Sri Lanka suffered countless terrorist attacks over the course of the thirty-year civil conflict, and many of those who carried out such atrocities were female. Everyone remembers the repugnant work of Thenmozhi Rajaratnam, the LTTE operative who assassinated Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. But perhaps few recall the many other violent acts perpetrated by women, the most deadly of which was the bombing of a presidential rally in 1994 that killed Gamini Dissanayake and over 50 others.
Due to the country’s history of women-executed attacks and the growing participation of female combatants in global extremism, the Institute of National Security Studies Sri Lanka (INSSSL) hosted a public lecture on the subject of women in terrorism.
INSSSL British research Fellow Michelle Brooks, who specializes in counter-terrorism and complex emergency response, delivered the talk, which was titled “Women and Terrorism: Tactical Gains Amidst Strategic Losses.”
The lecture aimed to elucidate why women are increasingly joining Muslim extremist organizations and carrying out suicide bombings. This issue is of particular interest to Sri Lanka, according to Brooks, since the chances of women’s radicalization are increasing as more young Muslim girls are forced into marriage when they are as young as 12.
She explained that women are drawn into these groups due to political, religious, psychological, and even biological factors that are quite different from those that drive men towards extremism.
Though the talk was broad in scope, it was somewhat scattered and riddled with contradictions, which further demonstrated the inherent difficulty in identifying the causes that push people to commit these horrific acts.
Brooks offered convincing information on the social and psychological factors that lead to radicalization, but her analysis of Islam’s role left much to be desired.
The main argument was that, from a young age, Muslim women are taught to fear being banished to eternal hellfire after death, and that carrying out suicide missions is a way to atone for sins and gain entry to paradise.
 INSSSL British research Fellow Michelle Brooks |
Furthermore, she claimed that some nebulous biological factors drive women to carry out these missions. Men, she said, are not subject to these biological influences. She did not qualify this claim at all, but insisted that, for women, “everything is biological.”
That being said, her thinking on the psychological and social elements pushing women towards terrorism was convincing, though many of her arguments would apply to men as well as women.
Societal Push Factors
Brooks began her talk by explaining how the narrative around terrorism and suicide bombings has focused almost exclusively on men’s actions. Security forces all over the world are trained to watch out for male jihadis, which has opened up opportunities for female combatants to attack.
Moreover, security forces are reluctant to search women or apprehend them due to concerns about appearing Islamophobic. There are also asymmetries in how police view potential threats from men and women.
For instance, after French police arrested Amedy Coulibaly, who would later kill a French police officer and take hostages at a Paris supermarket, for espousing extremist views, they consulted his wife, Hayat Boumeddienne. After searching her flat and discovering large amounts of assault rifle ammunition, police asked her about Coulibaly’s views. Though Boumedienne told police that she agreed with everything her husband had said, they let her go and placed him in jail.
Brooks blamed the patriarchal nature of society for people’s ignorance of women’s power to commit terrorist attacks. She also argued that the fact that women becoming terrorists is evidence of their systematic subjugation.
After discussing the shortcomings of Western security personnel in identifying and neutralizing the rising threat of female terrorists, Brooks launched into an extended exposition of the “push factors” that help radicalize women.
Understandably, trauma plays a large role in goading women towards terrorism, according to Brooks. “A woman’s radicalization is often directly linked to the death of a loved one. Almost every woman I’ve interviewed has stated they lost somebody very close to them before joining terrorist organizations or launching attacks,” she said.
She likewise noted that some women are driven to terrorism by the loss of trust in the state.
“When you are born in a country, you think that country will protect you. And if it does not in fact protect you, you feel betrayed. People then search for a purpose because they no longer feel like they belong in the country they were born in, and this can lead to extremism,” she said. It is rather puzzling that Brooks neglected to mention the decades-long history of western-led interventions in Muslim countries as a factor in radicalizing people. Instead, she appeared to place the blame on the governments of the countries that have been invaded.
Brooks added that the fame and recognition that come with successfully carrying out an attack are also driving forces for women who feel ignored, silenced, and subjugated by society.
There can also be financial motivations, as terrorist organizations look after children whose parents have carried out attacks. They also give maintenance grants to families who have offered their children to be martyred.
Yet another radicalizing factor is familial pressure, whether it comes from parents, relatives, or spouses.
“Some women are encouraged to go down the path of violence from day one by those around them. But others are goaded on by their husbands,” she said, while adding that women in traditional marriages can be very obedient and seek relationships where they must be submissive. In contradiction, Brooks stated that women are not forced into committing terrorist acts, but are instead banging on the doors of terrorist organizations and demanding to take part in bombings.
“It’s what they want,” she said.While this inconsistency in her argument is somewhat confusing, it illustrates the inherent difficulties in classifying those who are likely to be radicalized. Part of the lecture focused on the backgrounds of women who went on to become terrorists, and suffice it to say that many of them came from very different circumstances.
Boumeddienne, mentioned above, was one of seven born to Algerian parents in the suburbs of Paris. Her mother died when she was six, and her father put her and some of her siblings in foster care. She was radicalized after she met Coulibaly. In comparison, Samantha Lewthwaite, the wife of Gemaine Lindsay, one of the bombers who executed the 7/7 attack in London, was born in Northern Ireland, and after her parents separated, converted to Islam. She was a high-achieving college student who dropped out after meeting Lindsay and becoming radicalized. Indeed, these women share almost no commonalities, but they were involved with extremist men, a trend that Brooks highlighted. Finally, Brooks mentioned the pervasive sense of hopelessness that many female terrorists share as a problematic factor.
“To combat female extremism, we need to think about why women become disappointed in society, feel hopeless, and get angry,” she said.Most of the above push factors do seem like legitimate areas of concern and interest, but it should be mentioned that almost all of them apply to men as well as women.
Influence of Terrorist Groups
Perhaps the most interesting portion of the lecture dealt with how terrorist organizations recruit women by treating them as powerful people whom society is ignoring.
Brooks mentioned that the Western world conceives of Muslim women as oppressed and submissive, and that extremist groups play on these notions to entice women to commit attacks.
“Groups like Somalia’s Al-Shabab appeal to women along the lines of feminism, saying that women can show their power and strength through bombings. The woman who blows herself up explodes the myths of women’s weakness, submissiveness, and enslavement,” Brooks said.
“These groups tell women that they will empower them, give them high-ranking positions, and provide them with weapons and explosives training. These are things that normal women in normal society would never get,” she added.
What’s more, she shared that radical groups eroticize terror when recruiting young girls. These girls, who are sexually inexperienced and immature, associate romantic love with terrorism, and think that they can find love through committing attacks.
Many of the young women who have traveled from Europe to join ISIS in Syria have, according to Brooks, been moved to leave by this form of recruitment.
Brooks likewise contended that terrorist organizations could offer a sense of inclusion to those who have felt locked out of society. In their publications and pamphlets, many groups use words like “sister” to foster a sense of companionship and mutual care.
“The groups understand how to reach women, and we in the West are far behind them. We have to do better to understand how these women feel and why they might look to terrorism as an escape,” she said.
Finally, Brooks discussed what must be done to combat the growing threat of female terrorists going forward—using the Internet to reach those who are vulnerable to radicalization is of chief importance. “Though we might not see them voicing their views in public, women have private lives online, and they can be reached by terrorist recruiters every single day. We need to use social media and websites like YouTube to reach isolated groups. Terrorist organizations can reach them, but so can we, and we have to do better,” she said.
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