Misogyny is a National Security Threat: How Gender Stereotypes Distort Female Involvement in Terrorist Organizations

Gender essentialism, the idea that men and women possess separate fixed qualities, often purports that men perpetuate war, and women are peace-makers, despite the reality that men are also victims of war, and women also perpetuate violence. This idea becomes insidious when news outlets focus on individual actors that push against this framework. The perpetuation of these ideas leads to events such as terrorist attacks being misinterpreted and riddled with gendered stereotypes due to the intrigue of a female terrorist. 

Women being involved in terrorist organizations is not new in the international system. In the past several decades, women have been “active participants in 60 percent of armed rebel groups”. By 2018, in Boko Haram, a militant group from Nigeria, women comprised two-thirds of the group’s suicide attackers. Despite female involvement in terrorist organizations being widespread and consistent, women are not treated equally in the justice system for terrorist-related crimes. In the United States, women are less likely to be convicted and arrested for terrorism-related crimes. Balkan governments do not consider female noncombatant involvement, leaving some actors to be left completely unprosecuted. This trend is not only an example of gender inequality, but a national security threat that is left unaddressed, as actors within these terrorist organizations are less likely to be penalized or prevented from acting again in the future. 

Since women are not treated as legitimate political actors, there is a perception that they are incapable of political violence. This perception is largely spread by media coverage of female terrorist attacks, which largely distorts any given event to fit a stereotype about women, rather than address the attack. In a publication from Columbia University by Brigette L. Nacos, the media’s framing of these attacks was analyzed. Some news sources were found to focus on the attackers' looks, citing their lipstick and subjective beauty. One reporter described Lierni Armendariz, a leader of the Basque separatist organization ETA, as “flirtatious, pretty and the furthest away from someone you would think of as a terrorist.” Others have suggested that female terrorists only become political actors for personal motives, to avenge a man, or even out of boredom. Samantha Lewthwaite, the “White Widow” involved with Al-Shabaab, was consistently reported on in conjunction with her children, or anything that made her an “unlikely” suspect of terrorism. There is even a report describing her prom dress; the relevance of this detail in a report about her involvement in a violent attack is nonexistent. These narratives detach the attacker from any political motive, and the effects of the attack become less important compared with the supposed allure of a female attacker. When these attacks are portrayed as a scene in an action movie rather than a tragedy, people have no reason to be suspicious of a similar attack in the future. This effect creates an incentive within terrorist organizations to increase the involvement of women within them, not because the organization believes in gender equality, but rather to exploit the idea that women are unlikely suspects, and therefore less likely to be caught. 

Although these narratives can minimize the perceived amount of autonomy an attacker has, they can also exaggerate female independence in these organizations, as many of the assumptions conclude that the women’s involvement was a pure act of free will, even if the motive described is inaccurate. These aforementioned extremes ultimately distract from the conflict itself and, therefore, distract from a solution. Sometimes, women join a cause voluntarily and are coerced into staying, while other women are targeted and trafficked. In the event of forced involvement, some participation remains forced, while sometimes an actor will grow sympathetic to a cause during their involvement. The media portrays female actors as either an unnatural product of womanhood or a product of naivety, although the level of willful participation tends to vary. Once again, this simplification is unnecessary and creates a false perception of the motives and inner workings of any given terrorist organization as a result. Women are involved in terrorist organizations at many different levels for a variety of reasons, and the media’s insistence on creating a false character out of an event is insidious and leads the international community further away from addressing the conflicts properly. 

 A female suicide bomber is just as dangerous as a male suicide bomber. There is no biological difference that can alter the damage an explosive will cause, so why does the media consistently change the language used to describe the tragic event? It is the ideas of the media that penetrate our minds and create perceptions of groups of people, leading to concrete and impactful policy choices that can alter the outcomes of international conflict. Therefore, the focus of media coverage on a terrorist attack should be on the political motive behind the attack, the structural damage caused, and the victims’ lives that were endangered or lost as a result– not whether the attackers’ nails were painted or if she was single.