Glamor
of Terror?
By Aline Sara,
New York
A 14, Amal* is the youngest of up to 200 women who, since 2012, have left Europe to join fundamentalist groups in war-stricken Syria.
According to media reports, Amal vanished last June, days before her Brevet, the mandatory exam for French highschool students. The teen allegedly fled home to join ISIS, the self-proclaimed Islamic State in Iraq and Syria which, on June 29, 2014 declared the establishment of a worldwide Sunni Caliphate in those same two nations.
In addition to fighting the embattled Assad regime and Free Syrian Army, themselves at war since Syria’s 2011 uprising, ISIS is currently battling Nusra, the Syrian branch
of Al Qaeda from which it broke off in February 2014.
Both ISIS, also known as ISIL (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), and the Nusra front rank high in their capacity to lure in young, often idealist, foreign recruits. Last summer, Pierre Henri Digeon, head of border control at Paris Orly Airport, told French publication RTL there were two to three departures daily for Turkey, a convenient segue into the fundamentalist wonderland.
What startles one most however is the steady flow of women leaving a relatively comfortable life in Europe and the Americas for a seemingly dismal one in Syria. While many recruits come from neighboring
Arab and North African states, at approximately 70, France boasts the highest number of female ISIS recruits, while those from the UK are at least 60. are under surveillance for are under surveillance for suspicious, jihadi-like behavior.
According to her family, Amal showed little signs of radicalization before fleeing. She left a letter under her bed, voicing a desire to reside where she could “freely practice her faith,” unlike in France, which she claimed did not accept her and her religion. Originally Algerian, Amal’s family is considered moderately religious. Until recently, she did not wear the veil.
The recruitment process
According to experts, Amal’s profile is typical of other recruits. In an interview with French magazine Liberation, anthropologist Dounia Bouzar highlights two chief methods of jihadist recruitment that entrap individuals with similar traits.
The first method, explains the expert, targets persons in search of a purpose, to which organizations like ISIS issue a “Call of Duty.” Bouzar, author of “Ils cherchent le Paradis, ils ont trouve l’enfer” (they are looking for heaven, they’ve found hell) says these individuals are usually men who lack a strong paternal figure, whether due to unemployment, issues related
to Islamophobia, or other. Joining ISIS in turn restores their sense of dignity.
The second recruitment method is particularly dangerous for women and targets individuals who are receptive to injustice and interested in humanitarianism. By denouncing Bashar al-Assad, today responsible for over 200,000 deaths and numerous accounts of torture, imprisonment and disappeances, jihadists appeal to youths who would have otherwise pursued careers in medicine, nursing, or social work, says Bouzar. were looking to save, are annihilated, says the anthropologist; “Not a
single female recruit has managed to escape.” Bouzar is also head of the Center for the Prevention of Sectarian Excesses Linked to Islam, a Paris-based organization created last winter.
Searching for Utopia
“While to us, it sounds crazy; many future recruits see life under ISIS as socially just,” explains Dalia Ghanem-Yazbeck, research analyst at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.
Many come from poverty and are marginalized by society. In Syria however, ISIS supports them financially and guarantees social services such as restoring electricity to bombed areas or providing health care.
At the same time, several women consider the Caliphate the utmost noble cause for which to live, adds Ghanem. Accordingly, it is much more appealing to be the wife of a shaheed (martyr in Arabic) than a humbling lower class worker in an increasingly Islamophobic suburban France.
ISIS offers a lifestyle that stresses unity over individualism, social services over socio-economic stratification, all while reflecting a positive and prestigious self-image on the person, says Ghanem;
“in their eyes, it is indeed almost utopic.” The reality, however, is not as romantic, as several recruits supposedly regret their original decision.
Women under ISIS
sporadic accounts of family interaction with their daughters reflect a sense of lament among the young recruits, now turned captives.
The case of 16-year-old Nour el Batty from Avignon is France’s most infamous proof. Her brother Fouad investigated his sister’s disappearance last January and tracked her location in Aleppo, Syria. According to Fouad, Nour confessed to making the greatest mistake of her life. And though after a challenging journey, he managed to see her in Aleppo; he could not bring her home for reasons that remain ambiguous. Austria’s Samra Kesinovic, 17, and Sabina Selimovic, 15, from Vienna have also made headlines in Austria, where local media says the now impregnated girls are desperate to run away.
Corroborating reports by organizations like Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International and the United Nations confirm difficult circumstances for women under ISIS, namely highly restrictive conditions on work, dress, school and freedom of movement. Rothna Begum, HRW’s women’s rights researcher,
said her organization documented incidents in which woman could not leave homes under shelling because they did not have male guardian approval.
Corroborating reports by organizations like Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International and the United Nations confirm difficult circumstances for women under ISIS, namely highly restrictive
Meanwhile, in August, the UN issued a chilling statement on approximately 1,500 Christian and Yazidi women being forced into sexual slavery. While some
reports state western recruits face a similar fate, coined under the term of sexual jihad, there is little evidence to back such claims.
Perhaps they are unable to fight, must remain veiled and are forces to babysit the children, says Ghanem. None of the sources TRENDS contacted could confirm
allegations of recruits being forced into sexual slavery.
The social network
Every expert interviewed for this story confirmed the indubitable power of social media in ISIS’ recruitment efforts.
Using, Raqqa, ISIS’ headquarters in Syria, as its showcase, the group is genius at marketing and has mastered the power of the web, says Ghanem. The female presence is also widespread on social media.
Aqsa Mahmood – also known as Oum Layth – who at age 20, left Glasgow to join ISIS in November 2013 offers tips on her blog on how to follow in her footsteps and marry a fighter. Other women tweet images of themselves brandishing rifles while covered in their niqab. Those same women tweet images
“…Human Rights Watch documented incidents in which women could not leave homes under shelling because they did not have male guardian approval”
“there is no such thing as offensive, aggressive jihad just because people have different religions or opinions” and emphasized that enslaving women violates an age-old Islamic ban on slavery.
In addition to heightened surveillance, a number of efforts are taking place to counter ISIS’ recruitment strategies, including governmental initiatives, such as the State Department’s Think again Turn away campaign.
As for women jihadists, there’s an increasing amount of pushback, says Khalil. While thousands of men who have gone to fight, women remain a few hundred, perhaps because they are more
rational and less impulsive, states the writer, who recently completed a consultancy on international lone wolf terrorism for the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate
“Even Al-Qaeda, once the most feared terrorist network in the world, has criticized ISIL for killing civilians and waging war on other Muslims,” argues Khalid, in her October op-ed in Al Jazeera America. While there is a long way to go, she is convinced it is every Muslim’s duty to speak out against injustices against all human beings.
of themselves proudly cooking for the family. Mixing domesticity with violence, the marketing speaks on the one hand to woman’s traditional role as a housewife, and on the other to the romanticized idea of taking up arms, or supporting the men that do, also known as “mujahids.”
Perhaps the most distressing of all is Dabiq, ISIS’ apocalyptic online magazine whose October edition, The Failed Crusade, blatantly calls on Muslims to hunt down unfaithful “crusaders.” Published in multiple languages, the 56- page publication is a testimony to ISIS’s shameless fundamentalism. Complete with sophisticated imagery, the issue, which can be downloaded for free, features an article that justifies the enslavement of women minorities as “a firmly established aspect of the Shariah,” as well as photos underscoring ISIS’ social work such as one of a child being treated for cancer at ISIS’ expense.
Part of the indoctrination method includes hours of footage depicting Assad’s torture of children, explains Ghanem. According to the analyst, US-EU military intervention that started last August only bolsters the Islamists’ rhetoric.
The counter narrative
Islam. Last September, over 120 international scholars wrote an open letter to ISIS in which they defied the group’s interpretation of the Koran. The statement, addressed to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi deemed the claim of a caliphate without consensus from all Muslims illegitimate. The letter also stressed
