The Informative Essay: The Role Of Women In Terrorism

Supporters, planners and perpetrators of terrorist activities, women have been involved in terrorism since a long time. Traditionally perceived as victims of violence, women have not been identified as key players until the late 1970s. Important protagonists in the conflict across the world, women have carried suicide attacks and hold operational positions in some groups. The masculinity of armed conflicts and the gradual modernization of gender roles in societies conditioned women roles’ in terrorist organizations. Conventionally, women are defined as more vulnerable and less violent than men are. Societal myth or stereotype, it is rarely acknowledged that women can also commit terrorist violence. When we finally admit that women involvement …show more content…
Motivational factors that drive women into these organizations are often related to sociological issues. Raghavan, S. V., & Balasubramaniyan, V. (2014) demonstrate that “Psychological, economic, political, religious and sociological factors can act as contributors to understanding the causes that drive women towards terrorism.” (p.197). Subsequently, women as well as men join politically violent organizations for personal reasons. Participation in terrorism can result from influence or coercion from the entourage and especially from the male counterparts. Whether motivation is driven by the grief or revenge for the loss, the commitment to an ideological cause, the desire to improve social status, a financial hardship, a personal or family shame, the protection of self or family, women involvement in terrorist groups is a voluntary choice resulting from their personal convictions and experiences. Previous researches have shown that male and women participation’ in terrorism always involve the following elements: a group with a political aim for which they are willing to use violence, an ideology that support and argue in favor of terrorism and a social support. All these elements coherently interact with the vulnerabilities and motivations of men and women and help them to justify their choice. Although globalization has changed the gender gap in terrorism, it has not changed the multi factors that motivate women to join terrorist organizations and their activities. Modern terrorism also reveal that motivational factors can quite differ from women who live inside a conflict zone and women who live outside of it. The research will further demonstrate that in the case of ISIS, the motivational factors that drive women into terrorism