Speaker
Description
During the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’s (ISIS) offensive in Iraq (2013-2017), the group deployed sophisticated media strategies to attract and recruit both foreign fighters and individuals within Iraq. Through its media network, the extremist organization circulated an ideology marked by extreme violence, ethnoreligious cleansing, and the systematic subjugation of women, alongside the suppression of everyday cultural practices. This paper focuses on the anti-ISIS propaganda music in Iraq and examines how this music, through its creative and unprecedented characteristics, functioned as a creative strategy of anti-extremist dissemination. Unlike typical wartime propaganda music in the region, anti-ISIS music (e.g., Yamma Ali, by Shams al-Maslawe) featured a female voice, dance-inducing rhythm, vibrant acoustic design, and Iraqi traditional practices at its core. Through audiovisual analysis of these music tracks, I will argue that the aforementioned features, beyond increasing media viability, were deployed to represent the picture of a modern, united, culturally rich, and festive Iraq, as opposed to ISIS’s extremist project. I combine my analysis with insights from Terror Management Theory to expand on the understanding of cultural practices as crucial actors in the processes of deradicalization and resilience under terrorism.
| Institutional Affiliation | Yale University |
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