On Monday morning CNN posted a poignant article about how a young Syrian woman — a 25-year-old teacher, brought up as an educated member of a “not overly conservative” Muslim home — was in fear for her life, having escaped ISIS. The interview took place in Turkey, where she was hiding.

“Khadija,” however, was not abducted by ISIS. She volunteered for the Islamic State, having been attracted to the eloquent online words of a Tunisian man. He told her that ISIS was not a terrorist organization, and that its goal was to implement Islam correctly. He even dangled the prospect of marriage to her. Moving to Raqqa, instead of becoming a doting Muslim wife she became part of the Khansa’a Brigade, a group of women who ensured that all females living in Raqqa adhere to the strict code of shari’a dress, even to the point of whipping.  She also witnessed the brutality of ISIS men toward women:

“The foreign fighters are very brutal with women, even the ones they marry. There were cases where the wife had to be taken to the emergency ward because of the violence, the sexual violence.”

After her commander pressured Khadija to marry, she fled to Turkey, where she remains undercover.

This past weekend the Internet was abuzz with an article by a “Blonde Tattooed Girl from Texas” who is appalled that ISIS men have been tweeting marriage proposals to her. She claims to speak Arabic and to hold a Master’s Degree in International Security with a focus on terrorism and the Middle East. You’d think she’d be pretty savvy about what could happen to a girl who messes with Islam, right?

You’d think so. But Jennifer Williams, having been raised a Southern Baptist, read the Qu’ran in the course of her work and converted. I guess Christianity wasn’t good enough for her, but in the Qu’ran she found

“. . .answers to questions about faith and belief and morality that had been plaguing me since my youth. I found the connection to God I thought I had lost. And three years ago, I converted to Islam.”

So she tweeted about it. And like the Tribbles from Star Trek, her little tweet multiplied. She drew in tons of Islamic followers. And then the marriage proposals from Muslim men showed up:

“Then the Saudis showed up: men whose profile pictures showed them in traditional Saudi dress (sometimes behind the wheel of a swanky SUV or insanely expensive sports car) started replying to my tweet and asking to speak to me in private. One guy told me how beautiful I would look in hijab (in other words, how beautiful I would look once I covered myself up and stopped looking like an infidel). Another just straight up asked me to marry him.”

Her conversion story also made a propaganda hit among radical Salafis and ISIS-types. As she put it, “. . .I was a blonde, white American girl. The holy grail of Muslim converts—so to speak.”

Thus she complains in her New Republic article. I call Bravo Sierra on her protests. She’s supposedly an authority on terrorism and the Middle East, and this came as a surprise? And she’s still active on Twitter, too. If attention from these Muslim men disturb her so much, why doesn’t she close her account, or at least set up a new one? Or is she like so many Millenials — craving notice on social media?

Over 50 years ago, feminist, psychologist, and author Phyllis Chesler married an Afghani, moved with him to Afghanistan, and the young Jewish college student endured months of terror as a prisoner in her husband’s home. Only after she became ill with hepatitis did the family relinquish her. The horror and shock of going from being in love to being imprisoned is told in her memoir, An American Bride in Kabul. 

I truly do not understand why educated women are attracted to Islam, and in particular to strict Islamic men. It appears to be nothing new, however. Nearly 100 years ago American women were captivated by the image of Rudolph Valentino starring in the silent film The Sheik. Valentino portrayed an Arabic sheik who swept a sassy, independent Englishwoman off her feet. Women across America swooned.

The reality, however, has proved to be quite different.

Writer and activist Ayaan Hirsi-Ali, raised in Somalia as a Muslim and who is now an atheist, addressed a UN conference in Geneva in 2005 titled, “Victims of Jihad:  Human Rights Abuses of Islam.” She said, in part:

“According to Islamic teachings in the Qur’an and hadith: Muslim men are free to go where they want while most Muslim women are confined to their houses. Muslim men do not need permission to leave the house; women do. Muslim men are not obligated to veil their beauty but Muslim women must. A man may divorce his wife as easily as repeating the words “I divorce you” three times in the presence of two witnesses. A woman who wants to leave her husband must prove at least that he does not meet her material needs. She must prove that he is impotent. She must prove that he cannot make her pregnant. She must have the approval of her wali (or guardian). A man may inherit twice as much as a woman. His testimony in matters of conflict is worth twice hers. Just in case there is a hereafter, women know from the prophet that their sort is over-represented in hell, while men can look forward to 72 virgins and companionship with their men folk. It is demanded in the Qur’an that a woman obeys her husband indefinitely. For the man conforming to the wishes of his wife is an option. A man may have sexual intercourse with his wife when and how he wants. Her refusal will invite the curses of angels and the wrath of her husband. If a man rejects his wife in bed the angels are silent and her disappointment may lead her husband to think that she is in the grip of the devil, who fills her with uncontrollable desires. Even though a man may marry four wives provided he promises to treat them equally, a woman has the right to only one man. . . .”

Nonie Darwish, an Egyptian-American writer and activist who is also a former Muslim, but now a Christian, wrote in an article, “Terrorizing Muslim Women”:

“Many Muslims claim that “Islam honors women” just as they claim that Islam is a “Religion of Peace.” The truth however, is just the opposite. Islam does not honor women, but rather holds their very lives in absolute bondage.”

Why do supposedly “liberated” women like the above-mentioned Jennifer Williams find themselves attracted to Islam? Why does a young educated Syrian woman like Khadija get lured into brutal world of ISIS through the promises of a man?

Not all women are that naive, fortunately.

Thirty-five years ago, when I married my 6’4″ strapping Kansas boy, I also worked with a woman who had married an Iranian national. Shortly after my wedding the Iranian hostage crisis occurred, and all of us in my department were abuzz with contempt for Iran. However, my colleague with the Iranian husband did not seem to empathize with our patriotism. On the contrary, she was very particular that we pronounced his name correctly:  Bah-ram (with a break between the syllables).

Needless to say, we were not impressed, but boy, were we pissed.