Isis fighters believe if they dye in battle they get 72 virgin but if they get killed by a woman they go to hell
Executive summary
ISIS propaganda and many frontline reports say the group promises martyrs “72 virgins” and that some fighters believed dying at a woman’s hands would bar them from paradise; Kurdish and Western reporters describe this fear being exploited by female fighters, while mainstream Muslim scholars and critics reject ISIS’s theology and practices [1] [2] [3] [4] [5].
1. What the reporting actually says about the 72 virgins claim
Multiple contemporary accounts summarize ISIS’s recruitment and martyrdom narrative as promising sexual rewards in paradise — commonly reported as “72 virgins” — and treat that promise as an element of the group’s warped incentives for violence; reporters and analysts cite ISIS publications and battlefield lore when describing fighters’ expectations of heavenly sexual rewards [1] [4] [3].
2. The specific claim that being killed by a woman disqualifies a fighter
A string of frontline interviews and press pieces — from PBS to Al Arabiya, Fox News and regional outlets — record Kurdish commanders and YPJ fighters saying ISIS combatants told them they believed death at a woman’s hand would prevent admission to paradise, and that this fear made male jihadis hesitant or panic when confronted by female soldiers [1] [2] [6] [7].
3. How female Kurdish units weaponized that belief on the battlefield
Kurdish all‑female units such as the YPJ and female Peshmerga commanders described turning the theological fear into psychological warfare: reports explain women openly celebrating, taunting or broadcasting their presence to exploit militants’ stated dread of a “death by woman,” producing incidents where fighters reportedly fled or froze under fire [1] [8] [3].
4. The limits of the evidence and alternative explanations
The public record is largely journalistic and testimonial — commanders, fighters and politicians relaying what opponents said or how they behaved — not systematic polling of ISIS rank‑and‑file or doctrinal exegesis from ISIS leadership explicitly teaching that being killed by a woman voids martyrdom; the claim is consistent across multiple outlets but rests on combat anecdotes and secondhand reports rather than an authoritative doctrinal text cited in the sources provided [2] [1] [9].
5. Theological context and voices disputing ISIS’s claims
Mainstream Muslim scholars and many imams have denounced ISIS as un‑Islamic and reject its treatment of women and its use of hadiths to justify enslavement and sexual violence; analysts point out that ISIS selectively cites hadiths to support practices such as concubinage and enslavement, and that religious authorities worldwide have not endorsed the group’s interpretations mentioned in battlefield reporting [4] [5].
6. What this tells about ISIS morale and propaganda, and what remains unclear
Even if the doctrinal certainty of “no paradise if killed by a woman” is not demonstrably canonical in an ISIS text within these sources, the consistent reportage from journalists and Kurdish fighters shows the belief was widespread enough on the ground to affect combat behavior and morale—making it a real operational factor regardless of theological rigor; however, the sources do not quantify how many fighters held this belief, whether it was top‑down propaganda or bottom‑up superstition, or how ISIS leadership officially treated the question [1] [3] [8] [4].