The Women of ISIS-- And Their Twitter Accounts?

Over the last few months, two articles on Buzzfeed stuck out to me. They were about ISIS women using Twitter to recruit women by creating a sense of normalcy and sisterhood. The women use Twitter in order to give women thinking about joining ISIS encouragement and tips about leaving their families. They post pictures of themselves shopping at high end stores, and discuss the female side of the Islamic State—their “sisterhood.” They tweet primarily in English, making a point to appeal to young Western women. 

These articles are fascinating—I think it’s so interesting how these women have taken to Twitter, as opposed to Facebook, or other forms of social media. These articles imply, and I agree, that Twitter is a way for women to convey their messages in a short, succinct manner, and reach mass amounts of people. This ties in to our class, because we favor Twitter as well, shown by the fact that we all made Twitter accounts the first day of class. I also was drawn to this article because I have never actually thought about the fact that these women use ISIS as a platform to draw other women in— I appreciate articles like this because they give you a different perspective, by allowing us to hear directly from these women.

Though Twitter is an amazing way to get news and ideas quickly, we need to be a bit skeptical in this situation. As with any news, we need to take into account the circumstances surrounding these ISIS women posting, and that is, at its core, to promote ISIS. Regardless of this, I still think this article does a really good job of highlighting a buried topic—I know that when I think of ISIS, I don’t immediately tend to think of the women and their social media tactics, and that’s pretty interesting to consider.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ellievhall/inside-the-online-world-of-the-women-of-isis#.rxqRaWm15D

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ellievhall/how-isis-uses-twitter-to-recruit-women#.ifqObrl6kY