Recently, three American girls were stopped in Germany en route to join ISIS in Turkey.
In
fact, many women are flocking to the Middle East to join ISIS.
Estimates put the number in the
hundreds.
But why?
Why are women so eager to join a militant group that’s so publicly anti-
women?
Well, the answer is complicated - in that there isn’t really just one reason.
Once women
successfully join ISIS, they usually cut off ties with their old life, leaving only a trail
of mystery for
their families to try to figure out.
The main recruiting tool ISIS is using to attract women is social media.
ISIS is active on
Twitter and Facebook, and regularly releases online recruiting videos promising women a
chance to “join a new utopian society.”
The internet is also used as a tool for marriage, where
Western women meet ISIS soldiers that they will soon marry to become “jihad brides.”
These
brides help the cause by cooking, cleaning, and raising children - a far cry from the
“utopian”
society they were promised.
Some experts studying the motives of Western women joining ISIS, claim that it may just
be for the adventure of it all.
Young women, just like young men, are attracted to traveling to a
foreign land and fighting in a war.
Women who join ISIS write about military training and learning
how to shoot guns.
But ISIS doesn’t use women on the front lines.
They use them more as
police, manning checkpoints and inspecting other Muslim women.
Women are also joining ISIS for religious reasons.
ISIS fighters are Sunni Muslims, and
preach about how their community is being persecuted - which helps influence Sunni women
all around the world.
By joining ISIS, they believe that they’re helping a cause that’s directly
protecting their culture’s way of life.
Other Western women feel alienated in their own country,
for reasons like the French ban on Muslim veils.
Women are joining ISIS because they want to
be on the front lines of a new Islamic state.
Again, there isn’t just one reason these women are joining ISIS.
And we’re not exactly sure
how they’re being treated after joining.
Yes, some still update their social media pages - but
some experts think that ISIS men are the ones that are actually controlling what’s written.
What we do know is how ISIS views women.
There’s evidence of sex slavery, rape, and death
sentences.
And the perplexing thing is, some women who join ISIS not only agree with this
treatment, but are traveling halfway across the world in order to support it.