Em Rusciano: Why it makes some sense that educated, privileged, teenage girls are joining IS

‘IT MAKES some sense that educated, privileged, teenage girls from loving families are travelling to Syria to join IS.’

CCTV image of London teenagers Amira Abase, Kadiza Sultana and Shamima Begum at a London Airport before they reportedly flew to join IS. Picture: Metropolitan Police / AP

OPINION by Em Rusciano

As I am writing this, British authorities are trying to locate three school girls who appear to have secretly flown to Syria to join the violent, jihadist death cult, IS.

Two of them are just 15. Yes, 15.

Yes, school girls.

Yes, IS. Islamic State.

As the Mother of a 13-year-old girl, this scares the living crap out of me.

CCTV image of London teenagers Amira Abase, Kadiza Sultana and Shamima Begum at a London Airport before they reportedly flew to join IS. Picture: Metropolitan Police / AP

Amira Abase, Shamima Begun and Kadiza Sultana were targeted through social media by savvy recruiters (most probably young females themselves) to join IS. It’s completely unfathomable right? Can you think of two images more diametrically opposed? The teenage girl, in her room, posting selfies, and doing her maths homework versus the hard-line jihadist extremist involved with beheadings, kidnappings and suicide attacks.

Surely teenage girls are the least acceptable people for IS to target? Because they’re, you know, teenage girls. I was one and I now have one, and I can tell you that no-one is less equipped to be dealing with AK-47s, grenades, and centuries of religious tensions.

The girls were just 15 and 16, and Em Rusciano can see why they might be susceptible to a terrorist group.

So how could educated, privileged, teenage girls from loving families be susceptible to a terrorist group?

I thought about it long and hard and realised that IS identifying and targeting teenage girls as their newest recruits makes some sense. You might even say that they’re the perfect candidates.

Can you think of any other time in your life when you felt injustice, isolation and anger so acutely? Do you remember feeling as though all your nerve endings were on the outside of your skin? That your world may end from one tiny parental transgression? Do you recall your ability to completely blow infinitesimal things out of proportion? Your desire to belong, fit in and matter? I’m talking about the common hallmarks of being a hormonal teenage human.

Abase Hussen, the father of one of the girls is pleading for her to come home.

Imagine then, being told that there was a tangible here and now place where your passion and frustration could be translated into something real. A utopia of Disney like proportions. Add to that the promise of a freedom fighting boyfriend and a kick arse community of sisters willing to stand behind you, and you start to understand why these girls are being lured away.

They are looking for somewhere to belong and a cause to believe in and fight for. They are being preyed upon within the platforms they frequent (Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp) by people their age, speaking the language they understand.

When these young women get to Syria the reality that greets them is far removed from what was promised by their recruiters. They have somehow forgotten that IS is a brutal, hard-line, male-dominated movement where women are second class citizens who are there purely to support the male fighters, become their brides and give them children.

The other thing that initially struck me as odd was the fact that most of the missing girls’ families claim to have had absolutely NO IDEA that their 15-year-old kid was planning to run away to war. That there were no clues that a deadly, militant, terrorist group were recruiting their daughters while they sat in their bedrooms surrounded by One Direction posters.

How?!

I can’t believe that a parent could have absolutely no idea that their child was being secretly groomed by extremists to carry out unspeakable atrocities in the near future. How could they be so oblivious to what was going on under their own roof?

How?

I’ll tell you how. Think back to the things you kept from your parents at that age.

Teenagers are THE BEST secret keepers known to man. I once hid an entire person for three days in my Mum and Dad’s house, while my whole family were there, living in it. I know it’s not in the realm of what these girls have done, and that being a secret Jihadist is a far more a serious deception than stashing your boyfriend in a wardrobe. But my point is that teenagers be excellent liars.

Social media is also turning them into scholars of deception. Kids are learning at a very young age how to craft and present one image online, and secretly be another in real life.

FACT: right now, my eldest is in her room on her iPhone and I have absolutely no idea what she’s looking at. Do you know what your kid is doing on their computer/iPad/phone at all times?

The next generation of extremists are being recruited right from under their parent’s noses via the devices they carry with them. It’s just so terrifyingly simple, effective, and evil. A child doesn’t need to be hanging out near the Syrian border to be swayed by IS, they just need a decent internet connection, a sense of injustice, and a Facebook account.

In no way do I wish to underplay the scale of horrors that such extremist groups are capable of, nor the magnitude of devastation which the family members of these girls must be experiencing. What I’m trying to say is that, on some level, I understand why this has started happening and I think it is something we all need to get our heads around. ISIS isn’t some far off place akin to Narnia that will never find its way to our cosy, comfortable lives. It already has, it’s going after kids and we need to start paying attention to it.

Our kids are experts at positively shaping their online personas, so perhaps the next step is for us to teach them that other people, sometimes very dangerous people, are out there doing exactly the same thing.

Em Rusciano is a comedian, writer, singer and regular news.com.au columnist. She is currently touring her new stand-up show “The Motherload”. You can follow her on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Originally published as Em Rusciano: Why it makes some sense that educated, privileged, teenage girls are joining IS