Australian women travelling to Islamic State-controlled territory are more than just "jihadi brides" and are instead joining the extremist group for a wide range of reasons, a new study suggests. 

The study, released by King's College London on Thursday, says it is "incorrect and obstructive" to view Western women who travel to the so-called caliphate in Syria and Iraq as being primarily motivated by the prospect of marrying a foreign fighter.  

The report comes on the back of revelations on Friday that at least 12 women, some as young as 18, have travelled from Melbourne to try to join IS in the past two months.

Khaled Sharrouf, whose family reportedly want to return to Australia.

Of those, five have been successful and are now living under the caliphate.

Advertisement

The Australian government estimates about 40 local girls and women have either joined terror groups abroad or are supporting them from home, while the King's College report estimates about 20 of the 550 Western women in IS-territory are Australian. 

The report says that although women's primary role there is to marry and to breed the next generation of jihadists, they also play a vital role in spreading propaganda to attract new recruits.

Hayat Boumeddiene, ex-wife of of Paris attack terrorist Amedy Coulibaly. She reportedly fled to Syria after the attack.

By trawling the social media accounts of female IS members, the study's authors identified six key factors that encouraged women to join:

• Believing that the international Muslim community was being violently persecuted.
• Feeling angry, sad or frustrated that nothing was done to address that persecution.
• Wanting to fulfil a perceived religious duty by helping to build a caliphate state.
• Seeking a sense of belonging and sisterhood with other women. 
• Seeking adventure and romance by finding a husband.

The report's authors, from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, say the balance of motivating factors differed between each recruit, making it impossible to build a broad profile of who is at risk of radicalisation.  

They also point to the potency of female-specific IS propaganda, which takes the form of a "warped feminism".

"Increasing within IS propaganda is this message: women are valued, not as sexual objects, but as mothers to the next generation and guardians of the ISideology," they write. 

The study also identifies increasing negativity among some female IS members, which contradicts the IS propaganda promoting a "utopian caliphate".   

Women's complaints ranged from harsh living conditions and the strain of being widowed at a young age through to frustration over being barred from combat.

The authors recommend this powerful counter-narrative should be highlighted to deter other women from joining the group.

Fairfax Media reported this week that notorious Australian IS fighter Khaled Sharrouf's wife and children were seeking to return to Australia.

Sharrouf's wife, Tara Nettleton, is understood to be trying to return to Sydney with her five children because of the dire living conditions in Syria.  

The study identifies Ms Nettleton and her daughter Zaynab as occupying a "highly significant role" within the group of about 20 Australian women living in the caliphate. 

Sharrouf attracted worldwide condemnation when he posted a photo on Facebook last year of his seven-year-old son holding a severed head.