A group of 30 British women who travelled to Syria to join Islamic State have been encouraging other women in the UK to carry out terror attacks back home, overturning the belief that female jehadis are quite and passive, researchers here have found.
The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) at King’s College london has uncovered the group of British women in Northern Syria by monitoring their social media accounts, the Observer newspaper reported.
Researchers believe the British female jehadis have been actively recruiting new members of ISIS and encouraging the beheading of Westerners and applauding the bloodshed in Paris. It overturns the general view that women travelling to ISIS strongholds to become loyal and supportive jehadi brides are generally quiet and passive members of the terrorist group, the newspaper reported.
According to ICSR, which has a database of around 70 women it is tracking in total, there was a spike of activity online following the Charlie Hebdo shootings in France, which the British women were seen applauding.