Women and the Themes and Narratives of the ‘Diary of a Muhajirah’ Tumblr Page

2014 saw the rise of the Islamic State (IS) as a prominent threat to global security. Even more worrying is that the recent phenomenon saw an influx of foreign female recruits, including Malaysian women, lured into the terrorist organization through its online propaganda campaign. This research is a qualitative thematic analysis of the ‘Diary of a Muhajirah’, the Tumblr account of an IS recruiter, from July 10, 2015 to September 26, 2015. The objectives of this research are to identify the propaganda techniques used by the author and to determine the emerging themes as well as narratives of the propaganda used for recruiting female potentials. Based on the findings, the researcher found that the author had employed the seven propaganda techniques as issued by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis (IPA). The researcher also identified seven emerging themes and narratives delivered through the postings on the Tumblr page. The data collected in this research is useful for the Malaysian Government in producing effective counter-propaganda strategies and security agencies in developing information security tools for online terrorist threats analysis. This research may be further expanded into other area of concern by other researchers.