Women’s role in terrorism

In the past week, a young 20-year-old woman by the name of Jaelyn Young pleaded guilty to a terrorism charge in Mississippi. She was initially arrested on charges of conspiring to provide support to a terrorist organization, ISIS. She now faces up to 20 years in prison. She was known to be a former cheerleader and honor student, and she was a sophomore chemistry major at Mississippi State University. However, what stands out about this case is that Ms. Young did not act alone. She was not born Muslim or had any introduction to Islam or ISIS. She was going to Syria with her fiancé, Muhammad Dakhlalla, a psychology graduate of Mississippi State University who was due to start graduate school in the fall, also pleaded guilty to terrorism charges.

This is not the first case of its kind, but it highlights a trend of young women migrating to Syria to join ISIS. Many of the women join because of love, but not because they would like to commit terrorist acts (Blee, 2005). Women becoming terrorist because of love is one of the most common views associated with women terrorists (Nacos, 2015). This is not only the case with terrorist organizations such as ISIS but has been prevalent in right-wing Christian terrorist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. Many women have joined the White Pride movement and spread the word about it because of the involvement of their husbands or boyfriends (Nacos, 2015).

When acts of terrorism are perpetrated by women, it comes as a great shock. It is figured that women who take on the role of being a terrorist on does so as a last resort and they typically get more media coverage when they commit acts of terrorism (Nacos, 2006; 2015). Though female terrorists are not a new phenomenon, there are still more male terrorists than female. Terrorists who are women make up more than 30% of international terrorists. Because women terrorists are less likely to commit political violence than their male counterparts, it gives them a far better chance of carrying out an attack without being intercepted (Nacos, 2015).

Women within terrorist organizations do not necessarily provide military support. Rather, they are there to give birth to future generations (Cunningham, 2010). As with Sikh militant groups, a woman's role is to support her husband or son (Cunningham, 2010). However, it is expected that if they need to behave like soldiers, they should. This does not differ from the role of women in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), whose primary role before 1983 was non-combative (Stack-O'Connor, 2007).

Much like women in other parts of the world, Tamil women have faced racial and gender discrimination. Even within terrorist organizations, women lack the same rights as their male counterparts. Their roles tend to serve a different purpose. In Sinhalese culture, sons are prized for having a good education; while in contrast, good marriages are prized for women (Stack-O'Connor, 2007). The role of women in the LTTE mainly consisted of support roles, such as nursing, secretarial duties, intelligence collection, and providing male operatives cover (Stack-O'Connor, 2007). It was not until 1983 that women started taking an active role in terrorism. One of the most notable examples of this was the assassination of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 and President Premadasa in 1993 by way of a woman suicide bomber (Stack-O'Connor, 2007). A female suicide bomber was able to get close to Gandhi by playing the role of a female admirer. This is something that a male could not have done, which would limit his ability to get close. The Chechens and Hamas also noted that women could move more freely than men. Both groups eventually started using female suicide bombers to carry out missions due to this advantage (Nacos, 2015).

Despite women and men having the ability to carry out the same tasks, as mentioned previously, women's roles tend only to support. For the longest, this was also the case with the American military. Women were not allowed to participate in combat roles until the 1967 decision to do so (Wilson, 1993). Before then, much like many terrorist organizations, women were relegated to support roles. Likewise, due to a predominantly male hierarchy, women find themselves unable to break the ranks of leadership. Women in leadership roles among terrorist organizations are few and rival that of other women in military settings (Carli & Eagly, 2001; Nacos, 2006).

References

• Blee, K. M. (2005). Women and Organized Racial Terrorism in the United States. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 28(5), 421–433. http://doi.org/10.1080/10576100500180303 ↩
• Carli, L. L., & Eagly, A. H. (2001). Gender, hierarchy, and leadership: An introduction. Journal of Social Issues, 57(4), 629–636. http://doi.org/10.1111/0022-4537.00232 ↩
• Cunningham, K. J. (2010). Cross-regional trends in female terrorism. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 26(3), 171–195. http://doi.org/10.1080/10576100390211419 ↩1 ↩2
• Nacos, B. L. (2006). The portrayal of female terrorists in the media: Similar framing patterns in the news coverage of women in politics and in terrorism. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 28(5), 435–451. http://doi.org/10.1080/10576100500180352 ↩1 ↩2
• Nacos, B. L. (2015). Terrorism and counterterrorism (4 ed.). New York: Routledge. ↩1 ↩2 ↩3 ↩4
• Stack-O'Connor, A. (2007). Lions, tigers, and freedom birds: how and why the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam employs women. Terrorism and Political Violence, 19(1), 43–63. http://doi.org/10.1080/09546550601054642 ↩1 ↩2 ↩3 ↩4
• Wilson, H. (1993). Women in combat. The National Interest, (32), 75–77. ↩