Not retarded, no. I imagine it's difficult to smuggle yourself into a warzone at that age. The evil bit is very much up in the air.
I would imagine the much more reasonable, likely, and human explanation is that these girls thought they were joining the good guys, and that's backed up by the fact that they're trying to escape.
All of you guys are saying its so obvious and you shouldnt get sympathy because you joined an evil organization but you're speaking from a few places of privilege:
1) youre not 15
2) you're likely well connected to reality
3) youre looking from the outside
If propaganda was that black and white, as some of you are referring to it as, WWII would have never happened because the german people should have been like "no, we are not joining your evil organization"
but guess what a whole fucking country of pretty smart people was fooled.
what if somewhere out there in an ISIS cave there's an innocent 15 year old american that was kidnapped, and will be killed for the crimes of "the americans", and ISIS is like
"We feel no sympathy for you. You should have known that your organization was evil. You invaded Iraq based on lies and murdered our brothers and are dominating the world with your -insert ISIS equivalent to western propaganda about evil here-.It was everywhere in the media, on twitter, you should have known. Now you will suffer the consequences."
and the 15 year old is like "I saw the murders, the wars, but they told me it was lies. That you're the bad guys. They told me I could go there and live a good Christian life, and live the american dream!"
and theyre like "So you chose to believe their propaganda instead of the obvious truth that was everywhere in the media? Off with his head."
and he's like "I dont even know what the hell is real im 15"
and theyre like "Youre 15. Not
5."