Intersectionality and rehabilitation: how gendered, racial and religious assumptions structure the rehabilitation and reintegration of women returnees

Abstract

ABSTRACT Women associated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) are returning to their home countries from camps in northern Syria and require prosecution, rehabilitation and reintegration. Yet, as feminist security and terrorism scholars have demonstrated, rehabilitation and reintegration programmes are mostly focused on men and neglect women’s experiences. The absence of rehabilitation and reintegration programmes designed for women is influenced by gender stereotypes around women’s peacefulness and their lack of agency. Alongside gender, further intersecting Islamophobic dynamics also shape these practices through, for instance, racial profiling or the trope of associating Islam with “terrorism”. This paper, thus, explores to what extent rehabilitation and reintegration programmes are influenced by underlying assumptions. I build upon feminist security and terrorism scholarship and draw from interviews with practitioners and policy- makers who have worked with ISIS women returnees across juris- dictions and countries. I argue that intersecting gendered, racial and religious assumptions influence the rehabilitation and reintegration practices of women returnees. This analysis is illustrated with three themes: 1) vocational training in rehabilitation programmes, 2) the freedom in the expression of religion and 3) the stigmatisation of returnees.