Women supporting Islamic State use social media to lure sympathizers with "the promise of an Islamist utopia"

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Islamic State militants have been using female supporters to persuade European Muslims to travel to Iraq and Syria as part of the group's efforts to establish a caliphate there, an anti-terrorism thinktank said on Tuesday.

Analysing social media accounts, the Quilliam Foundation said female supporters of the Islamic State were using sites like Instagram, Twitter, Ask.fm, VK and Facebook to lure others with "the promise of an Islamist utopia".

"While other groups like Al Qaeda have had women supporters before, Islamic State has recruited females and is getting women to go out to live in the caliphate," Charlie Winter, programmes officer at the Quilliam Foundation, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Islamic State declared a caliphate across vast swathes of Syria and Iraq earlier this year, after sweeping into the conflict-ridden region and driving out Christians, Shi'ite Muslims and other communities.

Determined to re-draw the map of the Middle East, the group are engaged in nation building and are calling on people from all over the world to help them create a new society.

"They call for lawyers, doctors, engineers and people who can help form a working administrative state and among those are women as they need wives for their fighters," Winter said.

Quilliam Foundation estimate that as many as 200 European women have travelled to the region to join the Islamic State as the recruitment efforts continue.

"There are a number of very vocal female IS supporters in Syria and Iraq who document their daily lives in great detail and provide advice on what people should expect when they come out, and this is directed at women," Winters said.

The British Home Office (interior ministry) estimate that as many as 500 people have travelled to Syria and Iraq from Britain since the Syrian conflict started more than three years ago.

Home Office officials did not say how many British Muslims are fighting for Islamic State.

The Quilliam Foundation estimates that 2,500 Western Europeans have journeyed to join the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.