As IS loses power, will group tap women jihadis to fight?
As the Islamic State suffers successive defeats in Iraq’s Mosul and Raqqa in Syria, it's increasingly likely that the women of the organization will shift from their traditional supportive roles to become suicide bombers or fighters on the front lines.
The glory days of the so-called caliphate are over. For the past two years, the Islamic State (IS) has suffered severe losses on the battlefield, and it seems only a matter of time before its largest stronghold, Mosul, will also fall. The operation to liberate Raqqa, IS' de facto capital, was announced on Nov. 6. While the caliphate is shrinking and IS loses ever more manpower, a question arises: Will the traditional roles of female jihadis change?
The men who typically joined terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda and went to Pakistan, Chechnya or Afghanistan for jihad usually did so alone. But because Syria was relatively easy to reach via Turkey and IS repeatedly stated that everyone who shared the group's ideology was welcome in its "state," girls and women from all over the world also joined the terrorist organization, including at least 600 from the West. Many foreign women traveled to Syria to marry jihadi fighters on the spot, while others came with their entire families.
The terror group not only lured tens of thousands of foreign jihadis from all over the world to join its ranks in Syria and Iraq, it also changed the dynamics of jihadism by making it a family affair. Al-Khansaa Brigade, an all-female police unit tasked with enforcing IS’ strict laws for women, highlighted this ultra-religious family ideal in its manifesto: Women's role is to be housewives and to take care of their husbands and children. By doing so, they contribute to IS’ goal of building a state governed by a strict interpretation of Sharia. They may work — as doctors or teachers, for example — but only when necessary.
In February 2016, The Times reported that IS had employed female fighters and suicide bombers in Libya. Several female operatives had been killed in one week fighting alongside the men. One of them tried to blow herself up in the attacks, which marked the jihadi group's first recorded use of female militants. In France, police disrupted an all-female terrorist cell in Paris in early September. The women had either sworn alliance to IS or had connections with IS fighters.
