Rabat - Over 20 French female students of Moroccan origin have reportedly joined the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The new female jihadists have already married ISIS fighters, according to ISIS sources.
The Moroccan daily newspaper Akhbar Alyaoum quoted sources from ISIS saying that ‘’over 20 French girls of Moroccan origin have recently left the universities where they were completing their studies and joined the Islamic State’s ranks in Iraq and Syria.’’
In most cases, the girls who were lured to the ISIS’s ranks appear to have left their countries to marry ISIS fighters, drawn to the idea of supporting their ‘’brother jihadis’’ and giving birth to new Jihadist children, who would then fight for the cause of Islam, supposedly giving their lives meaning.
Several Moroccan-French students have joined ISIS for the same purpose. According to the same source, the new female jihadists have already married ISIS fighters, ‘’while some of them were recruited as the office staff by virtue of their high academic level.’’
Counter-terrorism experts in France believe that France has the most female jihadist in the region. Last month, new French intelligence reports estimate the number of French female jihadists at 100 women. 25 percent of them are of Moroccan origin.
France’s Minister of the Interior Bernard Cazeneuve confirmed that hundreds of French civilians have fled to Iraq via the Turkish border and are now fighting with ISIS’s military ranks in Iraq.
Edited by Timothy Filla