The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has a clear view of what women's role in society is - and that is to cook, clean, and sew, and a girl can do that for her militant husband as early as age nine.
In a 10,000-word manifesto entitled "Women in the Islamic State: Manifesto and Case Study" uploaded by the all-female Al-Khanssaa Brigade's media wing, it was deemed "legitimate" for girls nine years old and up to be married to militants and stressed their quiet roles as wives, mothers, and homemakers.
The document stressed the "sedentary" role women play in their society, and it slammed Western women for their claims on gender equality.
The manifesto was written in Arabic and translated by Charlie Winter, a researcher on jihadism in Syria and Iraq at the counter extremism think-tank the Quilliam Foundation.
Winter believes that the document serves as a means for ISIS to lure more women from the West to join their forces. He said that Western recruits have posted pictures of themselves on social media accounts, with a woman from south London living in Syria claiming that she wants to be the first woman to behead a Western hostage.
"I think that Western women have a motive to recruit other Western women. This document has a motive – recruiting women from the Gulf. The reflection that it gives of an idealised position of women is at lot closer to the reality than what our British girls are saying, for example talking about joining police forces and training for battle," he told The Independent.
"The document will be exaggerated and not a completely accurate reflection of what life is like, but what it does give us is a conceptual treatise of what life should be like and that's something that we haven't seen yet, at least not in English," added Winter. "Somebody will have made a decision not to circulate a manifesto like this in English because it contains uncomfortable ideas that may not sit well with the average Western girl looking to join the group."
The manifesto said that it is women's "divinely appointed right" in accordance with Shariah law to fulfill their responsibilities at home. Their education should begin at the age of seven and be completed by the age of 15, with the curriculum focusing on Islamic religious studies, Koranic Arabic and learning basic cooking, knitting and other skills.
It added that there is no need for women to "flit here and there to get degrees and so on just so she can try to prove that her intelligence is greater than a man's."
However, there are times when a woman can leave her duties at home to serve as doctors or teachers, or even for jihad but only "by appointment" if the militant groups are in need of her services. Their work outside home should only take place three days a week and "must be appropriate for her and her abilities and not involve more than what she is able to endure, or what is difficult for her to achieve".
Winter warned people not to buy in to the idealism of the manifesto since "in a jihadist perversion of feminism, the importance of women is championed. She is deemed to play a central role."
"However, this is only insomuch as the jihadist ideology permits her. She may be important, but she faces myriad restrictions and an imposed piety that is punishable by hudud (fixed) punishments," he reasoned.
