Goods and Services

Abstract

Abstract Investment in and management of public welfare were integral to Islamic State’s (IS) aspirations, branding, and pragmatic legitimacy as a governing actor. Yet, this chapter reveals that access and quality of these goods and services were neither universal nor guaranteed. In particular, civilian women’s differing eligibility for IS ‘citizenship’ and its associated benefits serve to shatter the veneer of the group’s ‘inclusive’ service provision and employment opportunities. Adding to studies of IS’s governance, the testimonies of local Iraqi, Syrian, and Kurdish women shed light on undocumented impacts and aspects of the group’s public institutions, including the strict policy of sex segregation. Complicating the public–private divide, the creation of semi-public women-only spaces was a double-edged sword. While the exclusion of men provided a layer of protection and freedom, it also brought previously private and feminine spaces under surveillance and control by pro-IS women, exposing the parameters of the group’s intra-female hierarchy.