ISIS Recruitment of Western Women
March 22, 2016
In the past two decades I have interviewed almost five hundred terrorists, extremists, and in the case of dead suicide terrorists—their family members, close associates or hostages. These interviews have taken place in Europe, North America, Turkey, Russia and the Middle East. My research questions have always been the same—to learn what put them on the terrorist trajectory, and what might have prevented that, and what could be done to take them back off it.
In that vein I consulted with the UK government when they were putting together their PREVENT program and I also designed the psychological and Islamic challenge portions of what came to be known as the US Department of Defense’s Detainee Rehabilitation Program to be applied to the more than 20,000 detainees and 800 juveniles that US forces held in Iraq in 2007.
We all know that the Islamic State (IS) is the most powerful, ruthless, horrific and well-funded terrorist group in recent history. Today we are here to talk about their recruitment of western women. Sadly, all over the world, young, Western women are slipping out of their bedrooms, giving silent farewells and leaving heart-rending notes to their families—apologizing for their sudden disappearances. Young women—even girls—are taking their leave all across the globe—from Paris, London, Copenhagen, Sydney, and in the United States from cities like Denver, Colorado.
Their stories differ—yet they are the same in many respects. These young girls are sometimes seduced in person, but most often have been seduced over the Internet, by men and women already in, or supporters of ISIS. Taking flights to Istanbul, they continue south making their way over the Syrian border into the ranks of ISIS—often leaving little trace.
According to colleagues at the George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, seventy-one individuals in the United States have been charged with Islamic-State related activities since March of 2014. Ten of these were women—that’s fourteen percent of the total for the American sample. Of the foreign fighters currently in Syria and Iraq, there are estimated to be over five hundred female recruits, dozens of them from Western countries.[i] Women and girls now make up nearly one-fifth of the twenty thousand foreign fighters estimated to have gone to fight with ISIS and related groups. Most become brides of ISIS and mothers, but some have taken on other roles. A Canadian woman is believed, based on the GPS tracking her movements via her phone, to be working as an ISIS spy. Another woman was recently reported to be a fighting commander. The roles women take in terrorist organizations vary, but keep in mind, militant jihadi organizations are generally male dominated, and women generally only take leadership roles over other women. In ISIS, the roles women are taking on will continue to shape the battle with this new global enemy.
