Beyond Victimhood: Gender, Morality, and Radicalization Across Quebec, Italy, and Tunisia

This article examines the gendered dynamics of what is institutionally defined as women’s “radicalization” through a feminist criminological lens. Drawing on a qualitative study of 131 Muslim families and 30 prevention professionals in Quebec, Italy, and Tunisia, it analyzes narratives of women who were arrested or reported as “radicalized” by institutional actors. Moving beyond “brainwashing” tropes, the analysis shows how these trajectories reflect both constraint and agency—rooted in gendered precarity, familial expectations, and structural racism. Rather than treating radicalization as a fixed or objective condition, the article interrogates how a wide range of moral, religious, and social behaviours come to be interpreted and governed as security concerns. By re-centering women’s moral and political voices, and outlining five ideal-typical trajectories, the article reframes radicalization as a contested and gendered category, embedded within broader regimes of control and resistance.