Understanding the role of women converts in Radicalisation/Terrorism

Press/Media: Press / Media

Description

  • In stories about European women terrorists, their sex and religious identity dominate explanations of their suspected violence. Whether it’s today’s ‘jihadi stars’ Samantha Lewthwaite and Sally Jones, known as ‘white widows’, or the first European female suicide bomber, who blew herself up in Iraq more than a decade ago, Muriel Degauque (aka Myriam Goris), the reports imply that radical female converts are deadlier than all other extremists. Their relatively ordinary upbringing, their whiteness and their gender mean they avoid suspicion. With their fanaticism, devotion and sacrifice, they become poster children for extremist groups, symbols of the persuasive power of their ideology. The media and the propaganda of extremist groups bestow on them a twisted celebrity.

Period20 Sept 2018

Media contributions

1

Media contributions

  • TitleWhite Widows: the myth of the deadliest jihadi women
    Media name/outletTony Blair Institute for Global Change
    Duration/Length/Size1200
    Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
    Date20/09/18
    DescriptionIn stories about European women terrorists, their sex and religious identity dominate explanations of their suspected violence. Whether it’s today’s ‘jihadi stars’ Samantha Lewthwaite and Sally Jones, known as ‘white widows’, or the first European female suicide bomber, who blew herself up in Iraq more than a decade ago, Muriel Degauque (aka Myriam Goris), the reports imply that radical female converts are deadlier than all other extremists. Their relatively ordinary upbringing, their whiteness and their gender mean they avoid suspicion. With their fanaticism, devotion and sacrifice, they become poster children for extremist groups, symbols of the persuasive power of their ideology. The media and the propaganda of extremist groups bestow on them a twisted celebrity.
    PersonsKatherine Brown

Keywords

  • Jihad
  • Religion
  • Gender
  • Terrorism
  • ISIS
  • Counter-Terrorism