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Indonesia must address gender perspectives in counterterrorism, experts suggest
The involvement of women in two recent terrorism-linked attacks has sparked a fresh debate on the role of gender in Indonesia's counterradicalism policies, as experts pointed out the lack of women’s perspectives and experiences in these measures.
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Police tape seals off the family home of the armed woman who was shot dead by authorities while attacking Indonesia's National Police headquarters, in Jakarta on March 31, 2021. (AFP/Dasril Roszandi )
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he involvement of women in two recent terrorism-linked attacks has sparked fresh debate on the role of gender in Indonesia's counterradicalism policies, as experts pointed out the lack of women’s perspectives and experiences in these measures.
A woman, identified only as LSF, was one half of a couple who carried out a suicide bombing of a Catholic church in Makassar, South Sulawesi on Palm Sunday on March 28.
Among those arrested by the police in Makassar with a possible link to the bombing, three were women affiliated with the Islamic State-linked Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) terrorism network.
Three days after the Makassar bombing, a 25-year-old woman named Zakiah Aini entered the National Police headquarters in Jakarta and began opening fire with an airsoft gun. She was eventually shot dead by the police.
Read also: Newlywed suicide bombers identified in Makassar church attack
With the more prominent role that women have played in the latest string of terror attacks, the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) said it had scaled up efforts to address the issue through what it described as “humanist” methods.
“In countering terrorism, the BNPT has formed a team consisting of multiple ministries and institutions working in synergy to provide religious education and state defense [Bela Negara] training using a prosperity approach,” BNPT law enforcement deputy head Eddy Hartono told The Jakarta Post recently. He was referring to the Bela Negara program, which aims to instil the national ideology of Pancasila.
