The Unforgotten Women of the Islamic State

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The Unforgotten Women of the Islamic State delves into the governance of the IS terrorist organization through the experiences of local Iraqi, Syrian, and Kurdish women. While foreign pro-IS women have received much attention, the voices of local civilian populations remain largely overlooked. Drawing on testimonies from 63 local Sunni Muslim and Yazidi women, Gina Vale reveals IS's intra-gender stratified system of governance. Access to protection, security, and citizenship was not universal but required alignment with IS's gender norms, often necessitating the erasure or disguise of individual differences. This dynamic sometimes stemmed from a deliberate 'divide and conquer' strategy, while at other times, it resulted from unregulated violence by individual members, including women. The analysis traces IS's increasing control over its populations through militarization, law enforcement, provision of goods and services, and intrusion into private lives. First-hand accounts and IS documentation illustrate that the presence, exclusion, and victimization of local women were crucial for the legitimacy of IS's 'caliphate' project and the dominance of affiliated men and women. Though these women were neither represented nor protected, they were certainly not forgotten.