Terrorists, Female

Inside the “Typical Recruit”

There is no single profile for a female terrorist. Female terrorists originate from a vast list of ethnicities and races; they can be secular or religious, fanatical or unemotional, single or married, childless or mothers, girls or women, educated or uneducated, from poverty or from wealth.

Most female suicide bombers are socially functional and lack suicidal tendencies. Women become involved in terrorism for political and non-political reasons, including (1) exposure to war, or living under occupation; (2) experience of trauma, such as the murder, torture, or kidnapping of another person; [Page 1448](3) exposure to and purposely seeking out radical organizations; (4) internal desire for meaning in the face of lived chaos; (5) religious adherence to a violent ideology; (6) participation in nationalist groups; (7) network links to terrorist organizations through marriage or family; (8) suicide bomber friend or relative; and (9) personal crisis such as childlessness, lack of employment or education (due to war), or the loss of a beloved.

Some young women and girls enter militant groups because of an ideological orientation to the cause; to get out of poverty, to gain food and shelter, or to attain otherwise unavailable educational, employment, or personal opportunities; to earn valuable skills; to break free of an oppressive family dynamic that may include sexual abuse or imbalanced domestic responsibilities; to obtain protection; to reunite with family; to increase confidence and experience through intelligence gathering, propagandizing, or liaison work; or even to seek adventure in an environment perceived to be free of gender-based strictures.

Tamil Tiger female militants in Sri Lanka, for example, seek to defend Tamil life and their communities from perceived transgressors and to die a purposeful death. Naxalite women in West Bengal seek to dismantle India's caste-based society, implement land reforms for the poor, and enfranchise the poor. The so-called Black Widows of Chechnya perpetrated their attacks because agency in militancy assuaged them of their feelings of powerlessness. Women in al-Qaeda and white supremacist operations are often introduced to terrorist networks through their marriages to radical men. A high percentage of young women and girls involved with terrorism and militancy do not participate willingly. Many are “recruited” through physical force, abduction, being born into the militant organization (born of an abducted mother), seized by another group, or gang-pressed.

...