Women in Terrorism

This essay will discuss an important, yet often overlooked part of terrorist groups: women. The traditional image of a Muslim terrorist involves darker skin men, with long beards, wearing a long white turban or military style uniforms. Increasingly terrorism has expanded beyond this image and can include women, children, and people from all social classes and areas of the world. In order to find ways to combat terrorism it is necessary to define where the threat is coming from, to study the terrorists themselves. As time goes on it is apparent that women are becoming more and more involved in terrorism. The purpose of this essay is to explore women's interest in terrorism, why these instances are increasing, and how this impacts terrorism globally. The essay will describe several prominent case studies of women's involvement with terrorism. The essay posits that instances of female terrorism are increasing in the 21st century, and will consider how and why female terrorism is on the rise. Finally, the impact of female terrorism on global jihad, and other terrorist movements will be analyzed. This essay will conclude with ideas for counterterrorism strategies as they relate to female terrorists. This is an important topic, as gender considerations continue to develop in the 21st century.