Excerpt:
What draws young Muslim women to an extremist strain of Islam and a life dodging bombs and bullets in Syria or Iraq?
A new report into the realm of female Islamic radicalization in Quebec has found it is a matter of adolescent socialization and the fraught search for an identity as much as a matter of faith.
The study is based on a dozen interviews conducted with those who tried to leave, who thought about leaving, or with family of those who have fled. It tells of teenage girls in Montreal wearing the niqab — a full face covering — to attract male suitors; of the pressure to show religious piety on social media; and of a "virtual sorority" of radicalized females around the globe helping to plan a foreign — and illegal — voyage.