by ZAINAB SALBI
According to Edward Lorenz’s chaos theory, the butterfly effect is defined as the “sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state.”
Well, you may ask what does that have to do with ISIS and women in the Middle East. Consider ISIS as the small change that is impacting the larger system of how women live their lives in profound and turbulent ways.
Less than 0.001% of the world’s Muslims
The continuous terror of ISIS activities throughout Europe and the Middle East – from Baghdad to Beirut to Paris – has dominated not only world news, but also intimate discussions amongst the majority of Muslims. Although ISIS members do not exceed 0.001% of the entire Muslim population of 1.5 billion people around the world, their loud, aggressive, and very particular claims of what they believe is Islam are prompting a disproportionate and varied reaction.
There are those who are attracted to ISIS ideology and are joining them. The number of young men and women from all over the world who participate are not high in numbers, but their involvement is very alarming nevertheless.
Middle Eastern newspapers cover stories on a daily basis of parents reporting the escape of their college students – from those studying engineering to medicine – to ISIS camps, and disowning their parents in the process. This is publicly discussed from Saudi Arabia to Jordan to the Sudan. This trend also includes young Muslims in Sweden, where the recruitment of young people is such a serious risk that there is a hotline to support parents whose children have fled.
A sense of belonging – and $1,000
No one can claim with authority why young people are really drawn to ISIS. One can only guess from what ISIS is providing in terms of clarity of vision – however warped – and roles for men and women alike.
At a time when many Muslims are grappling with their identity, ISIS offers a sense of belonging in a place where “Muslims” who reject all current definitions of national states and current political leadership and systems around the world rule.
In addition, they provide a sense of stability, with jobs that pay $500 to $1000 per month to each male member. For women, this stability is expressed through “sex jihad,” as articulated by ISIS themselves, where women’s role is the explicit sexual service of ISIS members as their wives.
Radical, extremist, patriarchal
What ISIS is doing is introducing a very particular implementation of Islam: radical, extremist, and patriarchal, with sexuality and men’s power over women at the core of it.
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