, 11, no. 1: 36–53.
Kellner, Douglas. 2003. Media Culture: Cultural Studies, Identity and Politics between the Modern and the Postmodern. London and New York: Routledge.
Kenny, Gillian. 2015. “Jihadi Brides Journey Back to a World without Teenagers.” History Matters, 65, no. 5: 4–5.
Khalema, Nene Ernest, and Jenny Wannas-Jones. 2003. “Under the Prism of Suspicion: Minority Voices in Canada Post-September 11.” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 23, no. 1: 25–39.
Khan, Shahnaz. 2001. “Between Here and There: Feminist Solidarity and Afghan Women.” Genders Online, 33.
Loken, Meredith, and Anna Zelenz. 2018. “Explaining Extremism: Western Women in Daesh.” European Journal of International Security, 3, no. 1: 45–68. doi: 10.1017/eis.2017.13.
Mahrouse, Gada. 2018. “Minimizing and Denying Racial Violence: Insights from the Québec Mosque Shooting.” Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, 30, no. 3: 471–93.
Martini, Alice. 2018. “Making Women Terrorists into ‘Jihadi Brides’: An Analysis of Media Narratives on Women Joining ISIS.” Critical Studies on Terrorism, 11, no. 3: 458–77. doi: 10.1080/17539153.2018.1448204.
Nacos, Brigitte. 2015. “Young Western Women, Fandom, and ISIS.” E-International Relations.
Peresin, Anita, and Alberto Cervone. 2015. “The Western Muhajirat of ISIS.” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 38: 495–509.
Rana, Junaid. 2007. “The Story of Islamophobia.” Souls, 9, no. 2: 148–61. doi: 10.1080/10999940701382607.
Razack, Sherene. 2004. “Imperilled Muslim Women, Dangerous Muslim Men and Civilised Europeans: Legal and Social Responses to Forced Marriages.” Feminist Legal Studies, 12, no. 2: 129–74.
Razack, Sherene. 2008. Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims from Western Law and Politics. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Rowe, Ian. 2015. “Deliberation 2.0: Comparing the Deliberative Quality of Online News User Comments across Platforms.” Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 59, no. 4: 539–55. doi: 10.1080/08838151.2015.1093482.
Runnymede Trust. 1997. Islamophobia, A Challenge for Us All. Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia. London: Runnymede Trust.
Said, Edward. 1978. Orientalism. New York: Random House.
Salminen, Joni, Sercan Sengun, Juan Corporan, Soon-gyo Jung, and Bernard J. Jansen. 2020. “Topic-Driven Toxicity: Exploring the Relationship between Online Toxicity and News Topics.” PLoS/ONE, 15, no. 2: e0228723. doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228723.
Samiei, Mohammad. 2010. “Neo-Orientalism? The Relationship between the West and Islam in our Globalised World.” Third World Quarterly, 31, no. 7: 1145–60. doi: 10.1080/01436597.2010.518749.
Santana, Arthur D. 2016. “Controlling the Conversation: The Availability of Commenting Forums in Online Newspapers.” Journalism Studies, 17, no. 2: 141–58. doi: 10.1080/1461670X.2014.972076.
Sharify-Funk, Meena. 2009. “Representing Canadian Muslims: Media, Muslim Advocacy Organizations, and Gender in the Ontario Shari'ah Debate.” Global Media Journal: Canadian Edition, 2, no. 2: 73–89.
Siddiqui, Haroon. 2015. “Anti-Muslim Bigotry Goes Official: Canada's Newest Dark Chapter.” In The Relevance of Islamic Identity in Canada: Culture, Politics, and Self, edited by Nurjehan Aziz, 44–99. Toronto: Mawenzi House.
Sood, Sara Owsley, Elizabeth F. Churchill, and Judd Antin. 2012. “Automatic Identification of Personal Insults on Social News Sites.” Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 63, no. 2: 270–85. doi: 10.1002/asi.21690.
Speckhard, Anne. 2013. “‘Sex Jihad’: A New Role for Extremist Women in Militant Jihadi Groups?” Huffpost, The Blog. Accessed January 5, 2019. https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/annespeckhard-863/extremism-jihadi-women_b_3973825.html?guccounter=1
Speckhard, Anne, and Ahmet S. Yayla. 2017. The Runaway Bride of ISIS: Transformation of a Young Girl with a Dream to a Lethal ISIS Enforcer. Washington, DC: International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism.
Stabile, Carol A., and Deepa Kumar. 2005. “Unveiling Imperialism: Media, Gender and the War on Afghanistan.” Media, Culture & Society, 27, no. 5: 765–82.
Stone, Laura. 2009. “No ‘Barbaric Cultural Practices’ Here: New Citizenship Guide; ‘When You Become a Citizen, You're Not Just Getting a Travel Document into Hotel Canada,‘ Minister Says.” Canwest News Service. Accessed November 13 2009. http://www.montrealgazette.com/story_print_html?id=221740&sponsor.
Tarras-Wahlberg, Louisa. 2016. Seven Promises of ISIS to its Female Recruits. Washington, DC: International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism.
Vale, Gina. 2019. Women in Islamic State: From Caliphate to Camps. Policy Brief. The Hague: International Centre for Counter-Terrorism.
Werbner, Pnina. 2005. “Islamophobia, Incitement to Religious Hatred – Legislating for a New Fear?” Anthropology Today, 21, no. 1: 5–9.
Williamson, Janice, ed. 2012. Omar Khadr: Oh Canada. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.
Winter, Charlie. 2015. Women of the Islamic State: A Manifesto on Women by the Al-Khanssaa Brigade. London: Quilliam Foundation.
Yeğenoğlu, Meyda. 1998. Colonial Fantasies: Towards a Feminist Reading of Orientalism. Cambridge and Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.
Zine, Jasmin. 2009. “Unsettling the Nation: Gender, Race and Muslim Cultural Politics in Canada.” Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, 9, no. 1: 146–93.
Zine, Jasmin. 2012. “Unveiled Sentiments: Gendered Islamophobia and the Experiences of Veiling among Muslim Girls in a Canadian Islamic School.” In Islam in the Hinterlands, edited by Jasmin Zine, 208–36. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.