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Background: Study of terrorism is growing and portrayal of terrorism in media, motivation and recruitment processes, individual agency and environmental enablers are different factors within a terrorist organization that have been extensively studied. However, as most terrorist activities were undertaken by men, the studies inadvertently produced results that are relevant to men. Women also contribute to political violence and terrorism but a detailed and gendered study of terrorism looking at women and the role they play is lacking.
Method: In this paper, we use a gendered perspective to understand the role of women who undertake terrorist activities and compare that with two key variables- age and nationality. We look at the Islamic state of Syria (ISIS)- a growing terrorism organization in the middle east. A qualitative research using scoping review is conducted to understand the role of women within ISIS and how age and nationality intersects with that. Looking at keywords ‘women’ or ‘female’ or gender’ and ‘terrorism’ or ‘ISIS’, we searched for studies in the social sciences that were undertaken between 2008 and 2018 (inclusive) and focused on a key set of studies that would be of most relevance to our research question.
Results: Our observation suggests there are three roles of women in terrorism - women as supporters, women as facilitators and women as perpetrators but also that the roles may overlap and evolve with time. As for age, we see that younger women take on the roles of wives and have less agency in the roles they play. Older women take on more influential positions and especially older and unmarried women are at the forefront of battle and take on more aggressive roles. Nationality is also a factor in the determination of certain roles especially for agents with knowledge of Arabian culture and language, who are provided with authoritative positions and ensuring that other agents comply with the rules set forward by ISIS. Western and tech-savvy women are more suited to distribute online propaganda and maintain communication within ISIS.
Conclusion: Unpacking these gender dynamics of age and nationality and how it intersects with gender and their underlying power structures will be an important avenue for further research.
Terrorism is defined as the use of violence against civilians with the aim to cause mass terror and to further a political agenda (Magstadt & Schotten 1993: 586). Since the 9/11 attacks, there has been a sharp increase in the number of terrorist incidents all over the world (Silke 2008). Terrorism has been linked to increased distrust of the government, disintegration of the society and inflated perception of national security threats (Dershowitz 2002). As such, counter-terrorism strategies and approaches to combat terrorism remains a top priority for governments as well as for international security councils.
As a possible way to figure out how to stop terrorists from conducting future attacks, terrorism studies focus on the identities, motivations, and roles of individual terrorists (Crenshaw 2000). This line of research is filled with difficulties due to the lack of primary data, a small sample size, lack of common themes, and the problematic nature of research that engaging with terrorists. As with other forms of violence, more men participate and support terrorists organizations, compared to women. However, female participation in terrorism is on the rise, and although women perpetuating political violence and supporting terrorism is not a new occurrence, the way Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has been able to attract female supporters, especially from abroad and western countries, has been notable. The high numbers of women joining ISIS, the diversity in age and background of the women and the lack of gendered analysis on terrorism makes it challenging for current policy to sufficiently tackle the issue of the growing number of female terrorists.
Research estimates that between 13-20% of the members of terrorist organizations are female (Nacos 2016). However, the data is not accurate due to the difficulty in conducting surveys about such a taboo topic and as such, the real numbers may be much higher. Even then, there is a common tendency to assume that women play minor and subservient roles in terrorist organizations and there is a tendency to remove women’s agency from such activities. Current discourses, especially in the media, assume women to be ‘lured’ to ISIS where males are said to be ‘recruited’. Such language discourses replay the gendered assumptions of feminine and masculine traits and can be problematic. With a gendered lens, we can better understand the assumptions at play and understand its influence on contemporary research outcomes.
The topic for this research report is to look at terrorism from a gendered perspective and to better understand the role of women within terrorist organizations, and to understand the impact of age and nationality on these roles. For this report, we have looked specifically at ISIS, because of the group’s unique ability to effectively capitalize on its network of women.
The paper’s overarching aim is to fill the current gap in literature relating to radicalization through the use of relevant gender dimensions. This will ultimately help influence government efforts in formulating anti-terrorist strategies and social programs. The research question is – What are the of the roles of female terrorists in ISIS and how does age and nationality influence such roles?
For the remainder of this paper, we provide an overview of current publications on female terrorism, discuss the research gap in current literature, followed by the research aims and objectives. We then discuss the research methods that we used to conduct this research, followed by a detailed discussion of the research findings and its implications on the study of terrorism. Finally, we provide pathways for future research directions.
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