FROM ROCKING THE CRADLE TO ROCKING THE WORLD: "By joining violent extremism, females are committing acts that ultimately are selfish, senseless, and sorrowful. Oddly, the ultimate goal for pious, practicing Muslims is the same as for Muslim extremists, only the latter use violence in hopes of securing a place in Paradise...."(WORLDVIEW)

• Author: Qazi, Farhana
• Position: WORLDVIEW

SINCE 2016, at least 100 girls from Western countries have attempted to join male operatives in Syria, and that is a modest estimate. No one knows the actual number of female extremists, and it likely is a larger data point as these women include quiet sympathizers, supporters, and savvy propagandists luring other females into the ugly prism through online recruitment. With many girls and women unaccounted for, the dangerous trend of female extremists continues to afflict counterterrorism efforts to stop this deadly force.

Violent extremism is one of the most-complex subjects of the modem century. The reasons why women commit acts of violence are multifaceted. The diversity of Muslim women often is explained in extreme contrast: modernity and antiquity, luxury and poverty, sensuality and asceticism, tenderness and violence. A multiplicity of cultures, clans, families, and tribes describes the "Muslim woman." She is a product of local cultures, traditions, histories, and politics. Even violent Muslim women are more than the constructs of patriarchal practice or norms codified by men.

As an international speaker, I often am asked how one connects with religious extremists online and how violent recruitment takes place for Muslim girls. It is simple. Girls begin by connecting to a social media platform and using phone direct messaging apps, some of which are encrypted, offering secrecy and privacy for conversation.

A girl poses a seemingly neutral question on Islam, the war in Syria, the role of women in war and/or conflicts in general. In the virtual world, girls are alone, open to strangers, and free to be a different person--they use acronyms and honorific titles such as "Umm" to mean mother in Arabic, even if they are single. By showing genuine interest and assuming another identity, a Muslim girl online can attract the wrong kind of attention. She is contacted, liked, foDowed, and welcomed by a new community of online predators--and thus the process of extremist recruitment unfolds. Within minutes, she may be "hooked" and, in days or weeks, lured into the ambivalent dark world of violent extremism.

With "transient anonymity," a term coined by Jaron Lanier in You Are Not a Gadget, girls are uninhibited on the Internet. In their hyper connectivity, they are free, spending hours of time away from the real world. This organic communication gives Muslim girls the opportunity to pursue marriage and martyrdom from an online community of extremists, who always are available, accessible, and approachable. Online, Muslim females find their purpose and share their pride when a loved one dies--they glorify death and believe they will meet their partner again in Paradise.

On Twitter, the sister of an ISIS recruit described her husband's death or so-called...