From Sisterhood to Subversion: Female Radicalization, Recruitment Pathways, and Operational Roles in the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), 2015–2025

Abstract

Since its founding in 2015, the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) has systematically drawn women into its operational and ideological fold, deploying gendered propaganda to exploit the political instability and social constraints that pervade the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. This paper examines the mechanisms, motivations, and roles through which ISKP recruits and utilises women, situating its analysis within the broader ideological framework inherited from the Islamic State (ISIS) core. Drawing on feminist security studies and the push-pull model of radicalization, the study employs a qualitative methodology that integrates peer-reviewed scholarship, think tank and institutional reports, open-source propaganda analysis, and documented case studies. The findings reveal that ISKP relies on multilingual digital campaigns, kinship networks, and the exploitation of gender grievances generated by Taliban-imposed restrictions to lure women into roles as educators, propagandists, fundraisers, and, in rare cases, operatives. The paper further demonstrates that ISKP's adaptation of ISIS's gender doctrine to South Asian cultural and political conditions reflects a deliberate and evolving strategy. Spanning the period from 2015 to 2025, the analysis contributes to an underexplored dimension of ISKP scholarship and offers policy recommendations for counterterrorism practitioners and regional policymakers.