Discuss the role of women in terrorism generally and in al Qaeda specifically

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

• Katharnia von Knop notes that the role of women in terrorism is frequently overlooked and that this has been true of studies of al Qaeda.
• Suicide bombers capture the public imagination, but females in al Qaeda tend to follow traditional gender roles within the radical ideology.
• The female jihad involves supporting male relatives, educating children in the ideology, providing support for operations, and assisting with financing.
• The female role is mollified when women assume the male role of suicide bomber; women are not as effective when used in this manner.
• Al Qaeda's women tend to be better educated than its men, and they are more interested in fulfilling traditional roles rather than assuming an operative position.
• They have a strong influence on family cohesion and provide the familial network to support operatives.
• Bin Laden stated in his 1996 declaration of war that the role of al Qaeda women was to motivate sons, brothers, and husbands – they are to encourage jihad.
• In the 1998 declaration against Jews and crusaders bin Laden portrayed women as the victims of Western imperialism.
• Women are typically recruited in sisterhoods, an off shoot of Hasan al Banna's Muslim Brotherhood, and radical sisterhoods are prevalent in Europe.
• Al Qaeda members prior to 9-11 would have been offended if one of their female relatives were to be recruited as an operative.
• Von Knop believes that attitude is changing. Bin Laden's latest documents have called for women to actively join the jihad.
• Their operative role is in the formative stage and growing; between 1985 and 2006, 225 women were involved in suicide bombings.
• Al Qaeda had already created a women's suicide division in 2003.