Terrorist media machine in Iraq collapses following arrest of ‘ISIS editor’

Doaa Emam

ISIS used to employ women to attack its enemies, taking advantage of their ability to hide and the lack of suspicion surrounding them. This was clearly evident during the Iraqi security forces’ attempt to regain the old part of Mosul, which had served as ISIS’s capital in Iraq, where it was reported that ISIS used female suicide bombers to impede the advance of the forces.

There has been renewed talk about the roles of women within the terrorist organization following the news of the arrest of the so-called “ISIS editor”, or the woman responsible for editing video material, by Iraqi security forces on Thursday, October 8 in the province of Karbala.

According to an Iraqi intelligence statement, the arrest was carried out by the Iraqi National Intelligence Service (INIS) in accordance with the provisions of Article 4 of the terrorism law, because the arrested is affiliated with ISIS in a media capacity for managing cyber networks that attract women and boys on social media platforms for the purpose of joining terrorist groups.

According to the statement, “ISIS’s media machine is making a montage of terrorist operations carried out by terrorist groups and broadcasting them on the websites run by them. During the initial investigations, they acknowledged their affiliation with these criminal groups, and they were recruited into the ranks of the organization through social media for more than three years. Her role has also emerged in leading false media campaigns by launching attacks on security forces and targeting citizens.”

Female extremism

According to a study entitled “Patterns and signs of female extremism within terrorist organizations with a jihadist orientation” by two Spanish experts, terrorist groups tend to attract women from the ages of 15 to 25, most of whom are unmarried and without children.

The study considered that the phenomenon of the presence of women in jihadist organizations is mainly due to the shift in strategy that ISIS has followed after losing the areas it controlled in Iraq and Syria. There is a greater focus on the role of women, who may be the mother or wife of one of the jihadists belonging to the organization.

This shift in the organization’s strategy has resulted in a shift in the position of women within it. ISIS has moved towards directly involving women in terrorism through recruitment, training and incitement, raising the slogan that “without women there are no jihadists” and emphasizing the importance of women within the terrorist organization in reproducing a new fighting generation. The study stressed that ISIS has resorted to recruiting women into its ranks in order to ensure greater success for its terrorist operations.

The study revealed that there are also shifts in the jihadist rhetoric used by ISIS to attract European girls and women. In the past, the focus was on mobilizing psychological emotions by making girls fall in love with a jihadist, propelling them to move to the region.