ISIS brides returning home and raising the next generation of jihadist martyrs
The plan to use women to launch the Islamic State's next incarnation involves female returnees teaching the glories of the caliphate to their offspring
The woman’s secret flight from the caliphate took place more than six months ago, aided by a smuggler who helped her sneak across the Syrian-Turkish border one spring night. But in spirit, this red-haired exile from the Islamic State never truly left.
She covered herself in black from head to toe to greet a recent visitor to the small Moroccan house where she stays, and removed her veil only when assured that her guest, also a woman, was alone. Over sips of mint tea, she spoke admiringly of her militant husband and the comrades she met in the Islamic State’s all-female brigade. Calling herself Zarah – she declined to give her family name because she had traveled to Syria in secret – she vowed that her children would
One Kosovo native interviewed by the center admitted that she returned home only because she was in the final weeks of pregnancy and wanted better medical care.
“She came out to have her baby but said she wanted to go back,” Speckhard said. “And, she said, she wanted both her kids to grow up to be martyrs.”
“It was – and still is – our duty to have children and bring them up the right way,” Zarah said. She was unsure about the fate of her second husband, who had stayed in Syria to help defend an enclave that they both knew was probably doomed, at least in its current form. “We thought that even if they would try to destroy the caliphate, it will live on,” she said, “as long as we spread the idea of the Islamic State.”
For many of the women returnees, the obligations appear to extend beyond the nurturing of future terrorists. In recent months, a growing number of women have been tapped to carry out military operations, both inside the caliphate and in their home countries.
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