tl;dr was reading up on motivations of terrorists on Wikipedia, and came across this gem:

In regards to the religious motivations of girls who have traveled to ISIS territory to marry jihadis, one who is skeptical is British-born Muslim comic Shazia Mirza, who told alarabiya.net: "This is not about radicalization, it's sexualization, ... Yes, they (ISIS fighters) may be barbaric... murderous psychopaths, but they are hairy, macho, they have guns and they're exciting... and that presses a lot of girls' buttons."

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/features/2016/02/22/Bad-boy-appeal-entices-militant-brides-says-Muslim-comic.html

Lessons Learned: women are attracted to raw masculinity