Al-Khansa – Helping women balance family life, jihad

Asia Times – Asia’s most trusted news source for the Middle East

Helping women balance family life, jihad by Sudha Ramachandran. Al-Khansa seems to be the buzz-word these days. “A new women’s magazine, al-Khansa, has recently been launched on the Internet. In itself, this is an unremarkable event, but unlike other women’s magazines, this one is likely to evoke immense interest among terrorism and counter-terrorism experts rather than the target readership themselves – Muslim women. ”
[…]
“In fact, al-Khansa exploits the woman’s traditional role in family and society as mother and nurturer of her children to get them to play a larger role in the jihad.” […]
“Radical Islamist groups are of course not the only ones calling on women to sacrifice their children for the cause. Governments, too, expect women to cheerfully send off their sons and husbands to the battlefield “to die for the flag, protect territory and the country’s national security” and to not grieve when they are killed. Only their effort to draw women into war is more subtle and sophisticated. “