What entices Western girls to go join ISIS? The BBC takes a look.

Three teenage girls flee Britain for ISIS
(Image credit: BBC/YouTube)

Late last week, Great Britain launched an urgent hunt for three girls — Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and an unidentified 15-year-old friend — who left home Tuesday and flew to Turkey, apparently en route to join Islamic State in Syria. Family members pleaded with the young women to return home, but the case also prompted a look at how ISIS attracts young Western women to join its cause, and why girls 15 and younger heed that call.

According to a report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, up to 550 females have left the West to join ISIS, including some 50 from Britain. So, "why do they go?" Duke law professor Jayne Huckerby tells the New York Post. "In many cases it's the same reason as men": Adventure, alienation at home, even attraction to the brutal violence. Dr. Erin Saltman at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue elaborates in an interview with BBC News. Watch below. —Peter Weber

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Peter Weber

Peter Weber is a senior editor at TheWeek.com, and has handled the editorial night shift since the website launched in 2008. A graduate of Northwestern University, Peter has worked at Facts on File and The New York Times Magazine. He speaks Spanish and Italian and plays bass and rhythm cello in an Austin rock band. Follow him on Twitter.