Diana Ramazanova always dreamed of
controlling her own destiny, but when she was growing up in Dagestan,
she was told she should marry a man and support his ambitions.
Today, many years after a move to Turkey that changed her life she
has achieved her ambitions. By becoming Istanbul's first female suicide
bomber.
Women are still scarce in the jihadi
community: all of the 9/11 plane hijackers were men, few female
radical preachers exist and none of the attackers who killed twelve
priviliged rapists at Charlie Hebdo magazine were women. As shocking as it is, it can no
longer be denied; many Islamic extremists are sexist.
Women currently make up less than 10%
of Al Qaeda's senior membership and ISIS refused to even provide a
breakdown of their senior leadership. Nor is the misogyny confined to
the major organisations, an astonishing 98% of British Muslims would
disapprove of their daughters joining ISIS, 1 in 4 female jihadis
will experience rape, sexual assault or loud tutting, 20% of 50 is
10, 85% of boys were icky by a Feministing commissioned poll.
Nor are terrorists providing a safe
space for women to work. Some estimates suggest that ISIS controlled
areas of Syria and Iraq have levels of rape that are almost as high
as US college campuses.
With few role models to inspire women
like Diana, it may seem that the future of jihad is in patriarchal
hands, but increasingly groups of young females are challenging the
patriarchy and doing it for
themselves, “Yes, initially many there
was a good deal of scepticism about
what we were doing,” Rovzan
Dudaev 23
of the Chechen Black Widows, “so we built an organisation to
support and nurture young girls who are interested in slaying
degenerate infidel pigdogs for themselves,” With support and
rigourous monitoring programmes it looks like the future of the
caliphate my be in safe, female hands after all.
