Women Recruitment By ISIS Through Social Media

The need of traveling far ?ff camps for contacts and training for the would-be terrorists is gradually diminishing with the increase in expansive use of social media,amongst which majority of these fanatic users are teenagers and young adults.Analysts,researchers and the European media t?ok ISIS(Islamic State of Iraq and Syria)as a notable subject when it globally recruited women fr?m the European countries.The organization's treatment t?wards their female recruits and the media propaganda then became a subject of debate.For potential female recruits,ISIS expresses different motives from political to ideological and personal ones.ISIS has used social media not only to spread terror and insecurity acr?ss the globe but also pave ways to get more recruits and sympathizers.The reason for European women joining ISIS is still a complex topic as they move to totally different environment fr?m where they had lived.Migrating from a stable country to an unstable society has t? have good reasons.The European women in this thesis are the 2nd and 3rd generation immigrants of European countries,who holds a European citizenship.As defining “European Female Jihadist”,these are the women from European countries who have joined ISIS and are serving their motives and ways to achieve the concept of Khalifah.ISIS have throughout made significant female emphasized eff?rts in attracting and recruiting them through social media.Recruiting European women in particular is als? a way to show how wide stretched ISIS is and where they positi?n themselves in the international arena.It is perhaps difficult to analyze why European women join and support the Islamic state where they are clearly oppressed,or lets say how is it so convenient for them in suicide bombingthat kill innocent people.There are different reasons for European women joining ISIS.The possibility of Muslim European women joining ISIS might come around the fact to fulfill their individual duty as a Muslim and move to Khalifah for state building and economy enhancement.Focusing on women's identity,despite the fact ?f prevailing women oppression in ISIS,women sometimes join ISIS,the mainstream terrorist group now,as a result of finding their self identity and the thrive of sense of belonging.If identity cr ISIS is a reason for European women getting attracted to ISIS,then her psychological state of mind influence her action.In this case,when a would be Europeanwoman terrorist identify herown norms and ideologies she stand for religiously and socially or resonates with them,and realize it complements with ISIS's,shemay easily decide to join ISIS.Joining ISIS and adopting the same ideologies might lead them to sense of belonging in the society they prefer to be in.Many European w?men have found themselves stuck between the traditional values that are exercised by their families,and the freedom they have with their friends.In this case,these young women might be attracted to a third path,which is ISIS.This path claims to offer them sense of belonging and family like envir?nment in a religious realm.They take hijrah to the Islamic state in a hope to take control of their life themselves and to replace their existing family with a new one.EuropeanMuslim women are often oppressed and disrespected by other nonMuslims.They are seen as women without any rights.Thus,they feel proud and respected to take roles in Islamic state and c?ntrol their own life rather than being humiliated and alienated in the west.Marrying a brave ISIS foreign fighters is also reported to be one of the reasons to join ISIS for European women.In the past,ISIS use to predominantly use women for sex trafficking and imposing ISIS rules and codes.ISIS prevented personal freedom and proper education for these women.The roles of ISIS female members has consistantly changed overtime.Now they take both operational and frontline jobs in wars and conflict z?nes.They perform roles like enforcing laws,intelligence agents,assasins,frontline fighters and infiltrators.They are also involved in local campaigns for recruitment of young women.Additionally,another role these women play in ISIS controlled territory is domestic role.They take the righteous duty of a woman is to be a g?od wife and bear and raise children.Daily lives of most of the ISIS female members are filled with household tasks.These women of ISIS,particularly from the west,also take up roles of public relations on social media.They post advise and encourage women to join ISIS.This is a deliberate strategy,as of women has m?re influence on another woman.This social media role cannot be ignored as it has enormously helped ISIS to gain recruits.In the name of sisterhood,these ISIS women deliver brave,c?urageous and influential speech on social media.Except for emphasizing to display the level of violence,ISIS also has other worthy concern of governing its territory and it's recruitment methods and processes.As the western media focuses highly ?n ISIS campaigns and propaganda,ISIS also equally focuses on Europeanrecruits,as to represent their impact in the world.Focusing more in women recruitment,ISIS is well aware about the fact that women play a vital role to create a lasting Khilafah,firstly,women can bear children,as ISIS needs future generation to elongate its cause and secondly,female propaganda is more effective and dangerous.ISIS has been using several communication channels like social media,t? spread its ideologies far beyond its border but precisely in a very platform where targeted audiences can easily access it.ISIS mostly use social mediasites like Twitter,YouTube,Snapchat and other trending technologies and specified techniques as for recruitment and radicalization.Twitter as a network of communication,provides freedom to give and take information.Recruitment as a prime motive for twitting,ISIS also target European medias and g?vernment with its post.ISIS's social media strategy not only posts extreme messages in their own acc?unts,but they also don't fail to infiltrate other's account and post threatening messages in their official websites.ISIS's propagandistic videos related to recruitment are not always brutal and violent,they also produce videos that are sarcastic to European societies and p?litics.The views,shares and likes are massive in just short period,which notifies that they have large number of followers ans symphatizers.ISIS has been making all the possible attempts to attract young generations.Video games have been a part of daily r?utine as a source of entertainment for young people.With the technology advancement,it is true that the graphics and quality have evolved over time,but it still makes the same impact ?n the users.ISIS has adapted to construct innovative ideas,which led them to feature and modify video games for recruitment purp?se.This thesis focuses on European women joining ISIS,and the factors that drove them taking social media as a medium to join this extremist group.The videos and pictures that circulates through social media on comfort and s?cial harmony inside the Islamic state,poses a threat to international society and security.ISIS is losing its ground in Iraq and Syria and looks very fragile n?w.As the Khalifah shrinks it will be focusing more on spreading its ideologies and attacking its soft targets.Some ISIS battalions are reported to have majority of Europeanfemale operatives,then there might be a possibility that European cities may be target of such operatives.