The German security authorities repeatedly stated that many of these women did not want to return to Germany. However, a paper by researcher Sofia Koller from the international non-profit organization "Counter Extremism Project" from February 2024 shows that several women did want to return even then. According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, around 40 percent of the approximately 1,150 people who traveled from Germany to Syria or Iraq returned to Germany, around 25 percent of whom were women. The security authorities assume that a smaller proportion of the returnees continue to hold Salafist-jihadist views. The Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution's 2023 report states that this applies to two of the 16 returnees in Bavaria.
"Exit programs would generally work well in Germany, says Sofia Koller from the Counter Extremism Project (CEP). She has been researching how to deal with IS returnees for years. She warns that exit processes do not work linearly. Time and again, life crises could drive former extremists to radical ideology."
"Sofia Koller is a Senior Research Analyst at the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) in Berlin, where she currently focuses on the prosecution, rehabilitation, and reintegration of returnees from Syria and Iraq."
(New York, N.Y.) – This week, the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) released a new policy paper by researcher Sofia Koller, Six Years Later: A Status Update On The Prosecution Of Female Returnees In Germany, examining the prosecution of women who...
"Women’s traditional roles within ISIS have made it hard for some returnees to understand why they were prosecuted, wrote Sofia Koller, a senior research analyst at the Counter Extremism Project, a non-profit organisation based in New York. In the chapter on Germany, Ms Koller quotes one woman as saying: 'I only cooked, had babies, was sitting the whole day in a madafa [a women’s guest house] and then married the next one.'"
CEP Webinar: The Sociology of Jihadism – Assessing Women and Men Imprisoned for Islamic Terrorism in France | November 22, 2023
Sofia Koller
Senior Research Analyst, Counter Extremism Project (CEP), Germany
CEP Webinar: The Sociology of Jihadism – Assessing Women and Men Imprisoned for Islamic Terrorism in France | November 22, 2023
Dr. Romain Sèze
Project Manager, French Prison Administration (DAP), France
Based on a survey conducted in prisons, interviews, and the analysis of assessment reports produced by prison administration, Dr. Romain Sèze (French Prison Administration, DAP) has analysed the militant trajectories of 61 women who had been incarcerated for terrorism-related offenses or were considered radicalized. He was also able to access and analyze, together with Prof. Xavier Crettiez, the assessment files of more than 350 male Islamist terrorists who had been placed in so-called quartiers d’évaluation de la radicalization (QER), or areas for the evaluation of radicalization.
CEP Senior Research Analyst Sofia Koller policy paper on prosecution of returnees in France and CEP report on ISIS's persecution of gay people quoted: "The IIIM’s mandate to only support requests for evidence related to core international crimes has prompted more States to explore such crimes alongside their terrorist cases...
ISIL further capitalized on preexisting homophobia to establish and institutionalize its persecution of gay men."
The women who left Germany to join ISIS and returned are standing trial. This CEP blog series follows the trials of some of these female returnees, including Monika K. ( read here ) , Nadine K. ( here and here ), Marcia M. ( here ), and Jennifer W. (...
The women who left Germany to join ISIS and returned are standing trial. This CEP blog series follows the trials of some of these female returnees, including Monika K. ( read here ) , Nadine K. ( here and here ), Marcia M. ( here ), and Jennifer W....
Extremists: Their Words. Their Actions.
Fact:
On April 3, 2017, the day Vladimir Putin was due to visit the city, a suicide bombing was carried out in the St. Petersburg metro, killing 15 people and injuring 64. An al-Qaeda affiliate, Imam Shamil Battalion, claimed responsibility.
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