Rabat – 38 percent of Moroccans who have joined the military ranks of the terror group ISIS in 2015 were women, according to a recent report.
Over 38 percent of Moroccan jihadists who joined the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in 2015 were women, while 62 percent of them were men, according to a report from Tetouan-based North Observatory of Human Rights.
The report said that ISIS is addressing Moroccan women with sentimental speech to join ranks of ISIS along with their husbands and children.
The report noted that ISIS is aware of the significant role women play, if convinced to join, to lure their husbands or sons to leave the country and join the terror group.
The observatory said that 2015 recorded a drop of jihadists recruited by ISIS. Only 16 jihadists from Morocco had joined the ISIS’ military ranks during the first six months of 2015, a rate of three jihadists per month.
“This is a significant drop compared to the monthly rate of Moroccan Jihadists who traveled to Syria and Iraq since the outbreak of the Syrian revolution, which was estimated at 30 per month,” said the report.
While the report hailed Morocco’s proactive approach to security based on monitoring and dismantling of terrorist cells that recruit Moroccan jihadists, it warned Morocco of the danger posed by Moroccans who adopt the extremist ideology of the Islamic state.
“These extremists may turn out to be all of a sudden lone wolves and carry out terroristic attacks in Morocco, rather than joining ISIS,” concluded Mohamed Benaissa, the Director of the North Observatory for Human Rights.
Edited by Timothy Filla
