Women's Role in Countering Terrorism

The spread of terrorism and extremist ideas has claimed countless lives, destroyed hundreds of communities and spawned radical groups around the world. Women in particular have long been the victims of these radical ideas. Just last week, the terrorist group Boko Haram targeted a girls' school in Nigeria and abducted more than 100 young girls. This incident follows the 2014 abduction of 270 Nigerian school girls of which 112 are still missing. These acts are far from uncommon among Islamic terrorist organizations. Across the world, jihadist networks subject women and young girls to horrendous human rights violations. These male-dominated extremist groups frequently deny basic rights like access to education or political representation to women as a core component of their ideas. Terrorist groups like ISIS and Boko Haram are often the worst abusers of women, forcing them into marriages and sexual slavery. It should be no surprise that the status of women in a society is often an important indicator as to how vulnerable it is to violence and radicalization. Yet, while being one of the primary targets of terrorist groups, women are also being radicalized and recruited into these groups. Some support the group's operations, enforce its laws, or marry, and bear children of terrorist fighters. Others actually commit these acts of terror. In recent years as many as 3,000 women have traveled to the Middle East to join ISIS with many becoming female suicide bombers. Despite the marginalization and brutality of women in extremist-held lands, repressive regimes, persistent conflict, and poor development policies sometimes create conditions that make groups like ISIS to be seen as an opportunity for women.