Over the past few months, eight British school girls traveled to Syria and hundreds more besotted British women have proposed marriage to extremists online, according to British media.
The school girls have used a route which has become to be known as the ‘jihadi bride trail’ and the true figure is likely to be higher as British police and families have imposed news blackouts in some cases.
East London school girls Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15 are reported to be in Syria after they flew out from Gatwick earlier this month. A fourth unnamed girl from the same school went out in December.
Several radical websites like ‘Jihad Matchmaker’ offer to arrange marriages between Muslim women and militants and have been blamed for encouraging young, impressionable girls to travel to Syria.
The website states it is based in Syria and uses the motto ‘keep it halal and get married’, while its official Twitter account says ‘Jihad Matchmaker is here to link up those seeking marriage in Syria in a halal manner.’
It is currently unknown how many brides the site has matched to militants but it has 378 followers, many of whom are young Western Muslim women.
Just last year, the site was forced to deny that it was linked to any terrorist groups after it was alleged to have been responsible for helping to radicalise teenage girls in the UK.
The website encourages women seeking a militant husband to make contact through a third party or agent who could represent the girl’s interests under Islamic law.
It further claims that ‘All actions will be conducted via Shariah acceptable routes and means once agreement and compatibilities are established.’
Security sources have said that hundreds of British women have put marriage proposals to militants on the front line with the Islamic State (IS).
One European fighter in Syria has become a pin-up fighter and has been bombarded with proposals from women all over the world, desperate to be associated with a ‘holy warrior’.
The ‘jihadi bride trail’ route was used by another four girls who are believed to have married IS fighters after travelling to Syria via Istanbul from different airports in the UK.
Manchester twins Salma and Zahra Halane fled in June 2014 to join the IS and are the first known British schoolgirls to travel to Syria. Reports, however, have said that they are now teenage widows after their militant husbands were killed in battles with Kurdish forces or in coalition bombing raids.
It is currently estimated that a total of 60 women are in Syria living with the IS.
With the number of British girls and women travelling to join the IS, it has sparked an uproar across the globe.
