While nearly 3.5 million people have tried to escape the carnage and violence in Syria into neighboring countries, the girls’ families and authorities believe they have left behind London on a one-way ticket for the atrocities of the civil war and join the ranks of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
As an offshoot of Al-Qaeda, ISIS has been able to conquer large swaths of territory spanning both Iraq and Syria. The nascent caliphate prides itself on the brutal application of its puritanical interpretation of Sharia law and direct confrontation with its many enemies, happily thumbing its nose at international norms and modern political concepts under the leadership of self-appointed Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Since the emergence of the group in 2011, approximately 3,000 Europeans have left the continent to join the ranks of the notoriously violent and fundamentalist group. Of these thousands, 500 are estimated to be women. This phenomenon is troubling to European governments from the British Isles to the Caucasus as an increasing number of citizens continue to be enchanted by the radical Salafist group’s message and raison d’etre of establishing a global Islamic caliphate.
Whatever the message and motivation, it is widely believed that in the case of British men and women, recruits are prepared for their journeys and their new lives by a nebulous network of jihadists who disseminate their radical message at cafes, places of worship, and websites, encouraging recruits to take life-changing decisions to join the embrace of Islamic radicalization. Left in their wake are horrified families and confused governments.
The girls, all of either Bangladeshi or Amharic descent, are described by their families as ‘straight-A’ students and young people ‘with bright futures ahead of them.’ Confounding their families, the girls were acting normally before they departed and were not exhibiting any extreme or abnormal behavior. What’s more, it has become apparent during initial investigations that they were quite successful in hiding their online jihadist lives from their mothers and fathers.
Apparently, while the girls were studying, they maintained separate online personas and contacts with dozens of online jihadists. Particularly troubling, information continues to emerge about one of the girls, who appears to have been very active in her communications with dozens of internet-savvy Salafists. A newly discovered Twitter account belonging to her indicates that she was a functional member of the online jihadist community, rather than a brainwashed victim of jihadist ideology.
In search for an explanation, analysts and academics have proffered ideas ranging from the social and economic alienation felt by the British immigrant community to community-imposed isolation of young Muslims, especially women, in the midst of British society.
Clearly, the selling point of ISIS is the opportunity to defend a particular notion of a global community of Muslims, through action, and this call to arms has proven to be particularly attractive to disenfranchised youth throughout Europe. In the case of these girls, this may not entail perpetrating violence, but becoming good ISIS wives for jihadists and terrorists — taking the so-called “jihadi bride trail”.
Beyond the realities of living in a warzone, the details are scant on what lives lay ahead for the girls if they did manage to slip into Syria and join the brutal group, but the small amount of information available is quite frightening. The girls, still unable to legally drive in their native United Kingdom, will now most likely be betrothed to ISIS members and begin families.
The families of the teenagers have issued public calls for the girls to return and Turkish authorities are scrambling to prevent their crossing into Syrian territory. Also, policy makers have begun discussions on travel policy, including parental consent for minors to travel internationally and stronger scrutiny of travel to the region. Even if this story will have a relatively happy ending, stories like Amira, Shamima, and Kadiza will continue to haunt the pages of newspapers throughout the UK and Europe for the foreseeable future.
