Heartbreak continues for three London families as their three teenage daughters are still missing after leaving Britain on Tuesday, enroute to Turkey. It is feared that the three girls, Shemima Begum and Amira Abase, both 15; and 16-year-old Kadiza Sultana, are on their way to join with Islamic State militants in Syria. Should they meet up with the ISIS fighters, God help them. London Metropolitan Police Commander Richard Walton said they would be “vulnerable,” and in “grave danger.”

The families of the three runaways have issued heartbreaking statements. From the family of Shemima Begum:

“We understand that you have strong feelings and want to help those you believe are suffering in Syria.

“You can help from home, you don’t have to put yourself in danger. Please don’t cross the border.”

The family of Kadiza Sultana:

“We all love you dearly and the last four days have been a complete nightmare not knowing where you are and how you are keeping.

“We would like to emphasise that we are not angry with you and you have not done anything wrong. We just want you all to return home, safe and sound.”

And this from the family of Amira Abase:

“We miss you more that you can imagine. We are worried and we want you to think about what you have left behind.

“You had a bright future, so please return home.”

I can only imagine the hell these families are enduring.

Why in the world would these three friends, all academy school girls, leave a comfortable life in London to possibly become this?

It’s been estimated that up to 60 women from the United Kingdom have run off to join ISIS forces. And upon arrival in the Islamic State, they will find themselves in the company of women from Austria, the Netherlands, France, Canada, Norway, Sweden, and yes, even the United States. What is the attraction to this brutal life?

To these women, there is a naïve romanticism not only in becoming a good jihadi wife, but in fulfilling their identity as Muslims, says Dr. Katherine Brown of the Defence Studies Department at King’s College, London. They want to live a ‘good life’ under Sharia law — or, rather, what they think is Sharia law. Dr. Brown writes that these women often have little knowledge of Sharia or even of Islam itself. What they actually become are “baby factories” for a new “purist” Islamic State — shades of Lebensborn, anyone?

Reports of the treatment of women are murky, but harrowing. The Syrian anti-ISIS activist group, Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, claim that doctors are being sought out by ISIS fighters to provide them with Viagra. These doctors’ medical reports claim that many ISIS fighters like to engage in brutal sex with their wives and slaves, often resulting in injury to the women.

Recruitment for these gullible girls can come from a number of sources which all use social media. The three London school girls may have been thus recruited by a Scottish-born woman, Aqsa Mahmood, who now lives in Syria as a jihadi wife. Unlike the families of the three school girls, however, Mahmood’s family have called her a ‘disgrace.’ Through their lawyer, the Mahmood family expressed their disgust at her recruitment of the girls, stating,

“You are a disgrace to your family and the people of Scotland, your actions are a perverted and evil distortion of Islam.

“You are killing your family every day with your actions, they are begging you stop if you ever loved them.”

There’s the “Zora Foundation,” a social media arm of ISIS, which has issued guidelines and videos aimed at women, instructing them on how to be the ‘ultimate wives of jihad,’ such as providing first aid and drinks to ‘prolong the strength and power of the mujahid.’

Then there’s the claim made by CNN — yes, that premier news network — saying that ISIS is luring girls with Nutella, kittens, and emoji. Seriously.

http://youtu.be/B97oALLGm-A

Whatever alluring words and images enticed those three foolish British girls into traveling to Syria, they have left their families in the worst sort of misery possible:  their daughters are missing, and they don’t know what has become of them. The anguish must be ghastly. As a mother of two daughters, I know that it must be a living hell.