TerrorismThe latest trend in Jihadist recruitment in the West: Women

Published 16 September 2014

Counterterrorism officials have been dealing with the threat of Westerners traveling to the Middle East to join the Islamic State (IS), but now they must also combat the growing threat of American female Jihadists joining IS and other militant groups, including Somali-based, al-Shabaab. Photos and videos of female Jihadists on Islamic social networks show them enforcing Islamic dress codes on local women in captured villages, and even cooking for their male counterparts.

Gender equality comes to the jihadi world // Source: tadbirkhabar.com

Counterterrorism officials have been dealing with the threat of Westerners traveling to the Middle East to join the Islamic State (IS), but now they must also combat the growing threat of American female Jihadists joining IS and other militant groups, including Somali-based, al-Shabaab. In the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, at least four Somali families have had female relatives gone missing in recent weeks. Community leader, Abdirizak Bihi, whose teenaged nephew was killed in Somalia in 2009 after traveling from Minnesota to join al-Shabaab, says that though reasons for some disappearances remain unclear, Jihadi recruitment could be the blame. One of the cases is that of a 19-year-old American Somali woman from St. Paul who left home on 25 August for an alleged bridal shower, but instead flew to Turkey to join IS in Syria.

With America’s largest population of Somali immigrants, the Minnesota-St. Paul area has been plagued by Jihadi recruitment efforts from members of al-Shabaab and IS. This year, at least fifteen men connected to the Somali community in Minnesota have been confirmed as militants in Syria. The Homeland Security News Wire recently reported on Douglas McAuthur McCain, a Muslim convert who was killed this summer while fighting with IS.

Greg Boosalis, the FBI division counsel in Minneapolis, said law enforcement has been investigating possible recruitment rings in the area. While some American Jihadi converts were recruited via the Web as was Shannon Conley, who was arrested just before she boarded a flight to the Middle East to join IS, recruits in Minnesota are thought to be led by local Islamist sympathizers.

The Guardian reports that female recruitment for Jihadi groups have caught many community leaders by surprise. “The nature of the recruitment of these crazy organizations is how they use the element of surprise. Now they have surprised us again by going for the girls,” said Bihi, speaking about the St. Paul woman who he said was targeted by recruiters. Mia Bloom, from the center for terrorism and security studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, warns that female recruits are often misinformed when they join terror groups. While they envision aiding a holy war or playing an active role in establishing a caliphate, “Isis is recruiting these women in order to be baby factories. They are seeing the establishment of an Islamic state and now they need to populate the state,” Bloom said.

Photos and videos of female Jihadists on Islamic social networks show them enforcing Islamic dress codes on local women in captured villages, and even cooking for their male counterparts. “The girls go around making cookies. It’s almost like a jihadi Tupperware party,” Bloom said.

As militant groups step up their recruitment efforts in the United States, counterterrorism officials are most concerned with radicalized American citizens returning home to carry out an attack. “The obvious fear is of individuals coming back and committing a terrorist act here,” said Boosalis. President Barack Obama has pledged to assist government agencies “intervene with at-risk individuals before they become radicalized toward violence and decide to travel abroad to Syria and Iraq to join Isil.” Adding that authorities would offer “tailored domestic programs to prevent violent extremism and radicalization.”