“Picking a Side,” The Western Muhajirat of ISIS: What the Women Want, What ISIS Wants with Them, and What Western Governments Can Do About It

While foreign fighters have been prevalent in many previous conflicts, approximately 10-12% of the individuals traveling to join the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) from western countries have been women. This adds a new dimension to the conflict with ISIS that has not previously been witnessed in other Islamic extremist organizations. The first part of this work focuses on why these western women, or Muhajirat as they refer to themselves, have decided to join ISIS, dispelling the notion that they are drawn merely for romantic reasons or to become "jihadi brides." The motivations for these women are often times more complex. They can range from personal motivations, such as feeling isolated in the west for their religion, to ideological motivations, such as concern over the plight of fellow Muslims in the world. After looking at the reasons why western women are interested in joining ISIS, this paper then focuses on the reasons why ISIS is attempting to recruit these women. ISIS's statements indicate that women are still not permitted to participate in direct combat operations. There are, however, four support roles that women, and particularly western women, can provide to ISIS: they contribute to more western media coverage for the group, they contribute to a sense of "normalcy" in the ISIS Caliphate, they provide necessary medical and educational skills to the organization, and they can assist in further radicalizing their ISIS husbands. The final section of this paper then provides an overview of the government programs that have been implemented by the United States and the United Kingdom (as two examples) to combat the flow of individuals traveling from their countries to join ISIS. While these programs are diverse, few of them are gender specific even though studies have shown that women can provide a moderating voice in communities that may be prone to radicalization.

Author

• Kelley, Katherine Michelle

Language

• en

Keyword

• ISIS
• Western Women
• Foreign Fighters
• Syria
• Muhajirat

Date created

• 2016

Type of Work

• Master's Thesis

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• Security Policy Studies

Degree

• M.A.

Advisor

• Spear, Joanna

Committee Member(s)

• Jensen, Michael

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/etd/s7526c478