Study: Young women who join ISIS looking for sisterhood more than marriage

A woman in Baghdad.
(Image credit: John Moore/Getty Images)

New research suggests that many young women who leave home to join Islamic State in Syria do so because they are looking for sisterhood.

While some do hope to become so-called "jihadi brides," others go because they believe Muslims are being persecuted and they feel isolated in secular Western society, according to a report released Thursday by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and the International Center for the Study of Radicalization at King's College London. It's actually hazardous to believe that the girls are all being brainwashed or groomed by ISIS, say authors Erin Saltman and Melanie Smith. "They're not being taken seriously," Smith told The Associated Press. "It's inherently dangerous to label people with the same brush."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.