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Women in terror networks expand roles
Experts say women have potential to become agents of peace but are also more susceptible to radical ideas.
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All that remains after a woman blew herself up, killing herself and her neighbors, in Sibolga, North Sumatra, on March 16. (Antara/Irsan Mulyadi)
O
n a Sunday morning in Surabaya, East Java, last year, two churches were shaken by a string of suicide bombings that led to dozens of deaths. The public was further shocked upon learning that the suicide bombers were a family of six, including two teenage boys, two young girls, and the mother, Puji Kuswati.
Several months later, Solimah, the wife of suspected terrorist Abu Hamzah, detonated herself while the police tried to persuade her to surrender, following her husband’s arrest. The woman and her 2-year-old died in the explosion, which also damaged 155 houses in her neighborhood in Sibolga, North Sumatra.
Experts noted that women in terror networks had been increasingly taking on more active roles in terror activities, as radical groups began to regard them as potential combatants in manifesting the jihadist ideology.
Women, who had played relatively passive roles in patriarchal society, were now being granted the opportunity to channel their desire to have a more active role in their “jihad”.
Defense and security researcher from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Fitriani, explained that there were push and pull factors in the process of radicalizing women.
The push factor was the women’s motivation to have a more significant role in the struggle to defend their jihadist ideology. Meanwhile, the pull factor was the terrorist groups’ awareness of women’s marginalized positions, and their action to provide women with a greater role.
Fitriani’s argument was echoed by Mujtaba Hamdi, the executive director at religious freedom watchdog Wahid Foundation, who said the two factors had somehow pushed women to the frontline of radical groups.
