After watching the documentary film "The Matchmaker" on Shahid platform, I am pleased to share my opinion on this work that focuses on the true story of a British woman who joined the terrorist group ISIS.
Directed by Benedetta Argentieri, the documentary film "The Matchmaker" tells the story of the infamous jihadist Tooba Gondal, who abandoned her university studies in London to join the Islamic State organization, where she became known as the British "Umm Muthanna." Gondal announced her conversion to Islam in March 2015 by posting a picture of herself on Twitter wearing a niqab and holding an AK-47 rifle, with the comment "Living the true free life." The documentary is a meticulous attempt to understand how a college student became a supporter of ISIS and a criminal accused of recruiting women in the context of a broad investigation into the role of women in the organization. The film is mainly composed of interviews conducted with Gondal in 2019.
The film combines exclusive footage of Tooba in the Ain Issa refugee camp in Syria and interviews with several experts in terrorism affairs, shedding light on how ISIS dealt with women and how Tooba was used as a mediator to marry girls to fighters in the group. The film also shows the efforts of the British army to repatriate British women stranded in Syria to their home country.
The film offers an interesting perspective on the way terrorist groups use women in their operations and how extremist ideas can affect people's lives.
After watching the documentary film "The Matchmaker" and discussing some of its strengths, it can be said that this work is one of the outstanding documentary films that deserve to be watched. The film sheds light on an important and complex aspect of the Islamic jihad history and makes viewers wonder about the causes and effects of attraction to extremism and violence. It also opens the door for discussion and thinking about how to confront this frightening phenomenon and the efforts to repatriate these families to their original homeland, if they have one.