Al-Qaeda's New Glossy "Jihad Cosmo" Combines Beauty Tips With Suicide Bombing Advice

Al-Qaeda has launched a women's magazine that mixes beauty and fashion tips with advice on suicide bombings.

Dubbed "Jihad Cosmo", the glossy magazine's front cover features the barrel of a sub-machine gun next to a picture a woman in a veil.

There are exclusive interviews with martyrs' wives, who praise their husbands' decisions to die in suicide attacks.

The slick, 31-page Al-Shamikha magazine - meaning The Majestic Woman - has advice for singletons on "marrying a mujahideen". Readers are told it is their duty to raise children to be mujahideen ready for jihad.

The "beauty column" instructs women to stay indoors with their faces covered to keep a "clear complexion". They should "not go out except when necessary" and wear a niqab for "rewards by complying with the command of Allah Almighty".

Another article urges readers to give their lives for the Islamist cause. It advises: "From martyrdom, the believer will gain security, safety and happiness."

More traditional content for a women's magazine includes features on the merits of honey facemasks, etiquette, first aid and why readers should avoid "towelling too forcibly".

The first issue's editorial explains that the magazine's goal is to educate women and involve them in the war against the enemies of Islam.  It says: "Because women constitute half of the population - and one might even say that they are the population since they give birth to the next generation - the enemies of Islam are bent on preventing the Muslim woman from knowing the truth about her religion and her role, since they know all too well what would happen if women entered the field of jihad."

The launch of Al-Shamikha comes nine months after al Qa'ida launched an English-language glossy, Inspire, a magazine targeting young Muslims in the West whom it hopes to incite to acts of terrorism.

Inspire is believed to be edited by a US citizen-turned-militant, Samir Khan, currently in hiding in Yemen. Before fleeing the US, Khan turned out a series of jihadi magazines called Jihad Recollections which, like Inspire, were trumpeted by cyber jihadis across the web.

Source: The Independent