The Islamic State's propaganda about women

The Islamic State's online reach is notorious. One study estimated that at least 46,000 Twitter accounts were supporting the militant group in 2014. And while much of the content created by the Islamic State showcases the brutality of the group, a lot actually shows a (relatively) softer side.

Case in point: Last week, an image of a group of women in head-to-toe Islamic coverings sitting on a BMW and waving automatic rifles spread online. The account that first posted the photograph has been linked to an Australian citizen who joined the group.

The photograph is just one example of the propaganda images being shared by women living in Islamic State-controlled territory, many more of which have been compiled by Ellie Hall of Buzzfeed. And although some of the images are clearly bravado, others paint a more benign, even pleasant view of life for women under the Islamic State. Often the photographs show kids, food or simply female companionship.

J.M. Berger, a researcher at the Brookings Institution, says there's nothing new about tweets showing women in the Islamic State-controlled areas, though there may have been a slight increase in their number recently as several Islamic State media accounts have returned after an extended absence. "The civil society angle is a key part of their marketing any time," Berger writes in an e-mail.

Indeed, evidence collected by Vocativ suggests that in the areas the group controls, propaganda messages shared on social media often have a positive theme, showing the benefits and normality of day-to-day life within the Islamic State's self-proclaimed caliphate. Western advocates of the Islamic State, such as Anjem Choudary, often emphasize the group's social welfare aspects over its violence.

The logic of promoting this side to life under the Islamic State is clear: The group aspires to establish a state. To do so, it needs women and children as well as men. Plus, reporting from The Washington Post's Liz Sly and others has shown that these aspirations do not appear to be materializing. Images of women enjoying a normal life under the Islamic State may be an attempt to undercut that perception.

Of course, the images shared on social media may not always show the reality. While some women who joined the Islamic State were given positions in the al-Khansaa brigade, a group that functions as morality police, most women, in fact, are expected to assume a docile role.

Last year, a report by the United Nations found that there were severe restrictions on women living in Islamic State-controlled territory, with women "confined to their houses, excised from public life." A document attributed to the Islamic State that was released this year said there was "a fundamental necessity for women to have a sedentary lifestyle." And, of course, there have been numerous reports of violence against women perpetrated by the Islamic State's fighters.

Mia Bloom, a professor of security studies at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, says that images shared by women living under the Islamic State may be designed to entice foreign women to join the group, giving them an unrealistic impression of life for females in the "caliphate." But the images may also be designed to entice another audience: men.

"Recruiting women, aside from potentially doubling the resource base, has the effect of goading men into participating," Bloom explains. For men, the message is obvious, she says: "You're not coming here, so the women have to pick up the guns."