74 QIL 60 (2019) 69-97 ZOOM IN obligation to repatriate at least the wives and children of foreign ISIS fighters and, second, which are the other obligations, e.g. the obligation to rehabilitate and reintegrate children formerly associated with ISIS, that it is possible to infer from the current international legal framework. Finally, further aspects − e.g. the extent to which non-State armed groups are bound by human rights law, the international responsibility of third States that provide support to the SDF and the possibility to implement measures locally in lieu of repatriation – will not be addressed in the course of the present analysis as, in this author’s view, they deserve proper consideration in their own right. 2. Foreign women and children affiliated with ISIS In order to lay the groundwork for the discussion about the relevance and applicability of the current international legal framework, the next sections will provide a brief overview of what is known, so far, about the role played by women and children affiliated with ISIS and the responses that States are implementing towards them. 2.1. The role of women in the ranks of ISIS In the aftermath of the first two waves of FTFs returnees, respectively in 2013-2014 and in early 2015,21 a lenient approach has been implemented towards female FTFs, moving from the assumption that they only played ancillary roles and therefore could not pose any significant threat to national security.22 Nowadays, the evolving understanding of female FTFs shows that the depiction of women as ‘jihadi brides’ or Muhajirat, ie female migrants, is not adequate to grasp the complexity of women’s contribution to ISIS and more in general their role as participants in Islamist insurgencies.23 Recent studies, in fact, present a picture that challenges the narrow-minded narrative of females as hopeless and passive 21 European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), ‘The Return of Foreign Fighters to EU Soil Ex-post Evaluation’ (5 May 2018) <www.europarl.europa.eu/ RegData/etudes/STUD/2018/621811/EPRS_STU(2018)621811_EN.pdf>. 22 ibid 36. 23 M Loken, A Zelenz, ‘Explaining Extremism: Western Women in Daesh’ (2017) 3 European J Intl Studies 45, 51.