6. Women in State-Building Jihadi Organizations: Legitimacy

As does any ruling state, jihadi organizations in control of governing territories need a degree of support and legitimacy from the citizens they rule over. In the absence of common means of providing state legitimacy such as voting, state building jihadi organizations seek alternative mechanisms to establish, maintain, expand, and defend their legitimacy. The logic of women’s incorporation into these jihadi organizations is thus geared toward utilizing them throughout this process. To establish legitimacy, state-building jihadi groups encourage women to make hijrah (migration) to their territories. By emphasizing the marginalization of Muslim women in secular Western and Muslim societies, these groups claim to establish “alternative societies” based on gender segregation in which they will be considered equal citizens without having to give up religious practices. Women also contribute to these groups maintaining legitimacy through their biological ability to reproduce. Through structures of marriage and polygamy, state-building jihadi organizations utilize women to ensure the unremitting circle of reproducing new generations of jihadists who will eventually develop, sustain, and defend the organizations. Women are also utilized by these groups to expand their organizations by recruiting more women, to increase the organizations’ level of popular support and legitimacy.