51吃瓜

For some women in Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State offers something no one else has given them before: power.

Among its many acts of terror, the Islamic State (IS) has a earned reputation for violence against women. Labeled exceedingly radical even by al-Qaeda鈥檚听, the group鈥檚 reprehensible treatment of women has included sexual enslavement, forced marriages and the execution of women who make unapproved contact with members of the opposite sex. These are just a few of the many vicious tactics of gender subordination highlighted by a recent United Nations聽.

But women are still聽聽the group 鈥� many by choice. The natural question is why?

A Role for Women

We tend to associate acts of terror with men, presuming women to be inherently less violent. Over the years, al-Qaeda, in particular, has聽聽women from getting directly involved in its activities.

However, female insurgents have played integral roles in suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks in the Middle East. Palestinian 飞辞尘别苍听 eager recruits聽in the Second Intifada, for example, just as others did in Lebanon on behalf of largely secular organizations聽聽Israeli aggression in the 1980s.

For its part, IS has actively sought to entice women into joining its ranks 鈥� albeit, generally to play non-combat roles. In February 2014, it created two female brigades 鈥斅犔�补苍诲听聽鈥� to enforce its stringent conceptions of Islamic morality. The group deems single women between the ages of 18-25 eligible to participate, providing a monthly salary of 25,000 Syrian pounds 鈥� around $135 鈥� as an incentive.

These women do not commit the conspicuous acts of terror that have made the Sunni extremist group infamous. Instead, they perform tasks such as searching people who pass through checkpoints, in part to expose men who have disguised themselves as women to avoid recruitment. They also serve as IS鈥� police, ensuring that female community members in seized areas dress appropriately in a full聽niqab聽(face veil) and refrain from going out in public without male companions.

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Accounts from women detained by聽al-Khansaa聽indicate that female brigade members do not merely obey orders from male leaders in the execution of their policing duties. Rather, to some extent, they seem to revel in their access to power. 鈥淭hey insulted me and yelled at me,鈥澛� Zainab, a young Syrian girl who was detained in March 2014. 鈥淣obody talked to me or told me the reason for my detention 鈥� The brigade has created fear among the women and girls of Raqqa.鈥�

A Choice Among Patriarchies

Although IS鈥� presence has undeniably exacerbated the oppression of women in Iraq and Syria, conditions were never ideal for women in these states in the first place (though by some measures they were better than in nearby countries).

In communities where聽 killings聽continue to occur, female victims of rape are stigmatized, regardless of whether it鈥檚 members of IS committing the atrocities or someone else. Similarly, in places where women cannot decide for themselves how to聽聽or how to act, they remain subject to the authority of men, regardless of who鈥檚 in power.

Yet if the Islamic State seems even worse, why do women join?

Some contribute to the radical movement out of concern for their own safety. In northern and central Iraq, many women have been left to fend for themselves in the聽聽of male family members who have been roped into combat or killed. Joining IS could grant these women a sense of security. On the other hand, a genuine feeling of obligation among women to oppose the Iraqi government鈥檚 routine mistreatment of Sunnis could also be at play.

A more fascinating explanation, however, rests on the premise that women yearn to be entrusted with positions of authority in societies where traditional values already restrict female autonomy.

Syrian women participated in the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings, but since the onset of the civil war that followed, they鈥檝e had to focus on聽聽rather than on instigating change. Just as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has successfully聽聽women in his own counter-insurgency tactics, perhaps IS has convinced some women that the perception of being in control 鈥� with the authority to subjugate members of their own community 鈥� is more desirable than the alternative: feeling the weight of their oppression each day.

The complicity of these women in enforcing strict conceptions of morality illuminates the unfairness of the pre-Islamic State lives they wished to escape. The Islamic State鈥檚 version of Islam surely oppresses women, but so too does the existing patriarchy in the societies the extremists have penetrated. 鈥淭here is a process of female emancipation taking place in the jihadi movement,鈥澛犅燦orwegian defense expert Thomas Hegghammer, 鈥渁lbeit a very limited (and morbid) one.鈥�

Without the help of women at the local level, IS would not have been able to establish its presence in the Middle East so rapidly and effectively. But as women have discovered all over the world, helping to build a society scarcely prevents them from finding themselves at the margins of it.

*[This article was originally published by .]

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