WUNRN
What Is
Luring Western Women to Syria to Join Isil?
From left: Kadiza Sultana,
Shamima Begum and Amira Abase going through security at Gatwick airport Photo:
Metropolitan Police/PA
By Elizabeth
Pearson, King’s College
London – 23 February 2015
UK - In
the CCTV images from Gatwick, they look like any three teenage girls heading
off on a half-term holiday.
Last
week, school friends Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase,
15, all students at East London’s Bethnal Green Academy,boarded a
Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul and disappeared.
It is feared they may
already have arrived in Syria, intent on starting a new life
with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).
Their
families, who had no idea of their plans, are devastated. Metropolitan police
counter-terrorism commander Richard Walton says they are in grave danger, and
is very concerned about “the number of girls who have either travelled or are
planning to travel to Syria at this time”. This suggests a growing phenomenon.
So far
though the numbers of women and girls travelling to join Isil are relatively
low. Figures are not exact, but it is thought around 10 to 20 per cent of
Europeans joining Isil are women, with some 50 cases from the UK.
We think
we know what men want – to fight. But with almost daily reports of slavery,
rape, and enforced domestication, why, we wonder, would women want to join
Isil?
Personal
connections
The first
‘lure’ is perhaps a ‘who’ not a ‘what’. Social media is one of the main ways by
which researchers can access what is happening to women who join Isil, and what
they see is women already there actively appealing to others to join them.
Some
contacts may be known to them in the real world, others only via the internet.
In December, another girl student at Bethnal Green Academy went out to Syria.
She was friends with the girls who travelled this week.
Last
summer, twins Salma and Zahra Halane, from Manchester followed their brother to
Syria.
Who they
know matters.
Jihadi
brides
Men too
can be a motivation for single women. As a recent manifesto by the women’s Al
Khansaa Brigade revealed, the Isil vision for women is essentially one of
domesticity. Isil needs women, and it wants them as wives.
Marrying
a jihadi fighter is an appealing prospect for some women, who source a partner
even before they arrive. For young women, this is the lure of romantic
adventure. Sara Khan from the women’s counter-extremism organisation Inspire
describes websites facilitating a jihadi match as a form of ‘grooming’.
But Isil
also wants wives who are committed to the cause. A second ‘lure’ then is the
Utopian vision of society propagandised by Isil. A chaperone to aid arrival, a
home, a monthly allowance.
This lure
is practical, but also ideological. It is an explicit rejection of the
perceived superficiality of the West, of feminism, of gender equality. It is a
rejection of a culture of ‘beauty salons’ and boutique stores. It is a land of
shared purpose, with none of the complexity or confusion of British teenage
life. For those feeling alienated from British society and seeking easy
answers, this can be a powerful draw.
So too
for those women who are committed ideologues, who passionately believe in
Isil's brand of Sharia law. The question of a ‘lure’ suggests entrapment, an
innocence in the women joining Isil. But we should not assume that women’s
motivations for joining Isil are any less political than those of men.
Violence
Is
violence another attraction?
For some
women, perhaps. But whatever women want – and some certainly express the desire
to fight – there are no easy pathways for women to the frontlines in Isil.
So far,
the physical fight is for men only, with women in a supportive role.
Prospects
at home
It is
important to understand what lures women to Isil. But we should also consider
what women are lured from.
The three
teenagers in the grainy CCTV images are young, vulnerable, but also hopeful. We
are told they are grade A students, thoughtful, bright.
What made
them consider their prospects in al-Baghdadi’s self-styled
"Caliphate" better than their future in the UK?
If we
want to stop the agony of British parents who fear they will never again see
their children, and the expansion of a regime that routinely enslaves women,
and engages in every imaginable level of violence, we need to understand the
answers to this question too.