Terrorist acts
Terrorist acts are one of the worst atrocities that continue to be committed today in different parts of the world. Women have historically had first-hand involvement in such acts despite many scholars and people not acknowledging that fact. The thesis of the paper is, despite the popular notion that women are not actively involved in terrorism for political reasons, they are, and their threats should be dealt with more severely.
People have always ignored that women are involved in some of the terrorist activities in the world. Until recently, people did not always warm up to the idea that women could take up critical roles in organized terrorism. Bloom reiterates that even terrorists who are women are portrayed by the media to be acting out as a result of passion while men, on the other hand, are seen as being political. She goes on to say that women are seen as pawns, and people ignore the fact that they can also be radicalized (p. 8). This derails efforts to stop terrorism as soldiers also have a hard time perceiving women as threats, therefore, letting their guard down, making them susceptible to more attacks. The media should be partial in reporting terrorist activities and should not try to find vindications for women involved in such heinous deeds.
In contemporary times, women are still used for terrorist undertakings around the world. Women are used as suicide bombers because it is hard to search them properly due to cultural norms making them practical tools for use by terrorist militias (Bloom, p. 2). Nasir also highlights that women also push propaganda and IS ideas (p. 2). She cites the case of Syaikhah, a Singaporean who was radicalized online and was sharing IS propaganda through social media. Women are also encouraged to recruit more people and also indoctrinate their families to be terrorists later on in their lives. It is, therefore, hard to discount that women can have a prominent role in terrorism, whether by instigating terror activities themselves or being used to recruit others.
Terrorism in all its forms should be combated by all possible means. Anti-terrorists organizations should not always assume terrorists have a male profile. This will help the field officers to be cautionary of anyone in their bid to make the world a safer place. According to Villar, the lack of recognition that women can be involved in terror activities has had grave consequences on the approach of fighting terror (p. 411). It is, therefore, essential to realize that anyone can partake in terror activities as this would help see terrorists under a new lens and aid our forces in identifying how to handle such acts of aggression.
In conclusion, women have been primarily thought not to have actively undertaken terrorist activities in the past, and this notion has led to the loss of lives as it has left defense and peacekeeping forces fundamentally unprepared against female terrorists. Women are still being used for terror activities all around the world. They are active in terrorist recruitment cells and the spread of terrorist groups’ agendas. It is, therefore, of utmost importance that such forms of aggression are dealt with to ensure the world is a better place.