Compelling beauty fighting with the Islamic State. The analysis of visual depictions of Kurdish female fighters in Syria

The aim of this paper is to analyse the internet popularity of Kurdish fighters, whose images were widely broadcasted due to their involvement in the war with the Islamic State. The author explores the consecutive development of power relations. She uses critical visual methodology derived from, among others, the feminist psychoanalysis tradition in culture research and Foucauldian discourse analysis. The author describes the process of fetishizing of Kurdish female soldiers’ images and discursive practices associated with it. Therefore, she presents how, through the use of visual strategies embedded in culture, a biased image of the Kurdish involvement in war in the northern Syria, is spread