KUALA LUMPUR, Malay-sia -- Wooed by charismatic preachers, they traded designer clothes for Islamic robes, stopped watching their favorite TV shows and learned to obey when told to leave the room because a man had entered.

They went to each others' homes for religion classes where their husbands taught an extreme version of Islam and hatred of the West, and forged friendships when their spouses huddled in men-only business.

They are a tight-knit and unusual group -- the women of Jemaah Islamiyah, the al-Qaida-linked group accused of killing hundreds of people in bombings since 2000 and of plotting to attack U.S. embassies and other Western targets in Southeast Asia.

While largely free from suspicion of direct involvement in the bloodshed, the women were a key factor in the establishment of the movement and in keeping it alive despite dozens of arrests the past two years, experts and security officials say.

Jemaah Islamiyah "is held together by a complicated web of marriage alliances that at times makes it seem like one large extended family," Sidney Jones, who has extensively studied the group's history, wrote in a recent report for the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.

Arrests like that of Hambali, a purported al-Qaida henchman who allegedly oversaw last year's Bali nightclub bombings and the Aug. 5 blast at the J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta, have damaged the group, Jones concluded. But its nebulous structure means many leaders are still unknown to authorities and the group "remains active and dangerous," she warned.

The family ties go back to Jemaah Islamiyah's origins among a group of Indonesian clerics who fled to Malaysia in the 1980s. They expanded their network with recruiting drives for their religious school -- and even through arranged marriages.

Wives bonding

The Malaysian government's detention of dozens of suspects -- all men -- has brought their wives closer. On regular visiting days, the wives often travel together from Kuala Lumpur to the prison camp in northern Malaysia where the suspects are held.

When news broke that Noraliza had been handed over to Malaysian police after her arrest with Hambali, Suri Hanim called Noraliza's mother with hopes of resuming contact with the friend she hadn't seen since Hambali went underground two years ago.

"Some of us attended religious classes and are quite close," Suri Hanim said. "We don't know about anything funny that may have been going on. Our husbands are not terrorists."

Police who have questioned many of the wives are convinced that while the women are not complete innocents, they were kept in the dark about Jemaah Islamiyah's operations, a senior Malaysian official familiar with the investigation said.

"They are not combatants, but they have an idea of what is going on," said the official. "The teachings they underwent required them to give total obedience to their husbands."

They basically support their husbands in whatever they do, but they have not shown any signs of being militants."

Obedience included following strict Islamic rules laid down by the men.

In interviews with Malaysian journalists, Salmah Abdullah said that during the three years she lived with Hambali and Noraliza, she saw her daughter abandon Western-style clothes for Islamic robes on the instructions of her husband. He also insisted on watching television only for the news -- anything else corrupted the watcher's mind -- and did not allow women to be present when male visitors came.

Jones said that examining family ties could help security officials better understand the nature of the group.

"Looking at the women of JI becomes important to understanding the organization, the nature of its affiliations with other networks, and its ability to survive the arrests that have taken place since late 2001," she said.