Experts have warned of the growing threat of women and minors linked to Islamic State, suggesting that the number returning to Britain from Syria and Iraq has been significantly underestimated.

According to a new report from King’s College London, a combination of an absence of government data and a changing view within Isis of when women should take up arms means that the danger they pose is likely to be much greater than official figures suggest.

The report, from the university’s International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, found that women had recently been actively involved in plots across the world. It said that 4,761 (13%) of 41,490 foreign citizens who became affiliated with Isis in Iraq and Syria between April 2013 and June 2018 were women. A further 4,640 (12%) were minors.

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The ICSR researchers Joana Cook and Gina Vale said 850 British citizens became affiliated with Isis in Iraq and Syria, including 145 women and 50 minors. Of the 425 who returned to the UK, only two women and four minors were confirmed. The figures are believed to be vast underestimates due to an absence of official government data, they added.

“The British citizens that have now been confirmed as returning to the UK have not been differentiated by gender, or age delineation, though women and minors accounted for 23% of British IS [Isis] affiliates in Syria and Iraq,” said Cook.

“We believe some women may now pose a particular security threat based on several factors. These include the physical security roles and related training that some women have undertaken in IS-held territory, and the potential to transfer or apply these skills in other locations, or to their children.



“The narratives within IS itself related to women’s roles in combat have also evolved, broadening the circumstances under which women may be asked to take up arms. We have also seen women active in IS-linked plots (directed or inspired by the group) in countries such as France, Morocco, Kenya, Indonesia and the US, suggesting that women are indeed important to consider as potential threats.”



The report, From Daesh to Diaspora: tracing the women and minors of Islamic State, said the threat posed by women’s “evolving and seemingly increasing roles as perpetrators of terrorist attacks” has appeared to take three general forms: women-only cells, family cells, or individual women perpetrating attacks.

In October 2016 in Morocco, 10 women were arrested for plotting a suicide attack during parliamentary elections, four of which had seemingly married Isis members in Iraq and Syria over the internet.

Last year, British security services foiled a terror attack on the British Museum in London, and the country’s first all-female terror cell linked to Isis was arrested and convicted this year. Safaa Boular, a British teenager who went on to marry an Isis fighter online, was part-radicalised by a female Australian national in Syria.

Researchers said while Isis frequently brought to mind “images of masked men waving the black flag of IS, fighting on the battlefield, or in more brutal scenes carrying out theatrically staged executions”, it was the assistance of those with specialised skills including judges, doctors and engineers, and the presence and support of women and minors, that helped legitimise its vision.

Women played a variety of roles that went beyond those of “jihadi brides”. They were active in recruiting other women, disseminating propaganda and fundraising for the caliphate. In Canada, a female recruiter based in Edmonton who offered an online Qur’an course reportedly radicalised at least one young woman, and facilitated travel for her to Syria. In Ceuta, Spain, two friends led a ring that recruited other women for Isis in Iraq and Syria before travelling themselves.

The report cited push-and-pull factors for women who travel to Isis, including feelings of discrimination, persecution or those of not belonging to their society, as well as ideological motivations and efforts by Isis to portray women’s empowerment. This narrative has played itself out in many countries around the world, including the UK, where in 2015 four schoolgirls from Bethnal Green travelled to Syria to marry Isis fighters. The loss of the Bethnal Green girls was a severe blow to the Muslim community in east London and a powerful indication of how strong the lure of Isis could be.

After the fall of the caliphate in 2017, the status of many women remains unknown. While Isis originally restricted roles for women in combat operations, since 2015 there have been increasing indications that their position is changing.

In February this year, for example, Isis produced and released a video of a woman appearing in combat on the battlefield for the first time alongside male soldiers – reflecting a trend largely unique to the terrorist group.

Europol has noted that 96 women were arrested for terrorism-related charges in 2014, 171 in 2015 and 180 in 2016 (though this fell to 123 in 2017).

The report also found that at least 730 infants have been born inside the Isis caliphate to international parents. It drew on figures reported between April 2013 and June 2018 in line with the formal announcement of Isis by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, official government sources and figures, and academic or institutional publications and media reports deemed credible.

The researchers have encouraged governments to work with local regional authorities to identify the location and status of their citizens and ensure they are dealt with in accordance with international law.



They said minors in particular required nuanced consideration, including clear rehabilitative, rather than punitive, policies for those returning.

“Although the number of attacks independently perpetrated by inspired minors remains low, foreign minors possess the ideological commitment and practical skills to pose a potential threat upon return to their home countries,” said Vale.

“Robust and tailored efforts are needed to effectively disengage, de-radicalise and rehabilitate minors who have been born and/or raised in IS. Without such holistic responses, the stigma of the ‘IS-affiliate’ label may become a source of future isolation, disenfranchisement, and possibly radicalisation of the next generation/incarnation of IS.”

Shiraz Maher, the director of the ICSR, added: “These findings are significant as considerations of foreign IS-affiliates in Syria and Iraq have largely focused on the status and activities of its male members.

“Women and minors are poised to play a significant role in carrying on the ideology and organisation of IS now that the caliphate has fallen, so it is essential that governments recognise these affiliates as two distinct groups who need their own unique responses.”