Abstract
This study examines Kazakhstani women’s pathways into and out of violent extremism through systematic integration of qualitative social network analysis with feminist scholarship on gendered radicalization. Drawing on in-depth interviews with five women repatriated from ISIS territories (2019-2021), we trace network transformations across radicalization, mobilization, and reintegration phases. Findings reveal radicalization as network-mediated process characterized by systematic closure of pre-existing ties, insertion of male gatekeepers monopolizing religious education, creation of multiplex dependencies, and exploitation of gendered vulnerabilities. Three recruitment pathways emerge: male gatekeeping, family-based recruitment, and peer mobilization, with network closure speed varying from two months (orphan vulnerability) to four years (family protection present). Gender operated through network structures rather than individual psychology: mahram requirements eliminated autonomous mobility, male monopolies on religious education controlled ideological exposure, and reproductive roles created maternal dependencies. Critically, ideology emerged as post-hoc rationalization after network entrapment, not causal factor. Reintegration outcomes 5-6 years post-return reveal incomplete network reconstruction—continued state dependency, thin organic community ties, and children functioning as problematic bridges to either extremist or mainstream networks. We propose a ’network-mediated gendered exploitation’ framework emphasizing vulnerability plus network mediation equals radicalization pathway, ideology as outcome not cause, gender as network constraint, and reintegration requiring network reconstruction beyond counter-narratives. Policy implications target network-sensitive interventions: prevention through structural hole maintenance, intervention through gatekeeping disruption, and reintegration through long-term social embeddedness rather than institutional support alone.