From Wives to Spies: How Women Become Daesh Warriors

An Egyptian specialist on Islamist groups, Maher Fargali, told Sputnik that the women in these groups are no longer limited to just playing the role of a wife and mother, but are now full members, performing some tasks better than men.

"Women of the terrorist groups are now collecting money. In some organizations, for example, in the Muslim Brotherhood, they have the right to vote in the elections within the organization,” Fargali told Sputnik. 

In regard to the role of women in Daesh they are entrusted with “tracking down targets, installing explosives and carrying out terrorist suicide operations, as they do not attract as much attention from the police and are rarely noticed,” the specialist said.

Fargali further said that Daesh women are trained in special camps, for example, in Iraq's Al-Hansa. 

The "graduates" of this camp were tasked with patrolling the streets of Raqqa and ensuring that all other women were complying with the norms of Sharia [Islamic law], Fargali explained.

According to the specialist this revision of the role of woman is not connected with the fact that a large number of European women had joined the ranks of these Islamist organizations. The change started occurring even before that.

"The active involvement of women in the terrorist organizations is associated with an acute shortage of personnel because of a large-scale war against terrorism, which is being fought on several fronts simultaneously," Fargali said.

The specialist believes that it is vital that the security services closely monitor these women who become active terrorists just like men. "In the future, these women need to be sent for clinical treatments in order to clear their brains after their stay in Daesh camps,” Fargali said.

Prepared to Replace Dead Militants

Sputnik's correspondent in Iraq, Nazek Muhammed, also shared her opinion about the rising involvement of women with Daesh. She said that in Iraq it has become quite obvious that the role of women in the ranks of the terrorists has changed. 

"In the beginning, women were used to attract young people to the ranks of terrorists. Especially attractive were the foreigners. These women were traditional wives and housewives. However, large losses in the ranks of the militants have forced their leadership to reconsider [their] views on women. Now they are being prepared as a replacement to the dead terrorists. As a result, they fight side by side with men," Nazek said.

She further said that the majority of Iraqi women do not want to fight side by side with Daesh militants. 

"In the provinces of Anbar, Mosul and Salah al-Din, terrorists failed to recruit women. Only prostitutes went to them because the militants threatened them with the death penalty,” Nazek said.

As evidenced by the results of a recent research, according to the electronic journal New Eastern Outlook out of the 40,000 social network accounts that support Daesh 16,000 accounts belong to women. 

These women act as key nodes in spreading Daesh propaganda, such as looking for more supporters and restoring ties between the group members, the journal reported.

According to Fargali, fighting Daesh online is of utmost importance and requires the unity of several countries at once.

"There are 70 books available online right now that explain the principles of extremists' activities. This helps them to recruit new people into their ranks. At the same time, there is not a single book on the internet that would explain the delusions and lies of terrorists who are using quotes from the Quran and the Sunnah,” the specialist said.