The real war on women.
Months after declaring an Islamic caliphate, Islamic State, which has seized large swaths of Syria and Iraq, is seeking to address a need of any viable nation: women.
In Internet posts and social media messaging, the extremist Sunni militants are recruiting women to marry their fighters and have children, part of a larger strategy of state-building.
“They are treating the Islamic State as a country that needs women,” said Rita Katz, director of the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors online activity by militant organizations. “The message is: ‘You are coming to marry someone immediately and have kids and cook.’ They’re building a state.”[…]
Reports of women answering the call to support the Islamic State are on the rise. “Six, seven months ago you had maybe one or two, but suddenly you have so many popping up,” Katz said.
This month, a 19-year-old Colorado woman pleaded guilty in a Denver federal court to providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization after the FBI arrested her in April as she attempted to travel to Syria. At least one Minnesota woman is believed by authorities to have traveled to Syria in recent weeks — telling her parents she had gone to help treat the wounded — and the FBI is looking into additional reports.
Over the Labor Day weekend, a teenage girl planning to go to Syria was arrested at an airport in southern France, and the man who allegedly recruited her was arrested shortly afterward. Days later, the family of a 20-year-old Scottish woman revealed that she had traveled to Syria in November 2013, where she is believed to have been posting online under the pseudonym Umm Layth and encouraging other young women to make the same journey.
One Islamic State fighter recently wrote on his Tumblr page that “on average, around 10-20 sisters, sometimes more, arrive here in Islamic State [territory] everyday.”