Excerpt
SUMMARY: Experts say that more and more women are making the decision to join the Islamic State. Who are they and what are their motivations? William Brangham finds out from foreign affairs and defense producer P.J. Tobia, the host of NewsHour’s “Shortwave” podcast.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): When the man thought to have planned the Paris attacks was killed during a raid on Wednesday, a woman who was with him also died in the assault. It’s not clear what role she played, if any, in planning the attacks.
But experts say more and more women are joining ISIS, traveling to territory held by the group in Syria and Iraq. Why are they making the trip? And what do they find when they get there?
William Brangham has more.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM (NewsHour): Here with me now to discuss the motivations of the women who join the Islamic State is NewsHour foreign affairs producer P.J. Tobia. He also hosts our Shortwave podcast, which this week is all about the women of ISIS.
So, P.J., how do we know what we know about these women? And who are they?
P.J. TOBIA (NewsHour): Well, first of all, everything that we know pretty much comes from social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. They’re very active in documenting not only their radicalization in place before they leave their homes in the West or in Asia or really anywhere, their travel to territory controlled by the Islamic State, and then what life is like when they get there.
And as to who they are, it kind of runs the gamut. Of course, there’s the famous Bethnal Green case. It was three young women, high school-age girls from Eastern London who journeyed to the territory controlled by the Islamic State earlier this year.
But there are also older women. There is a story of a 26-year-old woman who is a doctor from Malaysia who relocated to Syria last year. And she chronicled her journey through social media. And she says, along the way, that she saw women in their 60s, much older women who were making this journey.
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