The Fundamental and Applied Studies of the Islamic World

Abstract Iran, relying on its geopolitical necessities and foundations—including its strategic and transit position, human and natural characteristics, and its historical centrality in the Islamic world—is considered a regional power in Southwest Asia. Given this description, global and extra-regional powers such as the United States and the Israeli regime—which are present in this region based on their self-interest—are striving either to bring Iran under their hegemony and domination, or to diminish and prevent Iran's independent behavior in Southwest Asia. Prioritizing the elimination of Iran as the leading pole of the Islamic world—which is attempting to counter their sphere of influence in regional countries such as Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon—they seek to achieve their interests. A true understanding of the components, capabilities, and facilities of each country—in a word, its geopolitical foundations—on the one hand, and on the other hand, the formulation of goals, policies, and programs aimed at ensuring national security and national power, which is the same as geopolitical dignity and status, in fact serves as a guiding light for any international actor. Iran, with its geopolitical foundations influenced by its geography, has always been the focus of world countries, especially global powers, throughout history.
The political and strategic environment of the Islamic Republic is located within overlapping circles of the Persian Gulf, the Middle East, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Southwest Asia. The unique nature of Iran after the Islamic Revolution throughout its historical periods is such that it can emerge and function as a regional power. It is obvious that for many reasons, including proximity to the Persian Gulf and centrality in the Islamic world, especially Shiism, these are among the most fundamental attachments of Iran. Iran's powerful presence on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean is the result of all the mentioned characteristics and is influenced by energy, the first revolution, and is the best evidence that Iran is at the expected level of this writing. However, the extensive presence of international powers and the clash of their interests with Iran's presence have created serious obstacles for what Iran deserves.
The United States has also been the main extra-regional actor and power influencing the security processes of West Asia, especially the Persian Gulf region, over the past four decades, and has planned and implemented various security schemes for this region. The expansion of military bases in the countries of this area and the frequent movement of American ships and submarines in the waters of the Persian Gulf are evidence of this importance. Moreover, specifically after September 11, in the US strategy, while energy issues and the Arab-Israeli conflict remained, communism gave way to terrorism. On the other hand, the Israeli regime, as a strategic partner of the United States, has shown great concern and sensitivity towards regional developments, and its political and intelligence apparatuses have precisely monitored and continue to monitor these developments. This is because the Israeli regime has faced significant and serious security constraints and challenges since its formation.
In Southwest Asia, Iran—due to its various geographical advantages, its adjacency to the world's geopolitical and geostrategic regions throughout different historical periods, its special transit position, its location within the strategic energy ellipse and other economic advantages, and especially its cultural centrality, its position as the center of Shiism, and its pivotal role in the Islamic world—can play a greater role than its national and geographical power. This role will be influential in regional politics and order, and if this role materializes and comes to fruition, it will be an important factor for enhancing Iran's position, organizing relations and the perspective of other regional countries toward Iran, and most importantly, for establishing order and progressing toward regional security in the future.
In this article, utilizing library documents and a descriptive-analytical method, we seek to answer the question of to what extent Iran's presence in Southwest Asia possesses the necessary geopolitical logic and necessity, and what are the geopolitical results and dimensions of Iran's independent behavior and presence in this region? Undoubtedly, Iran, by emphasizing its geopolitical characteristics, can play its special role in Southwest Asia.

Abstract The research article meticulously examines the function, objectives, and institutional mechanisms of systematic sexual violence and enslavement perpetrated by the terrorist organization ISIS (Islamic State) across territories under its control in Iraq and Syria between 2014 and 2019. This period, encompassing the rise, consolidation, and eventual territorial collapse of the self-proclaimed Caliphate, was marked by widespread crimes against humanity. Among these atrocities, systematic rape, sexual slavery, forced marriage, and the enslavement of women and girls—particularly from the Yazidi, Shia, and Christian communities—constituted a central pillar of ISIS's governance and military strategy. Rather than being incidental consequences of armed conflict, these practices were deliberately organized, bureaucratically regulated, and ideologically justified, making them an integral component of ISIS's state-building project and its broader strategy of domination over conquered populations.
The central problem motivating this study is the proposition that these grave sexual crimes were not opportunistic acts committed by undisciplined fighters or spontaneous manifestations of wartime violence. Instead, they represented a calculated, institutionalized, and multifunctional policy designed to advance ISIS's political, ideological, military, demographic, and economic objectives. Consequently, the primary research question asks: What strategic objectives did ISIS seek to achieve through the systematic perpetration of rape and sexual enslavement in territories under its control, and how did these practices contribute to the establishment, consolidation, and maintenance of the Caliphate's system of governance and domination?
The article advances the hypothesis that sexual violence functioned as a multidimensional strategic instrument simultaneously employed to: (1) propagate terror and intimidation among local populations; (2) engineer demographic transformation through the control of women's reproductive capacity, thereby facilitating ethnic and religious cleansing; (3) strengthen internal cohesion by providing sexual access as a material and symbolic reward for fighters; and (4) humiliate, fragment, and ultimately destroy the collective social, cultural, and religious identity of targeted minority communities, especially the Yazidis, through the systematic degradation of women. Beyond these functions, sexual slavery also generated financial resources through the commodification and trafficking of enslaved women, further embedding sexual violence within the political economy of the ISIS Caliphate. The systematic character of these crimes is demonstrated by concrete historical evidence, including the assault on Sinjar on 3 August 2014, during which approximately 6,800 Yazidi women and girls were abducted, catalogued, transported, distributed, and traded in organized slave markets operating under standardized pricing mechanisms, illustrating both the bureaucratic sophistication and economic rationality underlying ISIS's system of sexual exploitation.
The research employs an explanatory qualitative methodology based on documentary analysis and qualitative content analysis of authoritative secondary sources. The principal empirical materials consist of reports produced by the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, investigations conducted by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and a broad body of peer-reviewed academic scholarship addressing conflict-related sexual violence, genocide, terrorism, and gendered violence. To demonstrate the institutionalized nature of these crimes, the analysis examines recurring behavioral patterns, including official religious fatwas legitimizing sexual slavery, formal administrative directives issued by senior ISIS authorities, organizational regulations governing the ownership and transfer of captives, and the establishment of regulated slave markets in urban centers such as Mosul and Raqqa. Collectively, these sources reveal a high degree of organizational planning rather than isolated criminal conduct.
The theoretical framework integrates the concepts of Sexual Property, Hegemonic Masculinity, and Sexual Objectification with broader perspectives drawn from structural inequality theory, feminist security studies, genocide studies, and the political economy of armed conflict. This interdisciplinary framework enables the study to situate ISIS's sexual violence within wider historical patterns of patriarchal domination while simultaneously explaining how extremist ideology transformed pre-existing gender hierarchies into an institutionalized system of governance. The article further develops previous scholarship by demonstrating that sexual violence operated not merely as an expression of misogyny but as a strategic mechanism linking ideological control, military coercion, demographic engineering, economic extraction, and symbolic domination.
The findings demonstrate unequivocally that sexual violence occupied a central position within ISIS's overall strategy rather than representing conventional criminality or undisciplined battlefield behavior. First, it functioned as a weapon of terror and social destruction. Sexual assault deliberately targeted women as symbolic bearers of communal honor, enabling ISIS to terrorize entire populations, accelerate forced displacement, and dismantle the social cohesion of conquered communities. The destruction of family structures and communal trust significantly facilitated territorial conquest and long-term political control.
Second, sexual violence served as an instrument of genocide and demographic engineering. By exercising control over women's reproductive capacity and imposing the ideological identity of ISIS upon future generations through patrilineal descent, the organization sought to eradicate minority identities while permanently transforming the demographic composition of occupied territories. The deliberate targeting of Yazidi women, recognized internationally as constituting genocidal conduct, exemplifies the strategic relationship between sexual violence and ethnic cleansing.
Third, sexual violence reinforced hegemonic masculinity and organizational cohesion. Participation in sexual enslavement symbolized military success, masculine dominance, and ideological commitment. Access to enslaved women functioned as a powerful incentive for recruitment, rewarded battlefield participation, strengthened loyalty to commanders, and fostered solidarity among fighters. Sexual domination therefore became an important mechanism through which ISIS reproduced internal discipline and reinforced collective identity.
Finally, sexual violence became deeply embedded within the political economy of the Caliphate through the commodification of women as transferable property. Female captives were systematically registered, classified, priced, exchanged, inherited, and sold, transforming human bodies into economic assets capable of generating financial revenue while simultaneously reinforcing ideological claims regarding ownership, hierarchy, and domination. This institutionalization of sexual exploitation reflected the practical implementation of the concepts of Sexual Property and Sexual Objectification, whereby women were reduced to movable capital subject to bureaucratic administration and market exchange.
Analytically, these findings indicate that ISIS successfully integrated long-standing gender inequalities, sectarian discrimination, and extremist religious interpretations into a coherent institutional framework capable of simultaneously producing political authority, economic resources, military cohesion, demographic transformation, and ideological legitimacy. Sexual violence thus became a foundational instrument of governance rather than a peripheral consequence of armed conflict.
The research concludes that systematic sexual violence within the ISIS Caliphate constituted a deliberate and highly organized weapon of war employed to consolidate territorial control, ensure ideological reproduction, generate economic resources, reshape demographic realities, and eliminate the collective identities of targeted minority populations. These crimes were legitimized through extremist jurisprudence, administered through bureaucratic institutions, and implemented according to formal organizational procedures, demonstrating that sexual violence represented an essential component of ISIS's governance model rather than an exceptional or incidental phenomenon. The findings therefore contribute to a deeper understanding of the relationship between terrorism, gender-based violence, genocide, and institutionalized systems of domination, while emphasizing the necessity of recognizing systematic sexual violence as a core mechanism of political power in extremist organizations.