Emilie König, Mayfa, Zahra Douman—The IS Women Leading The Next Frontier of Women in Jihad
Emilie König, Mayfa, Zahra Douman—The IS Women Leading The Next Frontier of Women in Jihad
With the dream of a Caliphate coming to an ignominious end, and Islamic State (IS) insurgents either being killed or fleeing from Syria and Iraq, female jihadists have been subjected to prosecution and captivity. As an increasing number of European women publicly plead for repatriation, a new form of female militancy is taking shape. With the loss of their male jihadist peers, the female militants are carving out a new role for women within the ranks of their group. These new roles will operate on jihadist sisterhood based on what these female jihadists have shared from the Caliphate’s fall—namely cruelty, imprisonment, separation, and the loss of male counterparts. These female jihadists feel betrayed by the failure of the Caliphate to sustain the jihadist ideology’s territory or protect its soldiers. They have developed a sense of separation from their male peers and are growing out of the conventional role for female jihadists, as they no longer need male peers to connect them to the jihadist cause. This does not mean they will think less of the jihadist ideology—rather, they will endeavor to restructure this ideology and feminize it. This process will pose a danger to the societies to which they are returning.
Emilie König: The Threat of Wannabe-Returning Foreign Female Jihadists
The militants who hold extreme views and were radicalized before leaving to fight in Syria or Iraq pose a growing threat after returning to Europe. An example of this is Emilie König (a.k.a. Umm al-Tawab), the French nightclub bartender turned notorious IS recruiter (Alhurra, January 9). The 33-year-old jihadist and mother of three was arrested by Kurdish forces after she joined IS in 2012. König —who is considered one of the most dangerous French female jihadists on the UN blacklist and the U.S. list of foreign terrorists—was born to a Catholic former police officer who left her and her mother at the age of two. At 19, König left home only to return after converting to Islam under the influence of her first husband, “Ismail,” an Algerian drug trafficker who was serving his sentence in prison. He abused König until he was jailed again for domestic violence. König —who chose to be known as “Um al-Tawab,” which means repentance in Arabic—apparently regretted her time working as a bartender in a Lorient nightclub during her teens. König fled from her first husband to Paris in 2011, and began wearing a niqab (or burka). She found in Islam a way to rebel against her society, in which she failed to fit. She was later stopped by local police in 2010 near a mosque in Lorraine for distributing flyers calling for jihad (Alqabas, May 12, 2016).
She became associated with the extremist group Forsane Alizza, whose leader was jailed in 2015 on terrorism charges. König was the first French woman to cross the Turkish borders and join IS in the summer of 2012, leaving her children behind (Albayan, January 3, 2016). She then married a French jihadist, Ibrahim (a.k.a. Abu Muhamed), who died shortly after their marriage, leaving her with three children. König played an active role as a prominent recruiter of wannabe-jihadists. She is believed to have assisted in recruiting more than 200 French women. König was not the conventional militant, but rather belonged to a wave of visible insurgents featured in a series of YouTube videos wearing niqabs and carrying their firearms, yelling “Allah Akbar” (Youtube, August 9, 2016). König is now held by Kurdish forces in al-Hawla, in eastern Syria, and is attempting to return to Paris. Although she stated in several interviews that she was tortured while under arrest, she later denied it in a video interview published by the Kurdish militant group, the People’s Protection Units (YPG) (Almasdar, January 10). In the interview, she appeared exhausted and did not wear a niqab or head scarf (Arabian Business, January 9).
A militant like König, who has been a follower of these extreme beliefs since her teens, will not be de-radicalized by the loss of the Caliphate’s territory. Her extremism began before she left for jihad in Syria and it found a place to grow by joining the group where her jihadism evolved from an ideology to active violence. König despised democracy and passionately enticed others to join the terrorist groups for years before she was captured. Showing regret for joining the group is insufficient evidence that she has renounced the extremist ideology. Rather, she is likely trying to gain sympathy so she can be released from captivity and return to France.
König‘s active jihadism is further defined by appearing in her captivity videos without a headscarf. This was done to camouflage her rhetoric and give the false impression that she no longer holds extreme views. But this pattern can also be seen not just as belief in the terrorist cause, but using the extreme ideology to rebel against French society, which she deeply resents. König’s trajectory and past actions demonstrate her ability to operate on her own within the jihadist movement. She operated without a male figure to connect her to the jihadist cause, and does not need a husband, a son, or even a leader to encourage her extremist activities, and herein lies the danger.
Mayfa: IS Matchmaker
Another prominent case is that of the 21-year-old French woman known simply as “Mayfa” (a.k.a Umm al-Zahraa). She was an IS matchmaker who persuaded young girls to travel to Syria in order to marry IS fighters (Alsumaria, September 29, 2015). She started a travel agency as a cover for her recruiting French girls. Before going to Syria in 2014, Mayfa reportedly advised two French girls to wage terrorist acts in France in case they fail to make it to Syria. Mayfa went to Syria in 2014, where she promoted life in IS-held parts of Syria via a series of online videos featuring her carrying Kalashnikovs. Through this video series, Mayfa enticed other women to travel to Syria to marry jihadists. She coordinated with men inside Turkey to facilitate the passage of the French girls to Syria. She was unaware that French intelligence knew of her activities. She was arrested when she landed in Paris, arriving from Turkey. Upon her arrest, Mayfa admitted to the police that she witnessed a beheading in Syria, but she used the same defense as König. She implied that she decided to repent, came back to France and gave up the name “Um al-Zahraa.” She was reportedly sentenced to eight years in prison in France (France24, April 7; al-Arabiya, September 29, 2015; Youm7, September 28, 2015).
Charged with violent rhetoric and lacking the environment to nourish it, European female jihadists on hijrah (immigration) to Syria utilize this rhetoric and make it into a way of life. Active female jihadism, however, was not attracting the attention of European intelligence agencies from 2013 to 2015, as the main focus had always been on male jihadists. This is mainly due to female jihadists being judged as sexual objects and potential brides who are complimentary to the jihadist movement but not a mandatory part of it. This lack of attention gave space for female jihadism to grow within the jihadist movement and become more visible.
Zahra Douman: From Melbourne Partier to IS Propagandist
The danger of female jihadists lies in the connections and networks they establish between each other while fighting for their cause, especially among those from Europe. For some European female insurgents, the cause was a tool and pretext for empowerment. A prominent example is the case of a 21-year-old Australian student of Turkish descent, Zahra Douman, who went to Syria to join IS in 2014. Douman was enticed to join the terrorist group by her friend, 23-year-old Mahmood Abdul Latif (a.k.a. “ISIS playboy” by the local Australian media), to whom she married for 40 days before he was killed fighting with IS. The ethnic-Lebanese Abdul Latif from Melbourne led a luxurious life going out to Australian night clubs before he joined the terrorist group (Janoubia, January 3, 2015).
Douman was reportedly his friend in Melbourne, and they would go out to nightclubs together. Douman is an example of a female jihadist who did not seem to believe in the ideology so much as she was attracted to the supposed extravagant lifestyle of jihadism. Abdul Latif used to exhibit images of children posing with Kalashnikovs on social media, advertising this life in Syria. Abdul Latif gave Douman the idea that life with IS is luxurious. Douman—who at one point tweeted that her dowry was a gun—stated that she burned her Australian passport and she has no intention of returning home. After his death, Douman described Abdul Latif as a “martyr.” On her Twitter account, she challenged whether anyone could capture her and posted Abdul Latif’s photo posing with a Kalashnikov. She added a caption in broken Arabic stating: “graves….be happy…..doors of Paradise, open…..the martyr Mahomood has arrived” (Watan, January 27, 2015).
Douman took on a propagandist role for the group by posting photos of a life of luxury online. Douman described it as “the five-star jihad in Syria.” Douman tweeted photos of five IS women fully covered in black, posing with guns and raising an IS flag near a luxury car (Sama News, March 21, 2015).
She challenged her home country and the United States, saying alongside the other female jihadists: “Australia and the United States, we are five women who were born on your soil and now we are thirsty to drink the blood of your people.” When Douman was criticized online for showing off a life of luxury while Syria is torn by war, she defended herself, stating that she was posing near the car in order to sell it. Douman was influential within the group, as she enticed many foreign fighters, especially Australian women, to join IS. The most well-known of her recruits is Yasmine Melanouf. Douman’s current condition and activities are difficult to track (Erem News, May 27, 2015).
Conclusion
Female militants from the former Caliphate are renouncing their reliance on male-dominated extreme rhetoric and quickly shifting from being sexual objects to singular active units, establishing a new frontier of extreme jihadism.
These three militants endeavored to return to their home countries, survived captivity and imprisonment, and stayed willingly invisible. This common thread highlights a new identity of female militants born out of the falling Caliphate. It is solitary, independent, feminist, and will be a growing form of dangerous militancy for years to come.
