British-jihadi-brides-running-brothels-ISIS-fighters-Syria.html

At least 11 British women have been identified as linked to ISIS fighters
They post online about their life to tempt other would-be jihadis to go
One, Umm Farriss, complained that a sex slave had looked her in the eye

By Chris Greenwood for the Daily Mail

Published: 19:54 GMT, 2 December 2014 | Updated: 21:37 GMT, 2 December 2014

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British women are suspected of running sex slave brothels for Islamic State fighters in Syria.

They are among scores of European women who have flocked to the warzone in the hope of becoming ‘jihadi brides’.

Academic experts monitoring the lawless region have identified at least 11 women linked to frontline fighters.

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British jihadi brides have been messaging each other on Twitter about life in Raqqa, Syria (pictured), including posts about sex slaves taken from the minority Yazidi religious group

They were shocked to discover references to sex slaves including a British fundamentalist complaining that one Yazidi girl dared to look her in the eye.

Hundreds of girls and women belonging to the Kurdish religious minority have been kidnapped, tortured and raped by the terrorist group.

Yet despite the horror stories of their treatment there is growing evidence of British women being drawn to the region support militant fighters.

Melanie Smith, of the King’s College International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, said there are ‘hundreds’ of girls who want to travel across Europe to Syria.

‘Hundreds. I come across girls every day who say, ‘I’m so desperate to go over there but it’s just so hard for me,’ she said.

‘The proportion of girls who eventually make the transition from wanting to go to physically going is tiny. But there are so many people that want to go. And it’s fairly overwhelming.’

Miss Smith said that once the women arrive in Syria getting married to one of the many foreign fighters is easy.

She said there is even a ‘Jihad Matchmaker’ service on Twitter in which women can post photographs of themselves for the men to choose from.

Among those who have travelled from Britain are Manchester twins Salma and Zahra Halane, 16, who fled their family home in the middle of the night in June.

Glaswegian public schoolgirl Aqsa Mahmood, 20, was reported missing by her parents a year ago before surfacing in Syria in February as an outspoken supporter of the terrorist group.

Khadijah Dare, 22, arranged to marry an Islamic State fighter via Facebook and moved to Syria in 2012. She now posts photographs online of her son holding an AK-47.

Aqsa Mahmood, 20 (left) and Salma Halane, 16, are among the British women known to be in Syria. Another, Umm Farriss wrote recently to complain that one sex slave had looked her in the eye

Parents of Aqsa Mahmood, wife of ISIS fighter, speak out...

Many women are apparently lured to Syria by the prolific online activities of fighters who work hard to present a ‘romantic’ image of the bloodshed.

They exchange messages on sites including Facebook, Twitter and Ask.fm, often including marriage proposals, before travelling to Syria via Turkey.

Once in the country, most likely in the stronghold of Raqqa, the must adhere to hardline sharia law, including wearing the niqab, and find themselves cooking and cleaning.

Some even post blogs about their lives, including tips on cooking high calorie meals for their thin partners who are losing weight on the battlefield.

They offer advice to other women considering travelling to Syria, including the fact that chocolate is difficult to come by but hair straighteners can be bought.

One British woman, Umm Farriss, wrote recently on social media complaining that a sex slave had dared to look her in the eye.

A teenager posted a picture of Adolf Hitler with the words, ‘I could have extinguished every Jew in Europe but I left them so you would be able to do it for me.’

Another commented ‘I wish I did it’ after being asked about the murder of Israeli-American journalist Steven Sotloff.

Miss Smith said seven of the British women live and work together and are married to husbands who all fight alongside one another.

She said many are answering a call for women with no specialist or professional skills to help them build a new Islamic state.

‘It’s very much a domestic housewife role at best,’ she said. ‘It’s not much of a life.’

Asked why women would want to join Islamic State she added: ‘There may be pressure from parents: you should study for your A levels so you can go to university so you can be a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer …

‘There’s a lot of that kind of mentality. It’s laziness, really. And they’re bored with their life here. They say they have more freedom in IS.

‘They see eight women living in a house in Raqqa who all get on famously and they tweet each other all the time.

‘That’s something they haven’t had, the sense of community and independence.’