Abdalaziz Alhamza “RBSS”
This phenomenon, female fighters known as Mojahidat, has raised a lot of questions, as a result of their striking existence in the terrorist group in addition to the recent discovery of several networks that recruit girls in several countries around the world.
It also raises questions about their numbers, their motivations to join ISIS, their acceptance of living in a dangerous environment and their future.
Syria and Iraq are not the only source for female fighters, countries of North Africa, especially Tunisia, are among the most exporting countries for female fighters in addition to Egypt and Saudi Arabia. A lot of women from western European countries, such as France, Britain and Germany, have also joined ISIS.
Most of these female fighters are between 18 – 25 years old, which constitutes a danger to their countries’ national security.
Khadijah Dare, a 22 years old Britain woman who has studied media and psychology at one of London’s universities, has tweeted:” I want to be the first UK woman to kill a UK or US terrorist”.
Khadijah, who converted to Islam at the age of 18, moved to Syria in 2012 along with her husband. She is not the only UK woman in ISIS; statics of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in UK noted that European women make up a one-sixth of western fighters in ISIS.
ISIS used female fighters in recruiting new fighters by letting them marry from these new fighters in order to make it easier for them to integrate in the new society. Moreover, a lot of female fighters serve in women’s battalions, such as Al-Khansaa Brigade which is responsible for monitoring women acts at streets in addition to recruiting new women.
It is worth noted that recruitment networks use social media in order to reach new girls, and then work individually on each girl to convince her to support the terrorist group and move to ISIS controlled area.
