Special to WorldTribune.com

By Joanna Paraszczuk, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

A post slamming “jihadi brides” for romanticizing what it is like to live in territory in Syria and Iraq controlled by the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) has spread across Russian-speaking ISIL accounts on social media.

The post seems to have originated on July 14 on a now-deleted VKontakte account belonging to a North Caucasian ISIL militant who calls himself Djundullah, before being shared elsewhere.

“Auzubillah [may Allah preserve me] from reading on sisters’ [social-media] pages, ‘I miss Syria, I long for Syria,'” the post reads.

“Do you actually imagine yourselves walking on the banks of the Euphrates with your husbands? By Allah, stop this romanticism. Bury it in the cemetery of illusions!”

The author of the post goes on to warn that any romantic illusions harbored by fighters’ brides about life in ISIL-controlled Syria and Iraq will “be dispelled during the first bombardment.”

“It’s not the life that’s described in [VKontakte] groups,” the post adds. “You will certainly be tested here. And you will find out what a test is.”

The post has been widely shared on VKontakte and Facebook and has attracted positive responses from a number of Russian-speaking ISIL militants, suggesting that many believe there is a difference between how ISIL propaganda portrays “jihad” and the reality of life in Syria, at least for women.

One militant, Abdurakhman ad-Daghestani, suggested that the post “was probably addressed to the female sex.”

Another militant, whose VKontakte account has since been deleted, criticized the post, saying that “difficult days alternate with good ones. With difficulties comes ease. Don’t make things harder for the sisters [female militants].”

Some female militants also agreed with the post’s message.

“Harsh but accurate,” was the comment of one female militant, Imara Khasanova, who lists her location as Aleppo on her VKontakte account.

The post is ostensibly intended to criticize women who fail to understand the realities of “jihad.” But there is also a sense of bravado and machismo running through the post — its author is keen to let others know just how tough things are for those brave militants who live in the “real world” of ISIL beyond the rose-tinted visions portrayed on social media.

Beyond that, the post is part of a growing trend among Russian-speaking militants of finding ways to talk about the difficulties they experience in Syria.

The trend suggests at least some young ISIL militants are finding it hard to cope with the realities of war, particularly with losing their close friends and fellow militants on the battlefield.

The post bluntly states that “hijra” — an Arabic term meaning migration to lands under ISIL control — and “jihad” are “not a romance.”

“Rather, they are the severed limbs and the dead bodies of brothers who just a couple of hours ago were joking with you,” the author of the post adds.

This development contrasts sharply with ISIL’s official propaganda, which insists that militants who have undertaken “hijra” and are on the “path of Allah” are not supposed to feel fear or grief.

Despite the hardships of war, they are supposed to feel joy at being part of a historic battle against the “infidels” and the establishment of the “caliphate,” ISIL’s term for the lands under its control. Expressing grief is not something a “jihadi” is supposed to do.

But faced with what appear to be higher than usual losses recently on multiple fronts, including around Kobani in Syria and in Baiji in Iraq, Russian-speaking ISIL militants have increasingly begun to express their true feelings via their personal social-media accounts.

“When your closest brothers relinquish this world on the path of Allah, this world becomes so insignificant and pathetic,” wrote one militant, a Kazakh named Artyom, on July 15.

“By Allah, even for a moment you don’t want to remain in this world, and when you look at a brother who fell a martyr, you see the world in its true form and you realize its insignificance and you want to relinquish it as fast as possible.”

  Caucasus, ISIL, ISIL post warns ‘Jihadi brides’ on ‘romanticism’ of ISIL propaganda, jihadi brides, laments ‘pathetic’ reality of ‘this world’, VKontakte