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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Ending Islamic State: Dealing With Women and Children Returnees in the North Caucasus
2018-03-07
[TheJamestownFoundation] In the spring of 2016, Islamic State (IS) propagandists released an unusual video purporting to show the famous Chechen pop-singer Azza Bataeva, previously known for her provocative clothing, wearing a niqab and calling on Muslims to join “the path of Allah,” as she tore up her Russian passport (Kavkazskii Uzel, April 22, 2016). The video was some of the first evidence of North Caucasian female jihadist activism in Syria and Iraq.

As IS is dislodged from its captured territories, the return to their home countries of militants’ families has become a concern, albeit one that is under-examined. According to Russian officials, about 445 Russian children were taken to the conflict zone, more than half of whom were under the age of three and have since effectively grown up under IS tutelage (Kavkazskii Uzel, January 17).

In the North Caucasus, human rights organizations and local authorities have voiced concerns. A failure to properly reintegrate indoctrinated women and children into the local communities could lead to new tensions in the traditional but fragile North Caucasian society.

The Attraction of the Five-Star Jihad
Historically, the role of female actors in the North Caucasian insurgency has been marginal, but the emergence of IS changed that. The group encouraged many North Caucasian women to participate in some form by moving to IS-held territories and bring their children with them.

The most intensive migration of women and children to IS-captured territories was in 2015. The large rebel-held territories in Syria and Iraq, with their functional infrastructure and favorable conditions for civilian life, presented a more comfortable alternative to a life of jihad carried out in the forested mountains of the North Caucasus. While some women were encouraged to make hijrah (migration or journey) to IS-held territories, with no expectation of returning home, by their husbands, for others the intensive promotion by IS of a “pure” sharia lifestyle within its territories will have held its own appeal. Even girls from affluent families, such as Seda Dudurkaeva, the daughter of a Chechen official, were attracted by IS’ so-called “five-star” jihad (Chechens in Syria, November 9, 2014).

Nine Chechen women are reported to have joined the all-female, Raqqa-based al-Khansaa brigade (Novaya Gazeta, October 29, 2017). However, information about female IS recruits is scarce, and the primary function of IS women in Syria and Iraq is most likely to have been to take care of the children and offer support to the men, rather than take part in active combatant.

Following the rapid withdrawal of IS from major settlements, foreign non-combatants have found themselves deprived of sanctuary. Many ethnic Chechen fighters sent their family members to the relative safety of Idlib province in Syria, under the protection of non-IS Caucasian armed groups. Others were unable to send family members away. Those left behind in Mosul have been captured by Iraqi forces, and those in Raqqa were picked up by Kurdish groups. It appears that scores of Caucasian women and children are today waiting to be deported back to Russia, despite the uncertain future they face there.
Posted by:3dc

#1  The war widows are bitter and they are surely infecting their kids. Repatriation by way of a fertilizer factory seems the best bet...
Posted by: M. Murcek   2018-03-07 13:31  

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