Women in the Islamic State: Tactical Advantage Trumps Ideology
Author(s):
When the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) encouraged women to join its newly founded “caliphate,” thousands of women from Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and beyond answered the call and moved to ISIS-controlled territory. In line with the group’s extremely gender-conservative ideology, at first the assigned roles of female members of ISIS were mostly associated with marriage and raising children. This started to slowly change from 2015 onward…