The portraits of IS fighters are suggestive of heroic depiction. Prior to further elaborating, it is necessary to define heroism and a hero. Franco et al. (2011) define heroism as “a social activity: (a) in service to others in need - be it a person, group, or community, or in defence of socially sanctioned ideals, or new social standard; (b) engaged in voluntarily (c) with recognition of possible risks/costs (d) in which the actor is willing to accept anticipated sacrifice, and (e) without external gain anticipated at the time of the act” (101). Moreover, similarly, Kafashan et al. (2016) define a hero as a person who faces risks such as injury, death, or other forms of personal loss to benefit others without the expectation of a future reward (37).

There are different types of heroes but for the purposes of this research, I focus on the “prototypical heroes”, who are characterized by particular physical features that could signal bravery; and these could be war heroes (Kafashan et al. 2016, 37). There are also “folklore heroes such as Batman and Superman”, who are regarded as heroes for similar reasons: their willingness to risk their lives to save others by fighting villains (Kafashan et al. 2016, 37).

The first key narrative of Islamic State’s self-representational photographs focus on heroization of fighters. A jihadi fighter elicits notions of bravery, virtue, strength, and religious devotion, heroism, and divine reward (Ostovar 2017, 93). These notions are regularly depicted throughout the IS portraits. This key self-representational narrative is further broken down into 5 sub-thematics, which were qualitatively assessed both in isolation, and in respect to each other.

Bibliography
Franco, Zeno E., Blau, K., and Zimbardo, P.G. (2011). Heroism: A Conceptual Analysis and Differentiation Between Heroic Action and Altruism. Review of General Psychology American, 15(2), 99–113. Retrieved May 6, 2019, from Research Gate.

Kafashan, S., Sparks, A., Rotella, A., and Barclay, P. (2016). Why Heroism Exists? In S.T. Allison, G.R. Goethals, & R.M. Kramer (Eds.), Handbook of Heroism and Heroic Leadership. London: Routledge. Retrieved May 6 2019, from Routledge handbooks.