Tunisia shudders at prospect of return of female ISIS fighters

Doaa Emam

Tunisia is growing more afraid from the return of the female members ISIS, after the escape of a large number of these women from Turkish jails in northeastern Syria because of the Turkish invasion of this part of Syria.

Tunisians make up the majority of the female members of the terrorist organization.

The fear in the North African state is that those women who managed to escape from Kurdish jails together with their children will try to return to Tunisia.

Syrian Democratic Forces, widely known as QSD, expressed fears, meanwhile, that ISIS terrorists can escape from jails and camps in Kurdish-held areas in northeastern Syria as Kurdish fighters work to repel the Turkish aggression.

Tunisian journalist Hanene Zbiss revealed that around 15,000 Tunisians had joined ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

This, she said, is the largest number of nationals to join ISIS from any country.

Nevertheless, Tunisian authorities say only 6,000 Tunisians, including 700 women, had joined the terrorist organization.

Tunisian women were especially active in offering logistical support to ISIS and using the internet in promoting the terrorist group.

They were also active in drawing in new recruits from Tunisia.

Tunisian women made up most of the members of an ISIS female police force, known as Khansa, that oversees abidance by women in ISIS-held areas by the organization’s rules. The same force also controlled the female wards of ISIS jails.

Tunisian members of ISIS trained in the use of arms like men. Some of these women also trained in preparing explosive devices and carrying out terrorist attacks. Tunisian women made up almost 3% of all the women that had joined ISIS in Libya.

Tunisian researcher Omar al-Hadrawi blamed the Islamist parties that ruled in some Arab countries for the ability of the citizens of these countries to travel to Syria and Iraq and join terrorist organizations like ISIS.

This, he said, contributed to destabilizing the region as a whole.

“The way Tunisia treated the terrorist threat has been far from effective so far,” Hadrawi said.

He referred to the absence of a national counterterrorism strategy that addresses the root causes of terrorism.