Women In ISIS: Prison Study Reveals Face Of Female Jihadists
▻https://www.worldcrunch.com/world-affairs/women-in-isis-prison-study-reveals-face-of-female-jihadists
https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2014/12/26/18/21-Isis2-AFPGetty-v2.jpg “BEIRUT – Few women have ever gained access to Block B of Beirut’s notorious Roumieh prison. This is where Lebanon holds radicalized criminals. It is also a place where suicide bombings have allegedly been planned, and has been called an “operations room” for the so-called Islamic State by Lebanon’s interior minister. So when Maya and Nancy Yamout first began interviewing convicted jihadists in the prison, the Lebanese sisters aroused both confusion and suspicion among guards and prisoners alike.
The Yamouts’ interest began with a university project, but it took the support of the former minister of justice to get them inside Roumieh. It was unheard-of for two young women, even professionals, to attempt such a project. The sisters are forensic social workers, which means they tackle issues relating to law and legal systems, such as recommendations about mental status, child custody or neglect.
“It was strange for ISF [Internal Security Forces] to see us in prison … [we] were asked, ‘Why do you want to do this? Go pick another topic,’” Maya says. Even the ISF guards who helped them showed no interest in their interviews.
Seven years on, after a Master’s thesis about The Role of Forensic Social Work in Terrorism and its impact on society, the pair have become prison regulars. Apart from lawyers and family members, the sisters are the only civilians the Block B prisoners meet. They regularly interview more than 70 inmates – about 10% of the block’s total population – from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Turkey, Russia and Sudan. Roughly half are said to have been de-radicalized, and are finishing their prison time. Prisons are key recruiting centers for radicalization, putting Maya and Nancy into a potential cauldron of violent extremism.”