„What do Western women who join Islamic State want? One prominent theory is what these women ‚really‘ want is to get laid. Another is that they don’t know what they ‚really‘ want, because what they want has been decided for them by male jihadi ‚groomers.‘ Both theories are meant to resolve a seeming paradox: How can any woman who enjoys democratic rights and equality before the law join or support a group which actively promotes her own oppression? But both are misconceived. Indeed, they say more about the gendered assumptions of those who proffer them than about the women they are trying to explain. …
This is a gendered reading of radicalization: Young men are not ‚groomed‘ by charismatic women who prey on their emotional weaknesses and naivety. Only women are groomed. Only women lack the necessary agency and political engagement to want to support or join the Islamic State. … The problem with the grooming narrative is that it seriously misrepresents women’s radicalization as an essentially passive process and obscures, as numerous studies show, the striking degree to which young women themselves are actively involved in recruiting like-minded ‚sisters‘ to the cause.“ (Der Buchautor Simon Cottee auf der Website von Foreign Policy: „What ISIS Women Want“)
