Last weekend’s disappearance of three female British teenagers from London, who are now believed to have entered Syria to join the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), has prompted many questions about how joining a terrorist organization, known for its extreme brutality and violence toward women, could be so alluring.
This isn’t the first time women have left their families to join the terrorist organization. British security officials estimate that at least 50 female Britons have done the same.
A think tank may have some answers after it translated an ISIS manifesto that deals with the role of women in society called, “Women of the Islamic State: A Manifesto on women by the Al-Khanssaa Brigade.” The all-female brigade was created in the Syrian city of Raqqa, an ISIS stronghold, to crack down on male activists who try to avoid detection by dressing as women.
The document was translated by counterextremist think tank Quilliam Foundation, which describes the writings as a “perversion of feminism.”
