An Analysis of the Extreme Right and Islamic State Women’s Only Forum

Historically, both extreme right and jihadi-Salafist movements have been characterized by sexism and misogyny (Cook 2005; Scrivens et al. 2018). Nonetheless, counter-intuitively, women are seemingly becoming more engaged in these movements, particularly within online forums (Blee 2017; Lahoud 2018; Winter 2018. This is occurring despite women being targeted by the misogyny (sexual slavery, gendered violence, etc.). In order to explore how gender and sexual politics are played out in everyday practice within these movements, both in terms of the framing of women, and women’s actions within them, this paper analyses the content of two women’s only forums: “Women’s Forum on Stormfront.org” and “Women Dawah,” a Turkish language pro-ISIS channel on their encrypted network, Telegram. Moreover, this research uncovers how women negotiate the apparent contradiction between their engagement with, and the misogyny within, the movement. The Stormfront data was retroactively collected, whilst the collection of original data from Women Dawah occurred in real-time over a period of one year. This cross-ideological and multi-linguistic thematic analysis suggests that the safety of online spaces enables women to be more active, expand their roles beyond the previously limited tasks assumed by men, and to redefine themselves and their identity within these different movements.