Researchers are warning female members of the Islamic State (ISIS) still pose a threat, despite the terror group having lost its territory.
According to The Independent, the UN Security Council's Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate said the women need to be watched closely because they generally pose an "underestimated" risk compared to men.
"Given the low number of female returnees, there is an urgent need to understand what happens to those who stay," the UN report reads.
"Even less is known about the fate of local women who lived in ISIS-occupied territory and might have been associated with, or supported, the group in various ways, whether or not on a voluntary basis.
"Women play important roles in ISIS' recruitment and propaganda activities . . . even if women do not fight, they can still spread radical ideas and encourage others to commit attacks."
The report added later, despite the perceived threat male ISIS fighters pose, women — who often married and had children within the ISIS caliphate before it fell last year — are not necessarily seen as serious threats.
"Whereas women are infantilized and not taken seriously, and the risk that they pose is underestimated, men and boys are subjected to harsher judgements that ignore their vulnerabilities and dismiss the level of manipulation that they may have experienced," the report reads.
ISIS controlled large swaths of land in Iraq and Syria, but the international coalition that included the United States pushed it back and reclaimed the land. Earlier this month, Kurdish forces launched an attack against ISIS, which at the time held a slice of land smaller than two square miles.
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