Women as Terrorists: Mothers, Recruiters, and Martyrs

Two international policy analysts scrutinize the increasingly important operative and support roles women play in various terrorist organizations around the world.

Women as Terrorists: Mothers, Recruiters, and Martyrs is the first post-September 11 book to examine women's multifarious roles in terrorist organizations of all stripes around the world. It covers political, religious, ethno-separatist, and Maoist groups in countries as diverse as Iraq, Palestine, Chechnya, Sri Lanka, Colombia, South Africa, the Philippines, and Northern Ireland.

Modeling terrorist organizations as purposive organizations that depend for support, recruitment, and rationale on a culturally defined community of sympathizers, the authors explore why women become involved in terrorist groups, how terrorist leaders turn the societal attributes of women to advantage in designing terrorist campaigns, and how women fight for the right to assume strategic and combat roles in terrorist groups. The authors conclude with a review and projection of the rapidly evolving trends in the use of women in terrorist organizations, paying particular attention to al-Qaeda and its affiliated groups and considering the implications of their findings for counterterrorist strategies.