ISIS Targeting Women to be Jihadi Wives
Middle East terrorist group ISIS has reached a new low with their attempt to tell women how to be the “ultimate wives” of ISIS.
As reported the UK’s Independent, a new ISIS media group is broadcasting guides over social networks about how to feed and support their men as they go about murdering and doing battle in the field. The group, called The Zora Foundation, has put out a number of amateur propaganda posters in Arabic accompanied by drawings and messages about how to support your man if he is involved with ISIS.
ISIS is notorious for its savvy use of social media both to promote propaganda and to recruit more members to its bloody cause. There have been a few recent cases of young girls, radicalized online, who have run off of become wives of ISIS members.
In the UK, the Mirror reports that two British girls — ages 15 and 17 — skipped town to become ISIS wives sometime in September. The so-called “Jihadi brides” left the UK and are believed to have gone to Turkey, where they would then likely continue on to Iraq or Syria.
In Colorado, the New York Times reports that two school-age girls nearly made it to Syria to be ISIS wives but were found and sent back home. In both cases, it is not clear how exactly people connected with ISIS are convincing young teenage girls to leave their homes and travel thousands of miles to an unfamiliar country to marry men they don’t know, though it does seem to be done through online platforms.
The newest, more organized attempt to make being an ISIS wife seem attractive includes some tips on how to make snacks for Jihadi fighters, do manual labor and sewing in the home, and provide first aid. The social media accounts broadcasting the propaganda, established about two weeks ago, already have more than 2,000 followers.
One recipe for a sweet snack describes it as a treat that “should be taken with coffee and will replenish the mujahidin,” and describes it as an excellent way to build up strength “in between battles” as “they contain many calories, and will prolong the strength and power of the mujahid”.
Charlie Winter, a counter-terrorism researcher the Quilliam Foundation, a think tank, told the Independent that he’s never seen anything like the most recent recruitment by ISIS.
“There will probably be forums doing similar things online, but this is the first time I’ve come across an actual media organisation giving guidance to women on their role,” said Winter of the ISIS propaganda videos and messages.
[The still comes from a video aimed specifically at women.]
