"Om det är hjärntvätt eller ett frivilligt val att åka dit? Det kan nog vara båda" : En kvalitativ studie utförd i Bryssel om socialarbetares perspektiv på kvinnor, radikalisering och IS.

Sammanfattning: Radicalization of young people in Brussels is getting more and more common and the followers to ISIS are steadily growing. Lately, the attention has been on women in the radicalization process. The debate has been on wether those young women are brainwashed by ISIS or wether it can be an independent choice to join and travel to ISIS-territories. This study aimed to, by interviewing social workers in Brussels, get the social workers perspective. This perspective was on radicalization, women in the radicalization process and to get their explaining models to this phenomena. The interviews were semi-structured and to qualify for those, one had to work in social work, get in touch with young people and young adults. There wasn’t any requirements to be in direct contact with radicalized young people, although 8 of 9 social workers had had some contact with them, in one way or another. Since Brussels is both french- and dutch-speaking, I chose to limit my interviews to the french speaking social workers. Post colonial feminist theory and recognition theory was used as theoretical framework and the study shows a general picture of the muslim woman as opressed and underestimated in their integrity and choices they make. The post colonial feministi theory explains this view because of the western feminism as the standard perception in Western World. The study also shows the importance of recognition, which the social workers identified as a key element for ISIS to use, when approaching and recruting young people. The results of this study can be used to increase and question our awareness of our norms and standards we use in social work and how to find strategy to include, rather than exclude, young people from other cultures, traditions and religions.