{"id":82632,"date":"2025-07-08T19:43:50","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T19:43:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/?p=82632"},"modified":"2025-12-13T20:14:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T20:14:24","slug":"isis-brides-and-their-children-ongoing-violations-of-childrens-rights-in-syria-and-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/isis-brides-and-their-children-ongoing-violations-of-childrens-rights-in-syria-and-iraq\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cISIS brides\u201d and their children: Ongoing violations of children\u2019s rights in Syria and Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Between 2013 and 2019, an estimated 664 to 746 Western women travelled to Syria and Iraq to join the Islamic State (ISIS). Women and girls supported ISIS not only by marrying fighters, but also by engaging in propaganda, recruitment, and in some cases, armed roles. After the fall of the Caliphate in 2019, many of these women and their children were detained in the Al-Hol and Roj camps, where serious and ongoing violations of children\u2019s rights continue.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The roles of women and girls within ISIS<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Since the rise of the Caliphate, some women were recruited by ISIS\u2019s Al-Khansaa Brigade, enforcing morality rules and engaging in propaganda, recruitment, and online grooming<\/a> of other women and girls. Girls recruited into ISIS were often referred to as \u201csisters of the Islamic State\u201d<\/em> and trained to support husbands, sometimes from as young as age nine (Capone, 2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women’s involvement went beyond the role of \u201cjihadi brides\u201d<\/em> (women and girls who were recruited to marry jihadist<\/em> fighters) or muhajirat<\/em> (female migrants to ISIS territory). Between 2015 and 2018, as ISIS weakened militarily, it publicly declared that it had become \u201cobligatory for women to take up arms.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this period, some women reportedly received sniper training, carried weapons<\/a>, and even wore suicide vests. However, the extent of women\u2019s participation in violence remains under-documented, partly because ISIS propaganda prioritized showcasing male fighters (Kumar, 2021).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How many women and girls left Western countries to join the ISIS cause? <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

More recent reports estimate that in Western European countries – specifically Belgium, France<\/a>, Germany, Ireland<\/a>, and the Netherlands<\/a> – between 664 and 746 women travelled to conflict zones in Iraq<\/a> and Syria<\/a> since the establishment of the Caliphate in 2013. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the United Kingdom (UK) and Sweden, 150 and 75 women, respectively, were documented to have travelled to conflict zones. In the United States (US), there were 38 women, and in Australia, 30 to 40 female Australians fled to become ISIS supporters (people who assist terrorist groups) (Kumar, 2021). According to Swedish official figures, about 300 Swedes have been recruited by jihadi groups in the Middle East, making Sweden<\/a> second only to Belgium<\/a> as the largest contributor of Islamist militants from Europe (Crouch, 2016). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Online targeting of girls for recruitment as \u201cISIS brides\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Many of these women were teenagers, whom the terrorist organization targeted to become child brides<\/a> for its fighters. The well-trained recruiters appealed to these young women\u2019s sense of \u201chonour\u201d and played upon their naivet\u00e9, describing a life of domestic bliss amongst like-minded people in idyllic scenes from territory controlled by ISIS. These campaigns were often conducted through social media, and tended to downplay the state of violence their recruits would be living in (Al Khazraji, 2023). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Once recruited, they also became the recruiters. 80 percent of these women spent most of their day on social media<\/a> trying to attract new members to the jihadist cause. Their fluency in Western languages gave them a competitive advantage in this task (Al Khazraji, 2023). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reality of the situation for these women was quite different than what they were promised. They not only had to carry out their duties as \u201cISIS brides\u201d \u2014 cooking, cleaning, giving birth to and raising children \u2014 but worked as patrol officers, fighters and prison guards after the terrorist group\u2019s imams issued a \u201cfatwa\u201d allowing it, given that the Caliphate was under threat and there were not enough men to protect it (Al Khazraji, 2023). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Combat roles were permitted only in rare, exceptional circumstances, such as self-defence or with explicit approval from an emir. This vision contrasts with some militant self-narratives from muhajirat<\/em> but reflects the Islamic State\u2019s ideological commitment to a restrictive, gendered division of jihad<\/em> (Winter & Margolin, 2017). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What led women and girls to join ISIS?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

People join organisations such as ISIS for religious, psychological, and economic reasons, but the most significant factor affecting Muslim women who join jihadist organisations is religious<\/a> indoctrination. Many first- and second-generation migrants tend to want to preserve their sense of Islamic identity and pass it on to their children (Al Khazraji, 2023).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most parents of ISIS recruits did not encourage their children to join such organisations, and were not aware of their children\u2019s radicalisation, but their strict, often conservative religious ideology likely contributed to their children\u2019s decisions. Some studies suggest that young girls<\/a>, for example, turn to ISIS as a coping strategy for overcoming an adolescent identity crisis (Al Khazraji, 2023).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Muslims born into immigrant families also usually feel conflicted about their identity because of cultural and religious differences with Western culture, which leaves them more vulnerable to extremist groups. Some of these women face racism<\/a> and anti-Islamic sentiment in the West, including negative attitudes about the wearing of the hijab or niqab. Some women were made to feel guilty about their privileged life in the West, and this triggered a desire to give back. Joining ISIS gave them a sense of belonging to a global cause (Al Khazraji, 2023). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two stories of Western girls who were recruited by ISIS<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Between 2012 and 2019, a significant number of foreigners travelled to Syria and Iraq<\/a>, many to join ISIS and live under what came to be the so-called \u201cCaliphate\u201d. Their backgrounds and journeys are as diverse as their nationalities (Eriksson, 2024). <\/p>\n\n\n\n