The Most Dangerous Women in Jihad Part 3: Umm Layth

The Most Dangerous Women in Jihad Part 3: Umm Layth

Halla Diyab

Introduction

A world overflowing with social media provides Islamic State (IS) supporters with a golden opportunity. The Internet revolution has not only restructured extremist discourse and its accessibility, but also changed the role female militants play within IS: indeed, their online roles are a far cry from their counterparts in other terrorist groups like al-Qaeda. The evolving female role has also sparked a rejection of the archetypal images of female militants in modern jihadism. The Islamic State’s online jihadist recruiters represent a transition in this archetype, with female militants becoming more vocal and visible online, and overtly expressing emotions of nostalgia, yearning, love and hatred, ultimately revolutionizing the norms of female terrorists, who are never thought of as people who can express their feelings like the rest of us.

From University Dorms to Online Jihadist Recruitment

The tumblr blog of Umm Layth, operated by 21-year-old Aqsa Mahmood, a former radiography student from Scotland turned IS online recruiter, is a prime example of how social media gives female militants visibility and presence. By regularly using social media, Umm Layth propagates radical messages, including her call for copycat attacks following the Boston Marathon bombing and the murder of Lee Rigby. In another blog post, the 20-year-old described the Bloody Friday terror strikes in Tunisia, France, and Kuwait as “revenge” and “a day that will go down in history.” The hate-filled poem read: “In 3 different locations a family was born. Its name was change, freedom and revenge. Kuwait, France and Tunisia is where they reside” (Almuhajirat.tumblr.com, April 5, 2015).

Aqsa Mahmood’s dramatic trajectory from quiet university student to belligerent online recruiter for IS highlights the path from silent spectator and follower to globally active performer. From Pollokshields in Glasgow, Aqsa studied at a private girls’ school and then the Shawlands Academy. She went on to start a course in diagnostic radiography at Glasgow Caledonian University before dropping out and travelling to Syria through Turkey in November 2013 (fox6now.com, September 6, 2014).

It was only after a four-day absence that her family realized she had left to join the Islamic State in Syria. Upon arrival at the Syrian border, Aqsa phoned her mother to let her know of her decision telling her, “I will see you on the day of judgment, and I want to be a martyr.” A month later, Aqsa married a jihadist in Syria (alquds.co.uk, September 13, 2014). Often referred to in the media as “Umm Layth” or the “Jihadi Bride,” Aqsa is an example of how joining the terrorist group created a space of global visibility for this “bedroom radical” as her parents described her. In publicly documenting her inner feelings about the jihadi cause, Aqsa has found a visible public space where she can draw attention to herself and win followers to her cause.

The Militant Discourse

As a prominent female voice, Umm Layth’s importance within the organization not only reflects a rupture with gender norms. Her visibility breaks with the traditional roles of Muslim women that center around family, marriage, and community life by giving her an authoritative voice in religious jurisprudence aimed at Muslim women – usually exclusively the domain of Muslim male clerics. Through this jurisprudence, Umm Layth justifies and legitimizes rebellion against the traditional roles of Muslim women. On her tumblr blog, she advises that Muslim women can travel without a muhram (male companion/guardian who accompanies Muslim women), as long as they are performing the hijra (migration) to a Muslim land (the Islamic State), where temporary guardians will be appointed for women who wish to marry fighters but do not have religious permission. After being asked about the details of finding a husband, she writes: “finding a brother isn’t difficult, and if the Wali (guardian) doesn’t approve then Doula (the Islamic State) is able to provide them with a Qadhi (judge)” (news.siteintelgroup.com, 30 July, 2014).

Umm Layth’s jurisprudence redefines traditional female roles within families and communities, recasting them to the new lifestyle of the Islamic State, which now assumes the guardian role. This underlines the break with traditional family roles, with the state replacing the role of a Muslim father or guardian. The emphasis is instead on a new lifestyle under the rule of the Islamic State where female jihadists celebrate life and concern themselves with acquiring makeup, jewelry, and luxury products – in stark contrast to the barbaric behavior of the group whose beheadings, summary shootings, and torture are widely publicized. The opinion of the father or the family is diminished within this narrative. If the female jihadist decides to marry, she can contact the “Wali … over phone, skype, WhatsApp, email etc. So him being abroad can’t stop you [the female jihadist],” as advised by Umm Layth in a July 26, 2014 Twitter exchange with a prospective recruit. Umm Layth also notes that women whose families are broadly in support of their actions can also turn to electronic means to obtain permission to marry (almaghribtoday.net, February 23). The online jurisprudence practiced by Umm Layth facilitates her recruitment, as female jihadists more likely to identify with her interpretations than with those of a male cleric.

Umm Layth also published a guide on “How to Reach Syria” in which she gives tips to female jihadists who want to join the Islamic State. The guide was published on the Islamic State’s online outlets in which she warns the female wannabe-jihadist to prepare psychologically before they perform the hijra, as “we the jihadist brides are going to hear the death of our husbands anytime, and their success of granting shahadah (martyrdom).” In her guide, she advises women to be ready emotionally for what is coming after the loss of their jihadist husbands (alarabiya.net, November 26, 2015).

Umm Layth’s influence extends beyond being a prominent online recruiter. Through her posts, she breaks down the traditional role of women in marriage and the family unit. As she redefines these concepts, love and marriage are temporary, and the state is the only permanent thing. For many of the young women embarking on a jihadist marriage, it is their first experience of an intimate relationship, and this naivete provides fertile ground in which the Islamic State can plant their definition of the notion of temporary love. In a way, that entirely contradicts the basic tenets and traditions of Arab and Muslim culture, where people “marry for life” with the intention of building long-lasting lives together. Female jihadists are instead indoctrinated to think of the death of their husbands as a necessity and a catalyst to their own, personal attainment of jihadi glory. It could be argued that the temporary nature of these relationships is also a major factor of appeal for these women. It liberates them from traditional Islamic expectations, which would require them to occupy the roles of wives and mothers for the remainder of their existence, while affording them public religious approbation.

The evolution of female militants’ roles is a dynamic of their gender deviation. These roles are not static and traditional, but rather embryonic and continuously finding shape and form. For example, in Umm Layth’s evolving online recruitment role, she goes from offering friendly, sisterly advice and general tips to the female jihadists regarding their female duties towards their jihadist husbands (memri.fr, May 13, 2014). After a two-month absence from online activity, Umm Layth’s posts become more militant; she publishes innocuous visuals such as an idyllic scene of a market in Syria, while praising the virtue of the jihadists in Syria and justifying the presence of women in the Islamic State. The tactics she employs to entice vulnerable women to the Islamic State are aimed at harnessing religious fervor while being laced with the lure of adventure: “If there weren’t women willing to sacrifice all their desires and give up their families and lives in the West in order to please Allah, then who will raise the next generation of lions?” (m.arabi21.com, October 13, 2014; rollingstone.com, March 25, 2015).

Umm Layth is an example of the masculinization of female militants on an intellectual level. This masculinization of the female role, however, can be seen operating on multiple levels. Developments of the female role in Islamic terrorism have real implications for the future of countering violent extremism.

Conclusion

Out of the shadows of her small bedroom in Glasgow and onto the world stage, Internet and social media give Umm Layth a global visibility that would otherwise have been impossible for her to achieve. The digital sphere provides her with a platform to act in a fast evolving power dynamic where she quickly shifts from documenting her daily life to brandishing machine guns; she went from wielding rhetoric to wielding the new generation of jihadist recruits.

The deviation of Umm Layth from the archetypical female role not only highlights why she is considered to be one of the most dangerous militants in the Islamic State, but also highlights how powerfully the newfound role of female militant is evolving within the Islamic State.

Halla Diyab is the founder and director of Liberty Media Productions, which focuses on cross-cultural issues between Britain and the Middle East, and a columnist at al-Arabiya English, writing on Syria, Islam and Middle East political affairs.