Scurrying from the ashes of the destroyed Islamic State in Syria are hundreds of ISIS women and their children who exist in a state of limbo inside of refugee camps scattered across Syria. They claim to have escaped from the so-called caliphate, which has slowly been forced from previous strongholds. While they huddle with children in dusty tents, international media wait in line to profile the “ISIS brides.”
Among the women having fled to Syria to join the Islamic State is an Alabama woman who claims her strict family caused her to go online in search of extremists. Hoda Muthana was 19 years old when she left her home in Alabama and traveled to Syria to link up with ISIS. In media interviews, Muthana claims she was “a naive, angry, and arrogant young woman.” Like others, she claims she was brainwashed into following an extreme version of her religion.
While the debate rages on whether or not fighters who joined ISIS should be permitted back into their respective countries, disturbing facts are resurfacing refuting the “I was young and naive” schtick. Hoda Muthana ran a Twitter account popular among violent jihadis and would-be jihadis. Using this platform, she called for supporters in America to “go on drivebys” and plow trucks into Memorial & Veterans Day parades.
Muthana married an ISIS fighter upon fleeing to Syria. After he was killed, she married another who was also killed. Then she married another ISIS fighter, also killed, with whom she had a child. Curiously, several other Western women who joined ISIS are now begging their home countries to receive them since the so-called caliphate has crumbled.
