WHO ARE THE WESTERN WOMEN OF ISIS?

In treating women, ISIS has a dual attitude. Women it considers heretics are treated as slaves, whose main role is to be commodities that can be traded and given away as rewards to jihadist fighters. This type of slavery is formally approved by ISIS leadership, as it is described in the pamphlet titled “Questions and Answers on Taking Captives and Slaves” printed by ISIS’s publishing house Al-Himma Library (2014; also see Smith 2014). This pamphlet clarifies ISIS’s interpretation of the position of Islamic law on possessing, treating, punishing and treading non-Muslim female slaves. It justifies a treatment of women that is outrageous and unacceptable in the modern world.

On the other hand, ISIS recognizes the Muslim women who migrated to its territory as essential key players for building the so-called “Caliphate.” The goal of ISIS was to establish a new state with a permanent society and for that they needed not only fighters but citizens to ensure its functionality and longevity. Al-Baghdadi in his inaugural speech called on all Muslims from around the world to move to the “Caliphate” to help build its infrastructure and society. A growing number of Muslim women and converts heed that call and voluntarily make hijra. To identify themselves, these women extensively use the term muhajirah,Footnote ² to express the religious nature of their movement to the “Caliphate.”

The exact number of women from the West in ISIS is uncertain, but they are believed to represent about 10–15% of the number of Westerners who have migrated to join ISIS. Many Western countries do not have official data on the number of their female residents who have joined ISIS, mainly due to the lack of confirmation if they joined ISIS or other militant groups in the territory of Syria and Iraq. This is often unclear with women who accompanied their husbands who moved to become foreign fighters for different militant groups.

It is also impossible to create profiles of women from the West who made hijra based on age, level of education, family background, social or financial status and ethnical or political affiliation. They are mainly aged between 16 and 24 years, with women of other ages included, and with the youngest believed to be a 13-year-old girl from Germany (Sherwood et al. Reference Sherwood, Laville, Willsher, Knight, French and Gambino2014).

Many women traveled either with their families in support to their jihadi husbands who had decided to join ISIS as foreign fighters, or as newlyweds with husbands they had found on the Internet, to avoid traveling unaccompanied and arriving in ISIS-controlled territory unmarried. Others traveled with relatives, with a group of female friends, only with children or alone. Some cases show three-generation families moving together, like a family of 12 of Bangladeshi heritage from Great Britain, ranging from small grandchildren to grandparents, who are believed to have gone to Syria (Dodd and Khomami Reference Dodd and Khomami2015).

In most cases, they are descendants of Muslim immigrants, but there is also a significant number of converts. For women and girls who moved alone, family support differs from cases in which girls were encouraged to move by family members or close relativesFootnote ³ (Calderwood Reference Calderwood2015) to others in which families were disappointed and shocked by their decisionFootnote ⁴ (Petrou Reference Petrou2015).

The motivation of women also varies, making the understanding of their aims and expectations of life in the “Caliphate” very difficult.

PUSH AND PULL MOTIVATING FACTORS

The motivations of women joining ISIS do not necessarily differ from the motivations of men making the same decision and can vary from one person to another. There are a number of push and pull factors that lead women to join ISIS. There are, among them, three main groups of political, ideological (including religious) and personal motivations. According to Saltman and Smith (Reference Saltman and Smith2015), the major push factors are often similar, if not the same, to those of their male counterparts: a misconception that the Muslim community is persecuted worldwide; anger and frustration over international inaction; social and cultural isolation and consequent identity crisis.

Like for many men, the oppression of Muslims is one of the main motivations, to join the jihad in Syria, that women publish on their social media accounts. Due to the perceived inactivity of the international community in protecting Muslims, women often present as their ideological and religious duty to support the fight against the Assad regime and to relieve suffering Syrians. Strongly adhering to the idea of the afterlife, some women see participation in jihad as a way to secure their place in Jannah (Paradise).

Descendants of Muslim immigrants in Europe often expressed their frustration with their status in the West and their discomfort with the traditional Muslim heritage of their families and with Western culture. Faced with an identity crisis, they looked for a sense of belonging and recognized the newly proclaimed Muslim “Caliphate” as an ideal place for a fresh start. As Aqsa Mahmood, one of the most prominent ISIS online recruiters, stated: “I feel like I have no direction in life anymore. It’s funny how things work out, once upon a time I used to be such a career obsessed girl. Now I have no clue. I just want another fresh start and to do it right this time.” (Bradford Reference Bradford2015)

Other personal reasons that lead women to move to the “Caliphate” are dissatisfaction or disappointment with different aspects of their lives, boredom, desire for adventure and alternatives to their current life, adolescent rebellion, troubling family relationships and traumatic experiences, sexual abuse or honor-related violence, etc.

Main pull factors were: idealistic goals of religious duty to help build a utopian Muslim “Caliphate”; new life that offers a sense of belonging and sisterhood; romantic and adventurous experience of life in Syria (Saltman and Smith Reference Saltman and Smith2015). Al-Baghdadi’s call upon all Muslims to help create the new Muslim “Caliphate” motivated many women who wanted to take part in the state-building process and who expected to be given an important role in creating the new ideologically pure state, in contrast with the imperfections of the infidel Western society.

The theological significance of the proclamation of the “Caliphate” and the possibility of contributing to the creation of a new better society were recognized as strong motivational factors for women to make hijra. In that society, they expected to live in a properly authentic Islamic state in which the Islamic law, sharia, is fully implemented.

Behind this motivational factor was the willingness of some women to achieve more important roles than being only the wife of a jihadi fighter and the mother of a “lion of a Caliphate.” Umm Waqas, a Seattle-based Islamic State online recruiter, tweeted that people “should realize that NO SISTER leaves the comfort of their homes just to marry a man,” referring to the hashtag “#jihadibrides” (Cottee Reference Cottee2016). Such expectations often included desire of some women to participate in fighting and in dying a martyr’s death.

WOMEN-ORIENTED SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN

To lure Western women, ISIS has introduced a specially designed social media campaign with the aim of presenting the “Caliphate” as an ideal place for a new start for all disillusioned Westerners. ISIS, more than any other jihadist group, is adept at using the plethora of Internet platforms available to reach digitally accessible audiences, like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Skype, etc. A carefully planned social media campaign, primarily (but not only) led by those female supporters who have already joined the group, was not focused only on glorifying ISIS activities and to promote its ideology and goals, but on talking about individual experiences of life in the ISIS-controlled territory. By presenting their normal daily activities, such as cooking, making Nutella pancakes or posting romantic pictures and writing blogs of normal daily-life activities, ISIS’s female online promoters were offering a picture of life under ISIS’s rule that was positive and attractive to potential female recruits, with the aim of encouraging migration to the “Caliphate.”

Their aim was to convince all women who had shown interest in ISIS’s ideology and goals that living conditions of women in the ISIS-led territory were better than in the West. “Syria is amazing,” one of ISIS’s male recruiters named Bilel said. “We have everything here. Masha’Allah, you have to believe me: it’s paradise! A lot of women fantasize about us; we’re Allah’s warriors” (Erelle Reference Erelle2015). In support of the idea of making hijra, ISIS’s online promoters provided detailed instructionsFootnote ⁵ on travel and preparation for life in Syria or Iraq, as well as on communications with families back home. They were also trying to prepare potential female migrants for different roles in ISIS, for example housewives and facilitators, giving them detailed instructions on expected behavior and dressing code once they arrived.

Such narratives supported romanticized image of jihad, presented by images of courageous and brave fighters and modest and honorable wives and mothers. Numerous online accounts, showing pictures of good-looking macho men adoring their completely veiled women, with beautiful sunsets, kittens and small children playing around them, lured many young Muslim women to move to the “Caliphate.”

Possible difficulties on getting used to different social norms and everyday life, dictated by the Islamic law, and adapting to new living conditions in a warzone were also announced in advance, but presented as a sacrifice necessary to improve the chances of entering Jannah.

WHY ISIS NEEDS WOMEN FROM THE WEST

ISIS is not just a terrorist group. It aspired to become a fully functional state and as any other state it needed women, especially from the West, for many reasons. First, it needed wives for thousands of Western foreign fighters, to keep them in the ISIS-controlled territory and to raise their children – a new generation of jihadists. Women from the West were regarded as better wives for Western foreign fighters than local women, due to traditional obstacles that domestic women had to marry foreigners, as well as cultural and linguistic differences among them. Not less important, the recruitment of women from Western countries was seen as glorifying ISIS’s ideology and was thought to be a victory over the West.

ISIS did not need just naïve brainwashed would-be “jihadi brides.” It needed educated, smart and skilled women who were willing to come to help build the infrastructure of the Islamic state and to occupy professional female positions. It needed female teachers and doctors if it wanted its women to be taught and treated only by women, or female police officers to control the civilian population, especially other women, to check if they behaved in public in accordance with the strict rules of the Islamic law.

ISIS also needed female online recruiters to recruit other women to join ISIS and to promote the idealistic living conditions the group offered in the territory under its control. It needed women to share their own impressions and experience of life in Syria and Iraq that had to be attractive to would-be female migrants. It also needed women to motivate men – “our brothers” to join the groupFootnote ⁶ or to conduct terrorist attacks in the name of ISIS in their countries of residence.Footnote ⁷ Other known examples of activities of women in ISIS included collecting taxes and donations from abroad.

Women on the battlefields were needed to film military accomplishments of ISIS fighters for promotional reasons and to support soldiers by cooking or nursing. The involvement of women in fighting was, at the beginning, considered as not acceptable but not strictly forbidden. In October 2017, after the significant loss of territory and male cadres, ISIS officially called on women to take arms and fight.

However, not all women who moved to the “Caliphate” were satisfied with the roles that ISIS had planned for them or with the living conditions that they had found in the “Islamic state.”

THE LIFE OF WOMEN FROM THE WEST IN THE “CALIPHATE”

All that we know about the reality of life for Western women comes from social media posts or rarely from women who succeeded to escape from ISIS-controlled territory and returned home. Data retrieved through ISIS-controlled social media accounts primarily served as propaganda which emphasized satisfaction and amazement with the living conditions, relations with the established “sisterhood” and the sense of belonging women had found in the “Caliphate.”

However, there were also insights into the complaints about daily life for females, often domestically isolated in severe conditions and on the realities of living in war zones. Instead of five-star hotels and other attributes of the promoted “Muslim Disneyland,” the reality included frequent gunfire, many ruined buildings, spotty electricity, insufficient medical care, etc.

Once in Syria, women were subject to Islamic law and rules of dress and behavior that were different from the West. They lost their freedom to leave the house without the permission of a man or without a male relative’s accompaniment. The dress code and behavior in public were also very strict and subject to harsh punishment in case of violations. Instead of schools and universities, ISIS introduced the so-called forums of young Muslim women, where they were taught in Islamist ideology and selected to become members of the all-female police brigade or nurses for ISIS fighters. Working with males was strongly forbidden and punished.

Some women were unhappy with polygamy and refused to enter plural marriages (Lahoud Reference Lahoud2015). Even though separation in the case of men’s death was presented as honorable for women, whose status would have increased considerably both in the community and in their chances of entering Jannah, many women found obligatory remarriages traumatic and unacceptable. It was possible for a woman who became a widow to return home, but without her children who belonged to the Islamic State.

WOMEN AND VIOLENCE

Considering the threat that the returning women of ISIS could pose to the West, it is important to assess their attitudes toward violence and their intentions to perpetrate terrorist activities. The phenomenon of girls and young women making hijra to join ISIS has been portrayed through gendered stereotypes and explained by labeling them as “jihadi brides.” In reality, we have documented an active participation of ISIS women in violence or their active support of it.

There are many posts in the social media in which ISIS women support and celebrate brutality and violence, even against other women. They justify the mistreatment and sexual abuse of Yazidi women and girls, run slave markets and support and conduct punishments of women who do not abide by the required behavior and dress code. They also rival the men when it comes to brutality. They call for “more beheadings,” celebrate executions of hostages and approve crucifixion. Mujahidah Bint Usama, a former British medical student, posted a photograph of herself in nurse uniform, holding up a severed head in her hand. Some women indicate a personal desire to inflict violence, including executions, like a woman from the United Kingdom, Khadijah Dare, who declared her desire to become the first woman to commit an execution of ISIS’s enemies.

The women of ISIS are no longer only supporters of violence but have become active perpetrators of it. Local sources reported in March 2016 that a 12-year-old girl, who was under control of the Islamic State, executed five women in Mosul, Iraq (Clarion Project 2016). This is considered to be the first time that ISIS used a young girl as executioner.

Contrary to what many photographs of young women posing with or using Kalashnikovs suggest, Western women, even those of them lured by the possibility of participating in combat, at the beginning were not allowed to actively take part in fighting. Such possibility was clearly renounced by ISIS online promoters but not strictly forbidden. As it is stated in the document in Arabic posted on a jihadist forum in January 2015, titled “Women in the Islamic State: Manifesto and Case Studies,” a combat role for ISIS women is possible, but only in the case of extreme situations of an enemy attack against the country, insufficient number of men or a fatwa issued by an imam. A different situation is present in Libya, one of the “safe havens” of ISIS affiliates. A Libyan military council confirmed for the first time that Islamic State was using women, believed to be Tunisian, in combat roles on the frontline (Trew Reference Trew2016). The situation has changed after ISIS continued to lose territory in Syria and Iraq in the second half of 2017 when women were called on to take arms and fight.

Women also often expressed online the willingness to become martyrs. In some women’s own narratives, they were becoming suicide bombers for exactly the same reason men were. They are religiously motivated and they believe their salvation is dependent upon it. Conservative jihadi groups often do not allow females into combat roles or use them as suicide bombers unless there is a clear advantage in doing so. In May 2015 it was published that ISIS used a new wedding certificate in which it was stated that a jihadi bride could carry out suicide missions without her husband’s permission. That meant that the final decision over her life rested with the ISIS leader Al-Baghdadi: “If the Prince of Believers (Baghdadi) consents to her carrying out a suicide mission, then her husband should not prohibit her” (Saul Reference Saul2015). This may suggest that ISIS was preparing to use female cadres for suicide missions in the future.

But even if Western women did not all participate in fighting, some were already trained to use Kalashnikovs for their own protection. Members of all-female brigade Al-Khansaa brigade were also armed. Composed of mostly British women, they enforced morality, dress standards, sex segregation, operated at checkpoints, oversaw the sex slave trades and went on home raids. They could order the brutal punishment of anyone they deemed as having broken the rules of ISIS.

ISIS women in Syria were also very active in propagating terrorist activities to be conducted by ISIS sympathizers in the West. Sally Jones, aka Umm Hussein Britaniya, posted multiple threats to Westerners in the UK, inciting lone wolves to carry out attacks there during the month of Ramadan in 2016. On May 24, 2016, Jones on her Twitter account called on Muslim women located in the UK to “rise at Ramadan! … and kill the kuffar that suppress them.” Following up, she posted that attacks were likely to take place on subways in central London. On the other hand, women at the forefront of a terrorist attack, like Hasna Aitboulahcen in Paris and Tashfeen Malik in San Bernardino, could have had an important role, if it turns out that they had radicalized and motivated their husbands to carry out the terrorist attack, as some analysts suspect.

Not less dangerous are women who were not able to move to Syria, who were stopped when they were trying to do so, or who instead opted to “stay and act in place,” plotting for or carrying out lethal attacks in their own countries. Tashfeen Malik from San Bernardino, for instance, gave her bayat (allegiance) to ISIS before going on her fateful mission to attack and kill inside the United States. There are many other examples.