![Veiled women walk past a billboard that carries a verse from Koran urging women to wear a hijab in the northern province of Raqqa March 31, 2014. The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has imposed sweeping restrictions on personal freedoms in the northern province of Raqqa. Among the restrictions, Women must wear the niqab, or full face veil, in public or face unspecified punishments "in accordance with sharia", or Islamic law. REUTERS/Stringer (SYRIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT RELIGI](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2015/04/RTR3JCOT.jpg/RTR3JCOT.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=lo3HSm-x)
Brenda Stoter is a Dutch journalist who writes about the Middle East, with special attention to Syrian women and Western jihad brides. Her articles have been published by Al Jazeera as well as featured in Dutch and Belgium national newspapers and magazines, including Algemeen Dagblad, De Tijd, Het Parool and De Groene Amsterdammer. On Twitter: @BrendaStoter
![Veiled women walk past a billboard that carries a verse from Koran urging women to wear a hijab in the northern province of Raqqa March 31, 2014. The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has imposed sweeping restrictions on personal freedoms in the northern province of Raqqa. Among the restrictions, Women must wear the niqab, or full face veil, in public or face unspecified punishments "in accordance with sharia", or Islamic law. REUTERS/Stringer (SYRIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT RELIGI](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2015/04/RTR3JCOT.jpg/RTR3JCOT.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=lo3HSm-x)
![Jordan-Christians-Stoter.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2015/03/Jordan-Christians-Stoter.jpg/Jordan-Christians-Stoter.jpg?h=7cb15be6&itok=FWVIBB4u)
Brenda Stoter (Syria Pulse)
![TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY KAMAL TAHA
A woman looks at dresses in a covered stall in the northern Jordanian Zaatari refugee camp, now home to 160,000 Syrians, equal in size to what would be Jordan's fifth-largest city, on May 18, 2013. With no end in sight to Syria's conflict, some refugees in Jordan are offering their daughters for early marriage in the hope of securing them protection as they face growing economic pressure. AFP PHOTO/KHALIL MAZRAAWI (Photo credit should read KHALIL MAZRAAWI/AFP/Gett](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2015/03/170364962.jpg/170364962.jpg?h=5021389d&itok=e43adAe4)
Brenda Stoter (Syria Pulse)
Brenda Stoter (Syria Pulse)
![Masked Spanish police officers lead a detained woman in Melilla, December 16, 2014. Spanish and Moroccan police have arrested seven people in a ongoing joint swoop on suspected efforts to recruit women to go to Syria and Iraq to support Islamic State insurgents, the Spanish Interior Ministry said on Tuesday. REUTERS/Jesus Blasco de Avellaneda (SPAIN - Tags: CRIME LAW CIVIL UNREST TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTR4I81E](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/12/RTR4I81E-1.jpg/RTR4I81E-1.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=uHnmJTXP)
Brenda Stoter (Syria Pulse)
![Foad, the brother of 15 year-old Nora who left her home in Avignon for Syria nine months ago, shows a portrait he took last September on his cell phone as he attends an interview with Reuters in Paris, October 6, 2014. Foad, a French truck driver of Moroccan origin, travelled alone through war-torn Syria to rescue his 15-year-old sister from an Islamist group she said was holding her captive. But when they finally stood face to face, in tears, she would not leave. Foad is convinced that his sister Nora, who](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/10/RTR49HWI.jpg/RTR49HWI.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=KQisfxCH)
Brenda Stoter (Syria Pulse)
Brenda Stoter (Syria Pulse)
![An Iraqi girl in sits in a car outside a shopping mall in Amman January 31, 2007. Violence in Iraq and instability in Lebanon are driving hundreds of thousands of people abroad in an upheaval not matched in the Middle East since the exodus of Palestinian refugees when Israel was created in 1948. To match feature MIGRATION-MIDEAST. REUTERS/Ali Jarekji (JORDAN) - RTR1LU56](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/06/RTR1LU56.jpg/RTR1LU56.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=Izl8_cGi)
Brenda Stoter (Syria Pulse)
![Veiled women sit as they chat in a garden in the northern province of Raqqa March 31, 2014. The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has imposed sweeping restrictions on personal freedoms in the northern province of Raqqa. Among the restrictions, Women must wear the niqab, or full face veil, in public or face unspecified punishments "in accordance with sharia", or Islamic law. REUTERS/Stringer (SYRIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT RELIGION SOCIETY) - RTR3JCO4](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/06/RTR3JCO4.jpg/RTR3JCO4.jpg?h=c2c5b897&itok=CxShB6l7)
Brenda Stoter (Syria Pulse)
![Dutch Jesuit Father Frans van der Lugt (R) talks with a man in the besieged area of Homs, January 30, 2014. Van der Lugt, who is living in the besieged area, made an appeal for help on a YouTube video few days ago, shedding light on the conditions inside, which is suffering severe food and medical shortages. REUTERS/Yazan Homsy (SYRIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST RELIGION) - RTX181GR](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/04/RTX181GR.jpg/RTX181GR.jpg?h=c2c5b897&itok=LLGBWQKS)
Brenda Stoter (Syria Pulse)
![A Syrian woman waits for the opening of Cilvegozu border gate near the town of Reyhanli at the Turkish-Syrian border in Hatay province February 13, 2013. A Syrian minibus exploded at a crossing on Turkey's border with Syria near the Turkish town of Reyhanli on Monday, killing 14 people including Turkish citizens and wounding dozens more, Turkish officials said. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST TRANSPORT) - RTR3DQC1](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/03/RTR3DQC1.jpg/RTR3DQC1.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=jXGTJPF3)
Brenda Stoter (Syria Pulse)
![A woman survivor holds her crying baby in a hospital in Aleppo's al-Sakhour district, after what activists said was a barrel bomb dropped at Aleppo's Haydariye district by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, March 9, 2014. REUTERS/Hosam Katan (SYRIA - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS CONFLICT TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTR3GBX1](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/03/RTR3GBX1.jpg/RTR3GBX1.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=iCQA4zU7)
Brenda Stoter (Syria Pulse)