An opposition fighter trains young women in the Salah al-Din neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, in this September 30, 2013 file photo.

Terrorist groups have infiltrated societies where women have special privacy such as Saudi Arabia. However, security authorities in the Kingdom arrested several women involved in terrorist activities, while there are other women who escaped abroad to join terrorist groups. Saudi security authorities estimate the number of women who escaped abroad to be 46.

A number of women transformed their activities to support terrorist groups through social networking websites. Um Ouis, 27 years old, is one of these women and she is the first woman to face trial as a result of her terrorist activities. She has been accused of belonging to Daesh, offering allegiance to its leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, printing publications and pasting them on mosque walls and light poles in the streets of Onaizah, according to a media report.

Um Ouis was a postgraduate student with an MSc in Islamic studies. She had a number of accounts on social networks spouting propaganda for Daesh. She was in contact with other women terrorists on Twitter. She also supported terrorist assault attempts against security men, which took place in Sharora in 2014, according to her tweets. Saudi authorities detained her with a number of other women.

Um Ouis was indoctrinated with terrorist ideology by her uncle. She produced media materials to criticize the role of Saudi security authorities using leaflets and banners.

Sociologist Amal Abu Al-Wafa said: “Um Ouis participated in terrorist activities as a result of her uncle’s ideas, which affected her. Most women who are involved in terrorism have relatives or family members who are wanted by security authorities. Their relatives are members of terrorist groups and they help daughters, sisters or wives to join them.”

Speaking to Arab News, she said: “The role of the Saudi media contributed to limit the number of Saudi women who joined terrorist groups. However, the social environment of women played a vital role to change her ideas in addition to the role of social networking websites that recruited several women from many countries to join terrorist groups.”

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