DUSHANBE, July 27, 2015, Asia-Plus — If an IS militant dies in battle and is awarded his 72 “houris” (the heavenly maidens whom, according to IS ideology, militants are given if they are killed in battle), will he forget all about his wife?
It sounds like the opening lines of a joke. But this is a serious question for the Islamic State (IS) group, and especially for the women who join it and marry militants,
Radio Liberty
reported on July 27.
Like other violent “jihadi” groups, IS entices men to join its ranks by promising them they will be granted 72 eternally young and beautiful virgins when they die in battle and go to heaven.
This is a powerful piece of recruitment propaganda for male militants.
But it is hardly attractive for IS brides, who are told that after death they will be reunited with their dead husbands in paradise — after he has settled down with his houris.
As well as the specific issues of houris, the IS wives” support group and other pro-IS groups on VKontakte also deal with the wider problem of how “jihadi brides” are supposed to cope emotionally when their militant husbands leave them to go off to battle and die.
To do this, the groups constantly create and recreate a romantic narrative in which militants who die fighting alongside IS are depicted as brave warriors carrying out God”s wishes. They are supported by devoted militant wives whose divinely ordained role is to help their men achieve what the extremist group portrays as the lofty goal of death in battle.
Wholly modest and unfailingly loyal to their husbands, these ideal IS wives are told that they are carrying out God”s commands and that they will meet their husbands again in paradise.
IS tries via its propaganda efforts to dress up the realities of life under its rule — marriage to a violent militant, early widowhood, and remarriage — as a romantic fairy tale. But there are signs that not all IS militants believe the propaganda.
A post criticizing would-be “jihadi brides” for romanticizing life as a militant”s wife in IS-occupied territory in Syria and Iraq recently spread across Russian IS accounts. The post argued that women do not realize the reality of the hardships they will face in Syria or Iraq.
IS has also refused to allow women whose husbands have died in Syria to return home unless they leave their children behind. A Tajik woman, 25-year-old Gulru Olimova, was told in May that her three small children were the “property of Islamic State” and she would have to leave them behind.
We will recall that
Radio Liberty
reported on May 13 that when Gulru Olimova”s husband, Loiq, was killed fighting alongside IS militants in Syria recently, the 25-year-old Tajik woman decided to pack her bags and return to Tajikistan with her children. Following protocol, Gulru asked IS”s amir, or commander, in Aleppo for permission to return home to Tajikistan.
The IS commander agreed to let Gulru leave. On one condition: Gulru”s children — 7-year-old Fotima, 4-year-old Ahmad, and 6-month-old Rumaiso — were the “property of Islamic State,” the commander said, and so she would have to leave them behind.
