Yesterday, the Higher Regional Court in Düsseldorf found the national Nurten J guilty of, inter alia, membership in the #IslamicState & aiding & abetting the enslavement of a #Yazidi woman – a #CrimeAgainstHumanity. A few thoughts on the lawsuit in a https://bit.ly/2RXQXEv 

2/ While the sentence of 4.5 years largely followed the prosecution’s demand for 4 years & 8 months, the chief judge’s justification of the sentence was filled with #gender tropes, which distort Nurten J’s actions & #criminal responsibility. 2 aspects stand out in particular.

3/ Throughout the trial, Nurten J depicted herself as non-ideological, too timid to speak out against #IS’s #slavery practices & too ignorant of the organization’s ideology to oppose them. She also argued that she had been overly naïve in seeing the #Yazidi woman as a ‘nanny’.

4/ In contrast, the frmly enslaved woman, who was a joint plaintiff, testified that Nurten J was fully aware that she was abused by her 'owners' (incl. #rape), she treated her like a servant & called her 'dirty'. At one point she even suggested selling her off for ‘misbehaving’.

5/ Nevertheless, the judges cited the defendant’s apology to the #Yazidi woman as a sign of remorse & as a disavowal of her #radical belief system. One can only hypothesize if she had apologized without having to face her victim as the main witness in the trial against her.

6/ Most of Nurten J’s read-out testimony focused on the lacking support during her childhood & the suffering she & her children had to endure in #Syria, during their escape from frm #IS-territory & while in captivity in #AlHol. The pain of her children was actively emphasized.

7/ What was consistently failed to mention is that she deliberately took her 3-year-old daughter to a #WarZone & repeatedly mistreated her there, according to a witness. Her daughter, who is in the custody of the social services, apparently still suffers from massive trauma.

8/ Yet, the separation from her #children was named as a major mitigating factor in the sentencing decision. I.e. despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, judges still clutch onto & are influenced by stereotypical notions of #motherhood & of women as naturally nurturing.

9/ This is not an isolated incident, but part & parcel of wider #gender|ed discourses around (female engagement in) #politicalviolence. The perpetuation of such narratives hampers our ability to understand #terrorism, subverts #criminaljustice & urgently needs to be addressed.

Addendum: Nurten J was sentenced to 4 years and 3 months in prison (i.e. 4.25 years) not 4.5 years. Sorry for that typo in the 2nd Tweet.