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Photo taken from Buzzfeed |
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Photo taken from Twitter |
Not every woman that is fighting jihad with ISIS is a member of the al-Khansaa brigade. Many practice their loyalty by means of marrying ISIS fighters, promoting the jihad via social media or participating in the promotion or act of sexual comfort roles. Sites like Twitter and Tumblr have become a way for these female ISIS supporters to document their lives and experiences while recruiting women to join their cause. Some of these marriages have taken the " Islamic form of temporary marriage, mutt'a. Mutt'a marriage refers to an old Shia tradition that labels mutt'a marriage as the alternative to permanent marriage. The practice of mutt'a is derived from the issue of Shia soldiers wanting sexual/romantic comfort when they were far from their homes and families in a way that was still halal and would allow both parties to "work within the confines" of Shia law. The practice of mutt'a marriage has been a point of intense controversy between the Sunni and Shia communities. Understanding the purpose and derivation of mutt'a (or comfort) marriage is important in the process of identifying the hypocrisy of ISIS and effort to justify rape, torture, kidnapping, and human trafficking through the misinterpretation of Islamic scripture, tradition, and law... not to mention the fact that ISIS is a self-proclaimed Sunni group, justifying their violence through a twisted form of old Shia law. Aside from making sure that all women keep in line with Sharia law, the women in ISIS also provide the men with the opportunity to reproduce more future ISIS fighters. It has also been reported that women who are sympathetic to the struggles of ISIS are volunteering for jihad al-nikah, or sexual jihad, with ISIS fighters. “Females from Britain, Australia, and Malaysia are among the hundreds of comfort women in Syria and Iraq;” this highlights the international reach that ISIS has.
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Social Media for recruitment and promotional purposes |
Although ISIS began as an exclusively male jihadist group, they now encourage and recruit women to promote and enforce Sharia Law. "We have established the brigade to raise awareness of our religion among women, and to punish women who do not abide by the law," Abu Ahmad, an ISIS official in Raqqa, told Syria Deeply’s Ahmad al-Bahri. Women were originally recruited to check women at checkpoints to verify the womanhood of each traveller. However, their role now extends to upholding Sharia law in the cases of women and children. They call themselves the al-Khansaa’ Brigade and are based in Raqqa. Zainab, a Syrian teenager, was arrested by the al-Khansaa' Brigade and describes her experience. "The brigade has created fear among the women and girls of Raqqa," Zainab says. "We've seen how they move, always watching women on the street, raiding schools, arresting students and locking them in for hours." Al-Khansaa’ patrols Raqqa and frequently arrests women under the strict mandates of Sharia law (being fully covered and being accompanied by a male chaperone). What started as a slight inclusion of women into the jihadi subculture has morphed into a female emancipation movement (although limited and oftentimes at the expense of other women). Women have a more active role now than they did in earlier jihadi history from spreading propaganda online to recruiting women to join them to upholding Sharia law. Thousands of women not affiliated with ISIS have taken to social media (on sites like Twitter and Tumblr) to support ISIS and al-Khansaa.’ While still playing a miniscule role in the ISIS’ objectives, women are now increasing their involvement and changing the landscape of what it means to be a female in a jihadist state.
The armed women of ISIS |
Many people around the world have been shocked by the realization that many women in ISIS joined the organization willingly. Firstly, it is known that ISIS initially excluded women from the organization, only allowing them to join after recognition that they would be needed to universally enforce Sharia law. Secondly, there is no doubt that ISIS operates under iron-clad patriarchal and paternalistic authority. Veryan Khan, a representative of TRAC, is quoted in a CNN article stating that “[although the women] have same goals and ambitions as the men once they get there… their roles may be much more limited to a 1950's housewife role”, highlighting ISIS’s oppressive approach to women. Nevertheless, women around the world continue to join and support ISIS, specifically through social media. The issue is identity politics. ISIS is specifically targeting women who feel suppressed by Sunni culture. Ultimately, ISIS provides some of its women with important roles (via women’s brigade or comfort roles, or the prestige of marrying a “war hero”). Al-Khansaa is a women’s brigade that provides the members with a monthly salary and heightened sense of importance and status. However oppressive the organization may be, these social amenities have been enticing and effective for women around the world. One of the main roles of women in ISIS is to recruit women from around the world via social media, specifically Twitter and Tumblr. Some girls provide forums in which they answer the questions of their followers about life with ISIS. This expands beyond the issue of identity within the Middle East. Women around the world who may be sympathetic to the struggles of ISIS, and also feeling oppressed by their own governments or cultures, now have access to information and direct communication with ISIS members.
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Many interesting examples of women in ISIS on social media in this Buzzfeed article! |
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Taken from Buzzfeed article |
While ISIS has been giving women a series of “responsibilities” within their organization, its interactions with women outside of its reach, in both Syria and Iraq, have been horrific. Its depredations in Iraq have reached “industrial levels”, according to UN sources. Some 1500 men, women and children have been sold into sexual slavery. Rape and forced marriages are extreme in their contradiction of the stated aims of the Al-Khansaa brigade as an arbiter on moral values, but there may be a brutal logic at play behind ISIS’s actions. Many of the rapes committed against minority groups such as Christians or Zoroastrian Yazidis; this could be seen as part of ISIS’s overall strategy of cleansing of non-Sunni orthodox groups. By not only killing the men but enslaving the women, ISIS ensures that whole communities will be destroyed forever. Sexual violence is also an effective tool for intimidation, a way of enforcing obedience in areas only recently conquered. Many of the victims of the sexual violence, kidnappings, and forced marriages also happen to be under the age of 18. Not only do these crimes against women enforce obedience, but they also ensure, to an extent, that the young girls are easier to control and influence for the cause. Rape, sexual violence, sexual slavery and many of the other crimes committed against women by ISIS violate some of the most basic human rights, but inflicting this terror upon children illuminates the need for attention, and intervention, from the international community. Overall, the relationship between ISIS and women is both complicated and cruel. Women flock to join their ranks from non-affiliated countries, recruited via social media and dreaming of marrying jihadis. The women of the Al-Khansaa brigade gain power and status for themselves by policing the morals of other women, even as women in minority communities are captured and sold into sexual slavery. Though many of the active women members of ISIS believe that they are fighting on the side of feminism, their idea of feminism is non-inclusive, involves the annihilation of alternative social groups, and operates solely on the back of one of the most destructive patriarchy.
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Taken from Pro - ISIS Tumblr account |
Works Cited
@UmmAnwar6, Umm Anwar Bint Ali. from Twitter Web Site: https://twitter.com/UmmAnwar6
#Al-Khansaa, Al-Khansaa Tumblr. from Tumblr Web Site: http://al-khanssa.tumblr.com/
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Al-bahri, A. (2014, July 20). All-Female ISIS Brigade Cracks Down on Women in Raqqa. ABC News. Retrieved October 5, 2014, from http://abcnews.go.com/International/female-isis-brigade-cracks-women-raqqa/story?id=24622389
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I really enjoyed that you choose to focus this post on the roles of women in ISIS. It’s a topic we are rarely exposed to through media and news sources, however, as you guys pointed out, it is a very large issue at play within and even larger issue. It is true that many ideas of relations between men and women in the Middle East are revolved around oppression and it was really interesting to hear facts about women willingly joining ISIS in order to gain empowerment and escape other cruelty within their culture, when in reality they are joining into a group that is furthering the oppression of not only women but entire groups of human beings. I agree with you that even though these women seem to be gaining power within ISIS by having guns and responsibilities they aren’t playing on the side of feminism, I think when you said they “operates solely on the back of one of the most destructive patriarchy” sums it up perfectly. It is really sad to think about women within ISIS who have now gained power and responsibilities turning on other women and contributing to the harming and unjust actions such as sexual violence, trafficking etc. There are many things wrong with this whole situation, but just focusing on gender roles with in our world it is truly amazing to me that still so many people, including women believe that feminism is bad and then play further into the segregation of genders, when in reality feminism is simply a movement for equal treatment and rights between women and men and that is a huge goal our world should be working towards. We are all human and it’s about time we actually start treating each other like we are. Great post!
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