Concern over increasing use of women by terrorist and extremist groups
- 9 years ago
As French police search for a female suspect in connection with the terrorist attacks in Paris, euronews spoke to an expert about women being radicalised and used as jihadists.
Mia Bloom is Professor of Security Studies at the University of Massachusetts.
She told euroews: “When you have a female involved in a terrorist organisation it shames other men into participating and the groups are able to say things like ‘you are hiding behind the women if you don’t step up and join the organisation’.
“But it also ensures that the terrorist group is more generational, because it is the women who are going to raise those children in an environment where they will be able to step into their fathers’ shoes.
“The notion that women are only radical because they’ve lost a loved one or the husband has been killed is really disputed when you see pictures of Hayat Boummedienne wearing her hijab but posing with a crossbow. She was radical clearly before her husband or her partner was killed.
Mia Bloom is Professor of Security Studies at the University of Massachusetts.
She told euroews: “When you have a female involved in a terrorist organisation it shames other men into participating and the groups are able to say things like ‘you are hiding behind the women if you don’t step up and join the organisation’.
“But it also ensures that the terrorist group is more generational, because it is the women who are going to raise those children in an environment where they will be able to step into their fathers’ shoes.
“The notion that women are only radical because they’ve lost a loved one or the husband has been killed is really disputed when you see pictures of Hayat Boummedienne wearing her hijab but posing with a crossbow. She was radical clearly before her husband or her partner was killed.