My god, the women were worse than the men. They beat us up thousands of times, put us in obscene clothes, and sent us to the men“
15 year old girl trafficked by ISIS
Notwithstanding evidence to the contrary there is a prevalent belief in large swathes of the media that all problems in society arise from toxic-masculinity or an oppressive patriarchy. The subtle and important role that women play in many dysfunctional or even frankly evil organisations is downplayed.
Take, for example, Islamic State who slaughtered Yazidi men and enslaved Yazidi women. Well-documented were the many western men and women who willingly joined Islamic state and who were active participants in the genocide. There has been a tendency to view female participants as victims acting against their natural instincts while the men were supposedly acting according to their natural instincts. This misandrist world view is shattered by the testimony of both female participants and victims.
Take the case of Rawa, a 15 year old girl who was traded 13 times. She tells us that “the ISIS women were really violent to us” and she goes on to say “My god, the women were worse than the men. They beat us up thousands of times, put us in obscene clothes, and sent us to the men.” Rawa was not an isolated example, Salwa another captive of Islamic State camps tells us that “The women were the most guilty in the selling of our girls.” Those women who perpetrated the beatings had agency and were as culpable as the men in those crimes.
Another female Isis perpetrator was Alison Fluke Ekren who led an all-female battalion in Raqqa. Alison was formerly a school teacher in Kansas who admitted to combat training over 100 women. Their training site was described as ‘a very dark underground basement’ and the aim was ‘to target every woman.’
For something nearer to home, take the case of Tooba Gondal a 21 year old from East London who joined Islamic State and became an active and effective recruiter who even tried to recruit her younger sister. After the Paris terror attacks that killed 130 innocent victims she tweeted, “Wish I could have seen the hostages being slaughtered last night with my own eyes. Would have been just beautiful.” Gondal tried to portray herself as an innocent victim, but she had agency and she chose to join a terrorist organisation.
Perhaps I will leave the final words with with George Orwell. Winston Smith, the main character of his novel 1984, is trying to survive in a dystopia where the truth has to be rewritten to conform to party ideology. The thought is voiced……
“He disliked nearly all women, and especially the young and pretty ones. It was always the women, and above all the young ones, who were the most bigoted adherents of the Party, the swallowers of slogans, the amateur spies and nosers−out of unorthodoxy.”
– George Orwell, 1984
Men and women usually play an important role in evil and dysfunctional organisations. Their roles may differ but the levels of engagement are usually comparable.
toxic feminism 