ISIS Wants Women to Cook for Jihad

There's a saying, variously attributed to both Frederick the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte, that an army marches on its stomach. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is no exception.

ISIS, ISIL, Daesh—whatever you want to call it, its members need to eat, too.

One of the many ways that ISIS has sought to spread its message and its mission is through a new women's organization called Al Zawraa—a sort of home economics institute for the wives of mujahideen.

Through its accounts on YouTube, Twitter, and the pro-ISIS forum Al Platform Media (also known as al-Minbar al-'Ilami al-Jihadi) Al Zawra teaches "women's craftworks," nursing and first aid, information on the Qu'ran and Shar'ia law, and, of course, "preparing Muslims for jihad." (The organization also provides "editing and design courses" for budding filmmakers—hardly a surprise considering the strong emphasis that ISIS places on high-quality video production.)

On top of that, Al Zawraa also teaches its eager acolytes how to cook for their husbands. The organization has published a series of recipes that require little in the way of exotic ingredients or skill, focusing instead on feeding "Allah's soldiers" in their campaign to institute a new global caliphate. Each recipe concludes with a reminder to pray: "We ask God to grant victory to our heroes and that these recipes will benefit them."

But if you're expecting cupcakes decorated with the Takbir or salads artfully arranged in the shape of the Shahada, you'll be a bit disappointed.

Al Zawraa introduced its first recipe—energy bar-like balls of mashed dates and millet—at the end of October, and has released a handful of others since: a meat, oat, and vegetable soup; "quick" chicken fajitas, stuffed into a baguette or pita rather than a tortilla; and "Nabatean-style" rice with vegetables. As if the Tex-Mex fajitas weren't Western enough, news outlets had a field day with Al Zawraa's pancake recipe ("Jihadelicious!" exclaimed one British tabloid), which is as commonplace as you'd find in the pages of The Betty Crocker Cookbook.

While it might seem odd initially, the fact that ISIS is shoring up its campaign through so-called women's work isn't without precedent. The Reichsnährstand, which oversaw food production and distribution in Nazi Germany, published cookbooks aimed at Aryan wives who needed some advice on turning whatever their ration cards bought them into ostensibly delicious meals. One such recipe involved not much more than stale bread crumbs cooked into a soup.

Facing food shortages itself, the UK's Ministry of Food did the very same thing during World War II. And who can forget the famous slogan popularized by Katz's Delicatessen, "Send a Salami to Your Boy in the Army"?

But perhaps the most notable thing about Al Zawraa's recipes is their quotidian character. On the one hand, it's easy to poke fun at ISIS fighters' apparent love for Nutella; on the other, we have to face the uncomfortable realization that their diets may not be all that different from ours.

After all, even villains love pancakes.