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More French women joined militants in Syria in 2015: report

Xinhua, January 21, 2016 Adjust font size:

Figures published Wednesday by the news channel BFMTV showed that 140 woman had left France last year for Syria in 2015, up from 100 recorded in 2014.

The females recruited by the Islamic State (IS) militant group are often young, indoctrinated on the Internet and often join their husbands already in Syria, the report added.

"Women are not especially attracted by the fight itself, but they are attracted by marriage, which to say to end up with a husband they imagine reliable," Patrick Amoyel, psychoanalyst and specialist in jihadism, told BFMTV.

In 2015, France was twice rocked by terror attacks claimed by IS. One of the attacks involved Hayat Boumeddiene, wife of Amedy Coulibaly, one of the gunman in the Jewish supermarket attack in Paris in January last year.

In the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris, Hasna Ait Boulahcen provided mainly logistic help to the extremists.

A total of 600 French nationals have joined insurgents in Syria with 220 of them being women. Endit