Jihadist mobilization of women in Spain – Analytic study

In April 2017, Carola Garcia-Calvo, a researcher at the Department of Global Terrorism Institute of international think tank Elcano Royal Institute published a study entitled "Jihadist Mobilization of Women in Spain Between 2014 and 2016".

In her study, Garcia-Calvo answered a number of questions on the recruitment of women by Daesh in Spain.

Elcano Royal Institute is one of the most important think tanks in Spain. It was founded in 2001 under the auspices of former King of Spain, Juan Carlos I. The institute is especially focused on terrorism and militant groups.

The study focuses on women recruited by Daesh in Spain. It presents information about them, the methods of their recruitment, and their motivations.

It relies on accurate information provided by Spanish authorities, especially on a group of 23 women arrested as part of a security crackdown on those affiliated to Daesh.   

The researcher attended the trial of the 23 women as well as their interrogation by investigators.

She explains how jihadist groups incorporate women into their ranks in Iraq and Syria. It also dwells on the beginnings of Daesh as a terrorist organization.

Garcia-Calvo also uncovers the ways Daesh uses to promote the jihadist ideology among Spanish citizens. In this, she says, the venomous organization differs from organizations active in the 1970s.

Although the radicalization patterns of women differ from those of men, Garcia-Calvo says in the study, these women share the same jihadist objectives of their male partners. Both men and women want to establish the aspired caliphate, she says.

"This new development in jihadist mobilization and the recruitment methods of youth should not be overlooked," the study says.   

The summer of 2014 was a turning point in the evolution of global terrorism. This was a time when Daesh emerged and established its self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

Daesh's emergence set into motion a struggle for jihadist hegemony between the new organization and the well-established al-Qaeda.

In his first address in Mosul, the self-styled capital of Daesh in Iraq, Daesh caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, called on Muslims to immigrate to the new caliphate. He spoke of victories on the ground and said these victories should encourage Muslims around the world to travel to and live in this caliphate, namely territories overran by Daesh in both Syria and Iraq.

Daesh's appeal among youth, especially in Western Europe, is unprecedented hitherto. Around 500 Western Europeans are now fighting within the ranks of Daesh in both Syria and Iraq.

About 208 Spanish citizens had been recruited by Daesh since 2013. Ten percent of those Spanish recruits are women. Spanish authorities had arrested 23 of them. They accused them of being implicated in crimes connected with Daesh.

Escalating woman participation

It is not easy to profile each of the women recruited by Daesh. Nonetheless, questions always arise on the role they will play in Spain in the future. Questions in this regard are logical to ask, especially after Daesh lost most of the territories it used to control.

Women have been playing a growing role inside Daesh. They are present at the level of planning and also at the level of implementation.

In September 2016, French authorities arrested three women linked to Daesh, who planned attacks.

A gender-based approach to terrorism is urgently needed with the role of women growing inside the international terrorist movement.   

Young women and the freedom from family responsibilities

A study on people joining Daesh between 2014 and 2016 showed the maximum age of male terrorists to be 30. The maximum age of female terrorists was 24. Up to 73.3% of male terrorists were between 19 and 28 years of age. Around 47% of them were between 19 and 23 years of age. The youngest female terrorist was 14 years old. The oldest was 52.

Forty-five percent of female terrorists were single. The percentage of single men was 16.6% lower. Around 55% of male terrorists had children. Around 65% of female terrorists did not have children.

These figures unveil Daesh's keenness on recruiting women, especially in their formative years. This makes it easy for the organization to shape these women the way it likes.

The organization also needs these women who are in their most reproductive years to get married to male jihadists, give birth to the new generation of jihadists and bring up this new generation.

Around 60.9% of those female recruits were Spanish nationals. More than half of them – 56.5% – were born in Spain, while 34.8% had Moroccan origins. Thirteen percent of the female recruits were converts who belonged to non-Muslim families, but at a certain point decided to adopt the Islamic faith.

The women arrested in Spain were better educated than their male counterparts. Up to 87.5% of the female recruits attended high school, compared to 25.7% only of the male recruits. Around 6.3% of the female recruits had university degrees.

Around 33.3% of the female recruits were unemployed, 10% higher than the unemployment rate among male recruits. None of the female recruits had a criminal record.

Internet radicalization

Eight of the women arrested were indigenous to Spain. Around 55.6% of female recruits were radicalized through the internet. Social media was a prime recruitment tool, radicalizing 93.3% of the recruits, followed by mobile messaging applications.

Recruits receive jihadist audiovisual content through the internet. They take part in internet conversations, either individually or as part of a group like-minded people.

Roughly 66.7% of female recruits said they were attracted to the charisma of their recruitment agents who communicated with them through the internet.  

One of the women hooked up with a male Daesh fighter through his sister. She then connected with another fighter who introduced her to a military commander who engaged her at the end.

She made simultaneous conversations with Wahhabi Sheikhs in various Middle East Africa countries.

Another woman was radicalized by the imam of the mosque where she prayed.

The speed of the radicalization process is always astonishing. It takes only a few months for radical groups to convince women of adopting the jihadist ideology.

Recruitment, motivations, temptations

About 61.5% of recruits take to jihad for emotional reasons, including the desire to get married to a Daesh fighter. Some of the recruits suffer an identity crisis, one induced by the loss of dear ones, or the loss of a goal in life.

One of the women converted to Islam only a few months before she lost the man she planned to get married to in Syria.

It is important to note that Daesh focuses on the recruitment of Spanish women as part of an organization strategy to increase its popularity base in Spain.