Women and children in Taliban and ISKP propaganda

Above image: screenshot from a video called “Little Lions of the Islamic Caliphate” posted on ISKP-affiliated Telegram channels Below is a summary of our findings. Scroll to the bottom of the page to download the full investigation (PDF file).

This investigation sought to analyse propaganda featuring women and children that is shared by both the Taliban and the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP). The findings of this investigation are based on a qualitative collection and analysis of Taliban and ISKP content featuring women and children. The findings in the report should be regarded as a sample of the propaganda featuring women and children that is available online, likely underestimating the scale of what exists online. The main findings from this report are as follows:

Women and children in Taliban propaganda

Official Taliban accounts are generally cautious with the type of content they share online, as they would like to gain recognition from the international community. As such, most content shared featuring women or children revolves around the successes, efforts, and policies the Taliban have created for these groups. Pro-Taliban accounts, at times, stray from the official party line, and share more controversial topics.

The main tools and techniques used to spread Taliban propaganda featuring women and children are: success stories, the use of the English language, and the use of mainstream social media platforms.

The content shared featuring women includes mentions of the education they receive in Afghanistan; the fields in which women work; their participation in Afghan society; and the praise that women offer regarding the Taliban and their policies.

Regarding children, official Taliban accounts only share posts that mention Taliban members building and visiting schools and orphanages; pro-Taliban accounts share posts with children dressed in military uniforms, alluding to the idea that children are the future soldiers of the Islamic Emirate.

Women and children in ISKP propaganda

For the purpose of this investigation, Al-Azaim has been considered ISKP’s “official” propaganda outlet, although it is worth noting that the group has not officially recognised it as such. All the other channels that have been found by Afghan Witness (AW) investigators are ISKP-affiliated, and serve to amplify pro-ISKP propaganda.

The main ISKP tools and techniques used to spread propaganda featuring women and children are: evoking feelings of nostalgia; use of generic images, stickers, memes, gifs, and images of historical female figures; content portraying victimhood; and love speech.

Unique to ISKP propaganda is an apparent desire to appeal to women and children, sometimes in an effort to aid recruitment efforts.

Women are usually represented in ISKP propaganda as the educators of the family, having the important role of teaching their children jihadi ideology; they are also represented as fighters that wage both combatant and non-combatant jihad; and as virtuous, pious, and chaste women who support their husbands and respect Islamic traditions.

ISKP content shared featuring children seeks to evoke feelings of nostalgia about the Islamic Caliphate, as well as instilling hope for the creation of a new one. Children are featured in propaganda as soldiers of the future Caliphate, with online content often emphasising their religious and physical training.

Differences and similarities between Taliban and ISKP

The Taliban use mainstream social media platforms, in an effort to present themselves as the legitimate government in Afghanistan; ISKP mainly uses Telegram, as it is a more encrypted, secure, and private platform.

Across official, pro-Taliban, and ISKP-affiliated content, women are shown fully covered and always wearing a burqa. In terms of narratives shared, the Taliban only share content celebrating policies and successes featuring women, while ISKP often employs love speech in its posts.

Both the Taliban and ISKP view children as the future generation – of the Islamic Emirate (for the Taliban), and the Islamic Caliphate (for ISKP). Official Taliban accounts only share content celebrating the efforts that the de facto government has carried out to help and save children; pro-Taliban accounts and ISKP-affiliated channels instead share content featuring children with firearms and dressed in military uniform, emphasising the role of children as future soldiers of the Emirate and Caliphate respectively.