Dr Katherine E Brown (University of Birmingham) presents "Gender and the Apocalypse in Daesh"

At the heart of Islamic State Group's (Daesh) propoganda and practices is a paradox:  namely a contradictory emphasis on the Apocalypse and Caliphate.  The Apocalypse focuses on the production of death, namely the violent encouragement and welcoming of the end of the world.  Killing and death in Daesh become sacred via matyrdom and the promise of paradise.  In contrast, in Daesh's discussions of the Caliphate, mundane living is raised to the sacred through everyday submission to Allah and shari'a.  This talk examines key areas of the apocalyptic institutions and practices: first the idea of 'sacred lands' and future battles, second the destruction of shrines, third the creation of new saints as martyrs, fourth the narrative of paradise, and fifth the role of 'widows'.  The talk reveals these as gendered, and as co-constituting the underpinning structures of the production of life.  The overall argument is that the gendered discourse of the apocalypse ensures that the afterlife/the world of the dead is produced and becomes a legitimate horizon of political possibility; that is, it enters into the similarly gendered discourse of the production of life, namely the Caliphate.