Jihadist Female Equal Opportunity: Changing Role of Women Who Joined IS

A report finds that Western women, who became radicalized and joined terrorist groups in Syria, play a more active role in helping to incite terror attacks than it was previously believed.

MOSCOW, January 18 (Sputnik) – The role of Western women who are joining the Islamic State (IS) in Syria is changing: women are not simply going to Syria to become brides for the jihadists, but have been calling for further terror attacks on home soil.

Western women joining IS militants in Syria have been portrayed as having passive roles – joining the terrorist gangs to find themselves suitable husbands among the jihadists and bear their children, the Guardian reports. Nowadays, however, this has changed and women have started to play more active roles, by working as IS recruiters and urging other radicalized individuals back home to carry out terrorist attacks.

“British women tend to incite [attacks], they say to people that can’t move to the Islamic State: ‘Why not carry out something at home?’ That’s a common message: if you can’t leave your family behind or afford to move to Syria then carry out something.” – says Melanie Smith, a research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization (ICSR) at King’s College London, as cited by the Guardian.

Significant number of UK women praising Paris attacks. “May Allah help them kill as many kafirs as they can" http://t.co/DWkJuBxmho

— Rebecca Erol (@RebeccaErol) 17 января 2015

Smith says although these women might not have the same level of military training as their male counterparts, these women should not be taken lightly. There is a risk that some of these women, upon return to their home countries, would carry out suicide attacks, the Guardian reports.

The rise of female jihadists euronews, world news http://t.co/5NGWB1EZzG

— Mia Bloom (@MiaMBloom) 12 января 2015

Reports about widespread discrimination by the IS against women have been documented in the past. The militants force women to wear the niqab, a full-body robe, control their movement and forbid education. Eight women have been stoned to death for alleged adultery and at least 10 females were killed for speaking against the IS, the Times of Israel reports. Despite being the grave place to be a female, IS-controlled Northern Syria has attracted as many as 70 women from Western countries.

According to New America, a Washington D.C. based think tank, out of 455 individuals arrested while trying to travel into Syria to join the jihadists, 36 were women from the West. Most of these women are very young, with their average age being only 18 years, CNN says.

Female jihadists come from a number of Western countries, including Australia, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Britain and the United States, CNN reports.