ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on how terrorist actors, particularly Chechens, are ordered by the gender apparatus. It examines the discourse of desperation that surrounds Chechen resistance to Russian imperialism through discourse analysis. The chapter introduces the puzzle of gendered Russian-Chechen history and its relationships with neo-Orientalism and new terrorism. It then discusses the discourse analysis and how this method can be used to reveal the power structures in this conflict. During the Russian Civil War, Chechnya joined Ingushetia, North Ossetia-Alania, and Dagestan in establishing a separate Republic of the Mountaineers of the North Caucasus. Neo-Orientalisms binary is underpinned by the gendered apparatus, which results in the hyper-masculinization of Muslim menirrational, violent, sexually aggressive, and domineering and the hyper-feminization of Muslim women passive, submissive, and dominated. Critical discourse analysis (CDA), similar to post-structural feminism, is normative. It is a critique of power production and reproduction. The methodological approach provided by CDA works well with the feminist agenda.