Bachelor Thesis

Female Terrorists A comparative four case study

Author: Helena Sundlöf

Tutor: Helen Lindberg

Examinator: Ludwig

Gelot

Term: HT2016 – VT17

Course: Peace and

Development

Level: Bachelor Level

Course code: 2FU32E

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Abstract 3

1. Introduction 4

1.1 Research Problem 4

1.2 Research Objective 6

1.3 Research Questions 7

1.4 Literature Review 7

1.5 Methodological framework 9

1.6 Theoretical Approach 10

1.7 Limitations, Delimitations and Ethical Considerations 10

1.8 Structure of the thesis 11

2. Background 12

2.1 History of Terrorism 12

2.2 Definition of Terrorism 13

3. Methodological Framework 16

4. Analytical Framework 17

4.1 The Four R:s 17

4.1.1 What are the Four R:s? 17

4.2 The three theories 19

4.3 Terrorist profiles 20

4.4 Common traits: Terrorism 24

4.5 Common Traits: Male Terrorism and motives 24

4.6 Common Traits: Female Terrorism 25

5. Analysis 26

5.1 The Baader - Meinhof gang. 26

5.2 Leila Khaled 27

5.3 Kim Hyon-Hui 28

5.4 Sana Mahaydali 30

5.5 Results 30

5.6 Motives of Female Terrorists 31

5.7 Through the scope of the three theories 34

6. Concluding Remarks Through the three theories 37

7. Discussion and further research 39

Bibliography 40

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Abstract

The usage of women in terrorist bombings have increased in the past years due to security

and government's lack of scrutiny of security checks, women have the advantage of slipping

through the security nets and perform tasks which have been performed by men. The security

put forward by governments and other security organizations have always been focused on

the aspect that a man would perform a terrorist attack, the likelihood of a woman performing

the task has been very low and now, governments and security details have been caught off

guard as there is an increase of women carrying out an attack. There are not that many

terrorist profiles out for women for security personnel to follow by, which has made it hard

for governments and security organization to know what it is they need to keep an eye on.

Motives are an important path to understanding what drives a woman into joining a terrorist

organization. This thesis will focus on the motives to see if it is possible to create a profile for

women. By going through earlier literature, the motives will be studied, and explain what it is

that drives a woman to join. The thesis will also give a brief explanation of what terrorism is

for the reader to get more insight knowledge to what terrorism is.

Keywords: Female terrorism, motives, terrorist profiling, terrorism

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1. Introduction

1.1 Research Problem

The broad term of terrorism can be chronologically placed in various time slots, ranging from

the ancient times (Ciment, 2015 p. 43) to the French revolution (Ciment, 2015 p. 79). As an

outcome, it is valid to claim that terrorist groups and organizations have existed for a long

time due to their continuous appearance throughout different time periods. As a distinction to

the broad term, the modern terrorism sub-part has its beginning in the attack on El Al airliner

in 1968 (Colorado Foothills World Affairs Council, 2015). The hijacking of the El Al plane

and the kidnapping of Israeli hostages was the first terrorist act in modern times, as the attack

was aimed at a specific nationality, targeting the nation operating the airliner for a symbolic

purpose, highlighting the resentment between the two countries (Terrorism Research, 2016).

As a definition, modern terrorism is described as an act which is both seen and heard, and it is

an act which requires people observing the act and an audience to witness the aftermath of the

act (White 2013); often meaning attacks occur in public places in the form of bombings and

shootings where there will be a lot of civilians, where in the media's attention will help

broadcast the attack and in so gain wider attention (White, 2013).

As described above, the timeframe where terrorist acts have been commenced is long, with

the subparts indicating its evolution throughout time. As a result, aside from the resulting loss

of human lives and societal disruption, the continuous presence of and various forms of

terrorism demonstrated as a phenomenon worthy of investigation within itself. One of the

variables of this phenomenon are the participants/initiators of it.

It has been revered that terrorism has many faces, however as explained above, this proverb

is not actually followed. As an outcome, it is a necessity to initiate a qualitative and

quantitative action to better understand the parameters of the people involved in this act.

There is a gap when it comes to the research concerning female terrorism. There is not

enough material out there for security personnel, governments or other organizations to

prepare themselves for or to have better chances of preventing in the first place. As a

contradiction to the stereotype prior mentioned, women are getting increasingly identified in

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media, carrying out a terrorist act, an action that tangibly showcases the existence of those

profiles. As experts also note, women have been a part of terrorist organizations where they

have had a less overt position within the group, operating more in the background, holding

positions such as supporters or caretakers as well as logistics personnel (Sjoberg et al., 2011

p. 2). Additionally, very often, women are considered to fulfill a role counter to that of a

terrorist, and indeed, to be considered preventers instead of actors or perpetrators (Fink et al.,

2013 p.1).

From a qualitative aspect, there is also a difference in the way the world reacts to a terrorist

act when performed by different gender initiators. As a logical outcome of the low exposure,

women tended to receive a wider media attention than men (Bloom, 2011 p. 34) when

involved in a terrorist act. This also indicates that the involvement of female terrorist in this

act was not, or less likely expected. This could be potentially linked and explained by the

societal structure when they promote beliefs such as that “men tend to be more violent,

showing fewer emotions and be more dominant” (Olson, 2015) whereas a woman bears a

more caring and nurturing identity. This can be enforced by the fact that woman will be more

condemned by the public, more so than if it had been a man who committed the terrorist

attack (Bloom, 2011 p. 34). However, the point here is that this misconception creates a

certain mindset which prevents any type of security authorities to be adequately prepared.

The research problem that has been identified is a need for a deeper understanding of the

situations where women are put in by governments, military personnel as well as family

members before making the decisions to join a terrorist organization (Bloom, 2011 p. 238).

The motivations and the reasons are highly important for future profiling of female terrorist

and it is highly relevant today. As mentioned before, female terrorists are becoming more and

more known and an increase in attacks carried out by women will only serve to increase their

visibility (Bloom, 2011 p. IX). As mentioned by experts, there is a lack of profiles for female

terrorists, as most of the terrorist profiles today are on men as the perpetrator (Bloom, 2011 p.

21). Additionally, the general belief is that women are not capable of committing suicide

bombings or killings in the same way as men are capable of because women are known to not

have a violent nature (Bloom, 2011 p. 34). As an outcome, women’s role in terrorism and

counterterrorism has been very little investigated by policymakers as well as international

counterterrorism organizations.

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With the help of more research, more profiles can be made to help prevent future attacks.

Even though the motives and reasoning for joining a terrorist organization is highly

individual, the security personnel alongside scholars can compose a more general idea of

what makes a female terrorist and it can be used as a guideline to find them. The purpose of

this essay is to research the ideas of female terrorism and women’s motive to join the terrorist

network, to see where the motives differs from men’s motivation of joining, the differences in

the male terrorist profiles and then to compare it towards the existing female profiles to gain a

deeper understanding and new perspectives on female terrorism. What kind of difference is

there? What do male’s do which is differently from women? Do both sexes have similar

reasonings as one another?

The essay will focus on events starting from 1968 and progress to the present day, the thesis

will include prominent women who are classed as terrorists and it will analyze their motives

as well as other insurgent groups who has made an impact in society. The essay will also

explain the difficulties surrounding terrorist profiles and give a basic explanation of what a

profile is.

1.2 Research Objective

The objective of this study is to research the motives which compels women to join a terrorist

organization and to understand the situation behind their decisions to commit to such an act

and whether it is possible to create a profile for the women who joins a terrorist group. In the

article, Cross-Regional Trends in Female Terrorism written by Karla J. Cunningham, states

that women who are engaged in terrorist groups have not always consciously joined, due to

personal reason which could include poverty, rape and so on could have been factors which

drive women to join, they could have been coerced or drawn reluctantly to the organization

by a family member. Women who join the groups to find ‘freedom’ has two motives in mind,

the women are seeking it both for the independence they can gain from a collective as well as

equality as an individual human being (Cunningham, 2010 p. 186).

This thesis will help provide with a deeper understanding of the reasoning and events that

could lead women into joining a terrorist organization. The purpose of this study is to explore

the issue of female terrorism through the scope of a series of motives and reasons that either

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lead or support women into making this decision in order to bring forth more angles and

information which can contribute to the profiling process.

1.3 Research Questions

The information and data gathered in this study will be used to answer two key questions

relevant to the research objective of the thesis. As an initial step, it is important to understand

the differences between how the male and female profiles are perceived. Finally, the factors

that contribute to the decision of a female participant, will be further investigated. In

synopsis, the thesis will be centered around the following two research questions:

1. How are female terrorists perceived in comparison with their male counterparts, in the

established research today?

2. Can we identify distinct factors that motivate a woman into joining a terrorist

organization?

1.4 Literature Review

Since the objective of this thesis is to cover the broad range of cases involving female

participants, the ideology involved in terrorist organizations has not been emphasized as the

main criterion involved in the decision-making process. Instead, the literature review seeks to

highlight the general motives and intentions to form the main body of information. As an

outcome, this review will generalize on the issues and focus on the gender aspect rather than

classifying them based on the ideological factors.

In Mia Bloom’s book Bombshell: Women and Terrorism, Bloom notes that one motivation

women could have for becoming terrorists were a strong belief in a cause which would

motivate them into joining a terrorist organization to achieve that cause, regardless of the

consequences and the price of the goal (Bloom, 2011 p. 28). According to Karla J.

Cunningham, many women have the same motivation and reasons as male terrorists for

joining a terrorist organization. It could be for example to achieve a political reform within a

country (Cunningham, 2010 p. 186). Another reason which has been mentioned by Bloom is

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the search for vengeance. Women join the terrorist groups to gain justice for what they have

been exposed to by for example a government, or the loss of family members such as a

husband or a brother or father, which makes women keener on joining a terrorist group to

seek revenge for their loved one. This is evident in the Chechen situation where many women

were subjected to cruelty by the Russian army and took up arms against the Russian

government to seek justice (Bloom, 2011 p. 65).

In Women and Terrorism - Female activity in domestic and international terror groups, a

description of different insurgency groups which had female participants throughout the time

all over the continent, it gives an overlook on many of the terrorist groups which operate both

domestically and internationally (Gonzalez-Peres, 2008 p. vii). In the article Female Jihad,

the author Katharina von Knop states that female terrorists within the Al-Qaeda frontier are

on a rise (Von Knop, 2007 p. 411). In the article Von Knop mentions terrorism with a focus

on the ones in the Middle East, the author mentions the first female suicide bomber which

was a young girl from Lebanon in 1985 (Von Knop, 2007 p. 398), as well as the motives and

reasoning women, have for joining a terrorist organization (Von Knop, 2007 p. 398). The

sources mentioned deals with the motives of female terrorism through different theoretical

angles, they, however, share similar conclusions on what it is that drives a woman to join a

terrorist organization although through different points of views. The sources all mentions

similar cases where there has been a high level of female participation to show that there are

indeed women who partake in these commitments and that many of them are lethal, as many

later carry out suicide attacks.

Inside Terrorism by Bruce Hoffman provides a general idea of what terrorism is and its

definition. In the book, Hoffman will explain the process which terrorists act upon and the

reasoning as to why they do as they do, and to was extent they will go. Bruce Hoffman also

mentions the trends in terrorism and how it changes from time to time, to better explain the

future outcomes of possible attacks (Hoffman, 1998 p. 7).

The information surrounding profiling has been researched through with the help of

psychologically based websites, articles about terrorism profiling and through a book written

by Robert K. Ressler, Ann W. Burgess and John E. Douglas, the book which is called Sexual

Homicide: Patterns and Motives describes the basics of criminal profiling which came up

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before terrorist profiling in the mid of 1970’s (Ressler, Wolbert Burgess and Douglas, 1988

p. 136). It gave an insight into explaining the concept of profiling and how it was used to

catch criminals, before moving on to terrorist profiling where J.A Rae explained the

problematic procedure of creating a fitting terrorist profile (Rae, 2012).

Robin Morgan, the author of The Demon Lover, offers her perspective on female motives,

she criticizes, for example, the Baader-Meinhof gang and Leila Khaled stating that their main

reason for partaking in terrorist activities was due to the fact that they were intimate with the

male leaders of the gang (Morgan, 2001 p. 171), Leila Khaled was married to one which was

one of the reasons for her involvement in the Palestine fight (Morgan, 2001 p. 173).

The literature and articles provide a different angle and make it interesting to analyze the

different perspectives in order to gain more knowledge of the reasoning and thinking behind

women's decisions. This thesis looks to the articles and literature for support in analyzing the

motives and reasoning, as this work is a desk study and focuses mainly on second-hand

sources found through the books, a diversity of books is important in order to understand the

circumstances in motives thus being able to understand the logic and problems which terrorist

profiling is facing. As an outcome of these, the main pattern that rises from the motives, it is

highly related to emotions. The cases of vengeance, revenge, beliefs in nonscientific ideology

are present in almost all of the cases described above. The essay will focus on the motives

analyzed through the sources through three chosen theories to see if it is possible to extract

information concerning female terrorism.

1.5 Methodological framework

The method of choice is comparative case studies and involves two or more cases with

similar features. A comparative case study examines the differences and similarities between

the cases. The results of a comparative case study may contribute to future research or

confirm a hypothesis or a theory. The method can be used in either a qualitative and

quantitative study. It is a broad perspective, meaning it is not limited when it comes to

exploratory goals (Campbell, 2010 p. 176). This thesis will be using an abductive approach to

analyze and study the situation women find themselves in and what pushed them into joining

a terrorist group.

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The research will also be a qualitative research as it only focuses on one specific group of

people. It will focus on the literature such as articles and studies of other authors, to go into

depth and find the information to answer this paper's research questions. The author, in other

words, myself, will use mostly articles and books at the library or via one search at the

university library to collect data and find information concerning the topic at hand. No field

study will be conducted as visiting the topic and its various insurgent groups would be

counted as risky, which means many of the sources used to write the essay will be taken from

secondary sources to back up or to prove a point in the writing. Concerning the topic of

articles, articles written by acknowledged research on the topic will be used, but newspaper

articles from different kind of articles from around the world, related to the area of female

terrorism. A newspaper article will also give the viewers an overhead of what is happening in

the world, it will give viewers another perspective other than the research perspective. Books

will be focused on female terrorism, some other books about general terrorism will be used to

explain the terrorist phenomena in greater detail.

1.6 Theoretical Approach

This thesis will follow a concept put forward by Mia Bloom in her book Bombshell: Women

and Terrorism. In her book, she mentions four R:s who are the main reasons for women’s

motive to join a terrorist organization. The four R:s are Relationship, Revenge, Redemption

and Respect (Bloom, 2011 pp. 235-237). The thesis will follow the guidelines set by Bloom

in her book, whilst looking through the motives with the help of three theories associated

with feminism theory. Those three are Gynocentrism, Maternal feminism and Individualist

feminism.

1.7 Limitations, Delimitations and Ethical Considerations

This research will be a desk study and the study will focus on literature and research on the

topic to answer the research questions. The limitations of this study would be the following:

As this is a desk study, all of the sources will be second-hand sources, and to consult only

second-hand sources can lead to a difficulty in understanding and gaining information.

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Another limitation would be the language barriers this research will encounter, as sources

will be articles and journals written in either Swedish or English. Another limitation would be

to gain access to certain information, as some information will be in other languages.

Furthermore, some articles or websites will have been shut down for different reasons making

it hard to access them and use them as sources for the research.

Delimitations in this research would be the choice of focusing on women in conflicted areas,

there will not be any mentions of women who have for example have converted into a

religion and committed a terrorist organization.

This research will be conducted through a desk study. There will be some ethical

consideration to reflect upon, as some of the data gathered has come from sensitive materials

published by organizations.

1.8 Structure of the thesis

Chapter one will give a brief overview of the topic at hand and what the thesis will focus on.

It will also explain the theories which will be used in the thesis and the research questions.

The methodology section will describe how the questions will be answered. Limitations and

Delimitations shall also be explained. Chapter two will give a background of terrorism, a

brief history will broaden the understanding of terrorism. Also, a definition of what terrorism

will be given with the help of dictionaries and through governmental web pages to see

different governments and organizations own definition of what terrorism is. Chapter three is

the Methodological framework, it will give an overview of the chosen method of the thesis.

Chapter four is the Analytical framework, here, the chosen theories, approaches and profiles

will be described. Chapter five will be the beginning of the analysis.

Chapter six will be the concluding remarks. Chapter seven is discussion and future research.

The bibliography will be in the last section.

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2. Background

2.1 History of Terrorism

The word terrorism first emerged with the violence following the French Revolution in the

18th century, contrary to belief that terrorism is a violent and a horrendous act which it is

known in modern time, at the time it emerged it was considered to be a sign of change, that

something was happening with a positive tone for the better during the French revolution.

The word was first used when describing the order which was supposed to be established

during the uprising in France in 1789, it was described as the Régime de la terreur (Hoffman,

1998 p. 15). Terrorism itself contained a notion of revolution and change towards the

government, during the French Revolution it was used as a way to keep the governance

functioning properly and to frighten off potential counter-revolutions who wished to re-

establish the monarchy which lost its power in 1789. It basically meant that the government

at the time ruled in fear, using fear as a weapon to scare the people through the threat of the

billion in (Hoffman, 1998 p. 15).

There are a few variations of terrorism as well such as International terrorism. What is

international terrorism? International terrorism is terrorism act which has been conducted in a

foreign land and not in the country the insurgent group calls their homeland (Security service

MI5, 2017). Another form of terrorism is called domestic terrorism. Domestic terrorism is

when a terrorist groups commit an act of terrorism on the national soil. In other terms, it is

terrorist groups which come from the same country as they execute the act. A domestic

terrorist organization’s goal is to change the social structure of how its own country is

governed (Gonzalez-Peres, 2008 p. 7). An example for a domestic terrorist group would be

the ETA, who are the Basque separatist group in northern Spain who wishes for

independence from Spain (Gonzalez-Peres, 2008 pp. 102-103). But an important question is

what does terrorism mean? Terrorism is a hard subject to define and sometimes hard to grip

what it actually means and what would be classed as terrorism (Hoffman, 1998 p. 28). In the

following subchapter, the definition of what terrorism will be described. It will allow the

viewers to gain a deeper understanding of the term and how others define it.

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2.2 Definition of Terrorism

As an initial statement, the process of defining what terrorism is, is a rather challenging

venture. The reason in this claim is in the foundation of both the word terrorism as well as the

meaning it yields. The feeling of terror is a subjective notion by itself. Thus, even if agreed

upon, a holistic explanation would be too abstract to assign to specific cases. As such, a list of

the available definitions will be explored in order to discover possible patterns.

When looking at the news, terrorism is a recurring factor, when hearing the word terrorism,

what is the first thing that pops into one's head? what is the general understanding of the word

terrorism? Finding a specific answer to what terrorism actually is and means is a very hard

task. The meaning of terrorism has constantly been changing. Terrorism today is not similar

to what terrorism was a few decades ago. The meaning itself changed over time depending on

the situation at hand, what the circumstances were had a significant impact on the word and

its meaning (Hoffman, 1998 p. 28).

In Bruce Hoffman’s book Inside Terrorism, Hoffman makes a comment about what terrorism

is, Hoffman does it firstly by explaining what terrorism is through the eyes of the media.

What is written by the author of the book was that according to media, terrorism were violent

acts committed to destruction, for example, such as the destructions of buildings, the mass

killings of civilians performed by military personnel, those were some examples mentioned

by Hoffman concerning the definition of terrorism in the media in Inside Terrorism (1998, p.

13). But that one is just the media’s definition of what terrorism is, that is just one of many

and various kinds of definition. There are other sources which could help define the word

terrorism, to give the readers a better overview of what terrorism is, different sources have

been used in order to explain the word and the definition of it.

When searching for the definitions in dictionaries, The Oxford Living Dictionary defines

terrorism as: “The unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in

the pursuit of political aims” (EOLD, 2016d).

Another example of a dictionary definitions is given by the Cambridge dictionary,

“Terrorism: (threats of) violent action for political purposes” (Cambridge Dictionary, 2016).

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Both dictionaries define terrorism as an act of violence for political purposes, which helps

guide the reader's into a deeper understanding of the definition of what the term truly means.

It shows that terrorism is associated with politics, and is, therefore, a political based agenda

and action.

When searching for the definition of terrorism, the FBI, The US Federal Bureau of

Investigation came up as an option, the definition of what terrorism was according to the FBI:

“The unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a

government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or

social objectives” (FBI, 2005)

Another definition which is used is the definition from the US Department of Defense.

According to the US Department of Defense, terrorism was:

“The unlawful use of violence or threat of violence, often motivated by religious, political, or

other ideological beliefs, to instill fear and coerce governments or societies in pursuit of goals

that are usually political”(DOD, 2010)

When taking a closer look towards the European continent and the definition of Europe, the

Europe Union had made a definition of its own. Within the European Union, the states drew

up a common understanding for all the countries part of the union concerning the meaning of

terrorism and what defines a terrorist crime. The European Union had three points when

defining a terrorist act: A terrorist crime has been committed if 1) The act would cause fear

for the population of a country or an ethnic group, 2) The act would force governments or

official state operated officials to take an action or to abstain from taking an action, 3) The

aim of the terrorist act was to destabilize or to try and destroy the political foundation within

a country as well as the constitutional and economic and the social foundation and structure

within a nation (Säkerhetspolitik.se, 2015).

All the explanations of what terrorism is by from the US department of defense and The

Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI explains a terrorist act as an attack on the state, the

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government through a political motive whilst harming civilians and damaging the political

foundation and structure of the society. The European Union follow similar lines of what

defines terrorism as the government of the United States of America, as well as the FBI.

The ones who are conducting terrorism are called terrorists, in the following chapter there

will be an introduction towards terrorists, more specifically the next chapter will look into

female terrorists.

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3. Methodological Framework

The study of female terrorism motives is a will be a comparative study, much of the work is

done by reading books, articles, and texts surrounding the topic at hand. This thesis will have

chosen to go with Mia Bloom’s four R:s as a starting point to look at what motives were

possible for women to join a terrorist organization. The four R:s gave me as the researcher an

easy overview of what could potentially drive a woman to enter an insurgent group. I looked

through the literature and went through the references of parts I considered was important to

my study and it allowed me to use a variety of sources in forms of books, articles, and videos

written by experts of the subject in order for me to get a deeper understanding of the subject.

Articles about profiling led me to briefly study criminal profiling and spoke of psychological

profiling not only of convicted criminals but also the everyday person (Schurman-Kauflin,

2013)

The chosen method for this paper is a documentary analysis which means that the

information gathered for the research was through the existing documents for example

through books and articles. There are materials which are easily accessed for public use, it

could be documents written by governments, reports from organizations as well as various

records. However, there is records, reports, and information which are harder to access by the

public as it could contain sensitive information, such documents need special permission

before they can be given out. A documentary analysis is performed without doing any

interviews or questionnaires (Skills you need, 2017)

The reason for this chosen method was due to the uncertainty to actually travel to conflicted

areas and arrange for interviews with a terrorist group. It was not safe to go there, which is

why this method was picked, the information gathered would be from second-hand sources.

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4. Analytical Framework

The concept put forward by Mia Bloom about the four R:s will in this section be used to

analyze the reasonings for women to join a terrorist organization through the scope of the

three feminist theories. It will also help categorize the motives given by known female

terrorist personalities.

4.1 The Four R:s

According to Bloom, to understand whether a woman joined a terrorist organization, one

must first consider if we believe if she was forced to join a terrorist organization or if she

joined on her own free will. Whether a person joins of her own free will or by force has a lot

to do with the surrounding at the time, as it would influence a person's thinking and reasoning

to join (Bloom, 2011 p. 234). Depending also on the region of the world and what was

happening at the time, women tended to find themselves in situations which they considered

to be hopeless in for them to cope, it could be due to the political situation in the country but

it could also have been due to the cultural as well as religious aspects which made it hard for

the women to have a say in what concerned them. Many different factors mixed in together

pushed the woman to enter into a bargain with outside forces which could have had an

enormous effect on her life and the life around her (Bloom, 2011 pp. 234-235).

4.1.1 What are the Four R:s?

The first one Bloom mentions are Revenge. The death of a family member such as the death

of a child, a parent, or a spouse was the main reason and motivation for a woman when the

decision of joining a terrorist group was made. By joining an organization such as a terror

group gave the woman a means of taking revenge on those who had taken away the things

she held close to her heart and had loved (Bloom, 2011 p. 235).

Second R, Bloom counted up in her four R:s is Redemption. Terrorist groups are sometimes

the way to redemption for women who have committed a sin, terrorist groups lure women

with false pretenses with the help of romantic advances. The woman joins a terrorist group to

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repent for her sin which she has been lured into by for example a follower, the sin could be

considered as a scandalous affair by her family and to get rid of the sin, a woman joins a

terrorist organization. Bloom also mentions that martyrdom is something which has a degree

of attraction for women and could be something a woman strives after to complete the

redemption process (Bloom, 2011 p. 235).

Relationship is the third R discussed by Bloom. Relationships help motivate women into

joining a terrorist organization, as the partner who takes part in terrorist violence is usually

part of a terrorist insurgent group himself. But not only does the relationship involve a

romantic notion, it could be the relationship within a family. The chances of a woman

becoming involved with an insurgent group become a lot higher if a family member was

previously a part or still a full-time member of a terrorist organization (Bloom, 2011 p. 235).

The last one of Bloom’s four R:s was Respect. One motive for women to join was the hope of

becoming respected within the community, as women seek to become respected by their

fellow peers. Women want to show the community they are just as willing to go through the

same hardship and perform in the same way as their male counterpart. Women want to prove

their dedication and respect to the cause which many were fighting for (Bloom, 2011 p. 236).

Lastly, Bloom also mentions a fifth R which is more of an added addition to the four R:s,

Rape. Rape has become a weapon which has increased in conflicts. Women subjected to rape

by terrorist followers have increased, evidence from Iraq and Chechnya show women being

raped and later forced to join a terrorist group in order to regain the dignity they lost (Bloom,

2011 pp. 236-237).

The concept is divided into four categories which have made it easy to understand what drove

a woman to participate in terrorist activities. As an addition, the strong emotions found in all

of those categories, match the emotional state found in the motives presented in the literature

review. Thus, great emphasis will be placed on the Four R:s explanation as it captures an

abstract reasoning, based on the emotional reasoning, capable of describing a wide range of

cases.

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4.2 The three theories

The first theory which will help to further investigate female terrorism to study the motives of

women and what differs them from male motivations is the theory of Gynocentrism.

Gynocentrism is a focus exclusively on women in both practice and theory, it is an angle of

analysis through which the feminist point of view carries most of the weight when looking at

the world, its history, and culture (EOLD, 2016d). As women have different reasons for

joining a terrorist organization, be they personal circumstance, through coercion or just

simply joining for political motives, gynocentrism can be used as a lens when examining the

cultural and historical perspective which will help explain the situation women are faced

with.

Another theory which can be incorporated into the research is Maternal feminism. Maternal

feminism is a combination of maternalism which is the teaching that women as mothers play

an important role in both society and politics, the theory embodies the spirit of what a mother

is, the qualities and the duties that follow it, it emphasizes on women’s ability as natural

caregivers and that it is a part of a woman's identity (Hanna-Moffat, 2001 p. 23) and

feminism. Maternal feminism derives from the ideas of social feminism and the view of

maternalism and concepts from feminism (Garrett, 1999 p. 308). The Maternal feminists

believe that maternalism was something which was not bound to the biological aspect but

saw it as a part of something more in the bigger concept such as the public sphere. The

maternal feminists also believed that women should not be single whilst devoting herself to

get a career (Garrett, 1999 p. 309). Women have had a more passive role in the terrorist

organization, working more in the background, taking distinct roles such as caregivers,

logistics or even as mothers, carrying the next generation in order to continue the cause the

organization has (Sjoberg, 2011 p. 5). In this sense, the maternal feminism can perhaps be

applied in order to explain the situation further alongside gynocentrism explaining the

cultural aspects in it. Women are generally seen as the more nurturing one, with a natural

maternal instinct the perspectives combined can give a clearer aspect and to explain it from

the theories perspective and to see if it could give a clearer and more specific profile to

female terrorism.

Individualist feminism is a theory which puts emphasis on individualism, the individualist

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feminists seek to transform or to change the current legal systems in order to wipe out the

existing class privileges in society, they also seek to eliminate gender privileges to secure the

equal rights of all the individuals, giving them the same right and privileges. Individualist

feminism also works for women’s liberation by promoting that women should take the reins

of their own lives, making them the ones who decide what to do with their lives. Individualist

feminists are strongly against hierarchy systems and oppose the patriarchy which exists in

society. Women should be free to do what they wanted to without interference from society

(McElroy, 1998). The theory will provide a more individualistic perspective on the motives

and reasons women have for joining the terrorist organization. The theory will be used when

analyzing the motives and reasoning in coming to a conclusion.

4.3 Terrorist profiles

The profiling of terrorists has become more of an important task the past few years,

specifically, post-9/11 (Rae, 2012), the United States of America had made combating

terrorism one of the nation's top priorities(Global Policy Forum, 2016), along with other

western nations, such as those within the European Union, which have increased the amount

of resources allocated to widen the search for terrorists and their respective organizations in

order to catch the perpetrators and thus prevent future terrorist attacks (Furubrant and

Norman, 2009).The attack on the World Trade Center in New York on the 11th of September

2001 was broadcast by the media, people from different parts of the world could read about

the destruction of the tower through various forms of media (Kamalipour, 2007 p. 20). It was

the first attack which had taken place within the borders of the United States of America. The

9/11 attack was considered to mark the start of the war against terrorism. George W. Bush

who was the president at the time declared war on terror, vowing to catch the ones

responsible for the attack (The Guardian, 2001).

When speaking of profiling, a question one could ask would be what is a profile? What good

does it do? Profiling is something which has been used in criminal cases (Ramsland, 2014),

in the book Sexual Homicide: Patterns and Motives written by authors Robert K. Ressler,

Ann W. Burgess and John E. Douglas, their explanation of what a criminal profile was that a

criminal profile was a formulation which explained and added together the information that

21

was gathered at a crime scene, the data brought from the investigations had to be processed

and analyzed in order to explain the data which would later be taken into consideration before

creating a profile hypotheses for the perpetrator. It is based on data of all the information

within an investigation, and alongside with an investigator’s previous experience from

multiple crime scenes and the arrests of criminals, together the two formulations and ideas

are combined in order to form a result which would later become a profile and in the end,

lead the investigator towards a suspect (Ressler, Wolbert Burgess and Douglas, 1988 p. 136).

To create a regular profile is a simple task, humans are quite easy to profile as people tend to

follow a certain pattern in their everyday life, it could be little things which people do every

day. In other words, people are creatures of habit, it is a notion acknowledged by Deborah

Schurman-Kauflin who is a serial crimes expert and a criminal profiler (Schurman-Kauflin,

2013), humans tend to follow a certain principle in the everyday life, it could do with the

aspect of a person’s everyday life and behavior. It could be something as simple as going

grocery shopping. According to Deborah Schurman-Kauflin, creating a profile of a person

can be done by observing the way he or she does, for example, their shopping, whether if the

groceries are organized in the cart or not can prove to be an insight into the everyday life of

the person. How people behave and act towards the commonest of things, is reflected in the

personality of a human being (Schurman-Kauflin, 2013). The basic of profiling is to

comprehend the way a person operates in the terms of thinking and acting, profiling will

explain the thinking pattern of a person in order to understand the way a certain person

behaves (Ressler, Wolbert Burgess and Douglas, 1988 p. 136).

In the 1970’s, the criminal profiling method became a large interest of the Federal Bureau of

Investigation, the FBI in the United States America (Ressler, Wolbert Burgess and Douglas,

1988 p. 136). The FBI agents wanted to create a profile for criminal offenders, which resulted

in agents going into prison to interview convicted felons. From the research, the FBI

conducted the results they found was put into two different kinds of profiling categories: one

organized and the other was a disorganized class. This simply meant that for example that the

felonies who fell under the organized category were most likely to plan their attacks. If

convicts fell under the disorganized classification it meant offenders who are impulsive, non-

organized and often did not plan the attacks, the acts were impulsive and could have been

committed in the heat of the moment (Douglas et al., 1986 pp. 412-413). Criminal profiling

has proved to be successful in cases to catch the perpetrator (Douglas et al., 1986 p. 421).

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When dealing with terrorists and their respective organizations, they will fall under the

organized profile classification. The reason is that terrorist organization always must plan

their attacks and assaults, it is not something which can be done impulsively as their hits and

targets must be held secretly. The organization cannot afford to let their plans leak out to the

public. Terrorist organizations must plan, check up on the targets carefully, raise money in

order to carry out an attack and recruit people to carry out the attacks who then have to be

trained in secret. The organizations operate under the utmost secrecy to avoid suspicion and

for the plans to become public. The people or the ones who take part of a terrorist group have

different backgrounds, many are young with a low educational background, there are

however highly intelligent individuals within the organization, coming from a good

educational background with families of their own. An observation which was made was that

very similar to serial killers according to Deborah Schurman-Kauflin, the educated

individuals seem to have some sort of psychopathic traits. What has been noted was that the

individual had a great lack of compassion and has no sympathy for suffering. What the

individual perceived were the enemies were not humans but rather objects which were meant

to be destroyed. The humans have been reduced to become items and not real beings of flesh

and blood. The terrorist organization’s success is based on the body counts as the higher

death rate the organization accumulates means a greater and a much more wider attention of

the world’s media as well as a change the groups were aiming for. Remorse for the actions

was unlikely to be witnessed. Another notion which was important is the charismatics of the

terror leader, just like an organized serial killer, a leader of a terrorist organization was very

charismatic, and when speaking to an audience the leader had the skills to attract the audience

to his cause and make them believe the leaders and not question him (Schurman-Kauflin,

2013)

The task is however not an easy one when creating an individual terrorist profile, there is a lot

which needs to be taken into consideration, first thing would be that no terrorists are alike.

Just like everyone else, terrorists are individual characters with their own unique and

individual thinking, when creating a profile the individual needs to be taken into

consideration (Crenshaw, 1981 p. 390). According to some scholars such as Jonathan A.

Rae, terrorism profiling is in some way pointless as the human being is very individualistic,

most people according to Rae, are capable of committing a violent offense and thus creating a

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profile for terrorists would be difficult as it depends on the person itself if he or she would

become violent (Rae, 2012). In Rae’s article, he mentions if a terrorist profile would be

created, it would have to come from another angle, or rather three other angles (Rae, 2012).

The three approaches would be through a racial-physical point of view which would be

through the race and physical characteristics, it was a profile which came to life again after

the attacks on American soil on the 11th of September 2001. Racial profiling included the

idea that people from a specific race were more likely to execute terrorist attacks rather than

other people from other races. According to the racial profile thinking some races were more

prone to commit terrorist acts, which resulted in that the security risk surrounding that

specific race were to be grounds for deeper scrutiny (Rae, 2012). The second would be

looked through the lens of a psychopathological study, which means a study of mental

disorders(EOLD, 2016b). Creating psychological profiles is an accepted method of the police

force and law enforcement in order to find suspects and solve cases. Many attempts have

been tested in order to transfer the criminal profiling method onto terrorism itself, they have

however not been successful. The hypothesis that there is a connection between the odd

psychopathological behavior and terrorism has been explored by researchers. The researchers

explore the possibility of traumatic past events leading to a trauma has come to form the

behavior of a terrorist, personality traits which have only been found in the mindset of a

terrorist(Rae, 2012). The last one on the list, the last approach is the socioeconomic angle.

The Socioeconomics frame explains the social and the economic factors and their correlation

with one another(EOLD, 2016c). In the last approach, personal information which has been

collected from a person is used to set a data frame. When it comes to personal information it

could be the information concerning the education one has or the livelihood as well as the

marital status a person has(Rae, 2012).

In terms of profiling terrorism, the task is a hard one and the success rate of actually

succeeding in creating a consistent terrorist profile which would allow governments and

security personnel to filter civilians from terrorists has been relatively low. By conducting a

profile built upon the factors of race, gender, psychology and the socioeconomic motives has

proved to be quite difficult, as all individuals are different. With a broader perspective and

more detailed one, taking into the account all the existing factors such as race, gender,

psychology as well as the situation and the environment at hand, a more accurate terrorist

profile can be developed (Vaisman-Tzachor, 2008 p. 39). Also by looking into what motives

24

or what the drive is for every respective terrorist organization will help with a creation of a

profile (Von Knop, 2007 pp. 398-399). As an outcome, due to the many variables involved in

the profiling task, the key component is the amount of information available in order for the

decision making process to be accurate. For this reason, each of the individual aspects of

information yields value towards the greater picture.

4.4 Common traits: Terrorism

A few common traits which has been considered linked to terrorism in general is that the

terrorist is a lone wolf, has a lot of hate for something, with a violent and threatening

behavior as well as a person with an unhealthy or unstable mindset who would commit an

attack, although the theory of the terrorist being a lone wolf and threatening was no longer an

assumed trait when figuring out a profile as the idea around it was slightly ruined by the

assassins themselves as there were similarities between the two according to the report The

Sociology and psychology of terrorism: Who becomes a terrorist and why written by the

Federal Research Division (Hudson, 1999 p. 44). A certain trait which is found common in

terrorist activities is the careful planning of the act, an attack can be planned several months

in beforehand, with a carefully staked out plan and a long preparation time as well as a

thorough check of the neighborhood of what the place look like to create maximum damage

(Smith, Damphousse and Roberts, 2006 pp. 6-8).

4.5 Common Traits: Male Terrorism and motives

What are common traits for specifically male terrorism? Brian M. Jenkins quotes Dr. Charles

Russells who was an ex-Air Force Office of special investigations in his paper: The terrorist

mindset and terrorist decision making: two areas of ignorance written on June 1979, of what

the common traits of a male terrorist were, according to Dr. Russell, the male terrorists

common similarities were that many of them were young men who have had a good

upbringing coming from a good class background and had received a good education. The

young men were most likely recruited into a terrorist organization whilst completing their

studies at the university, some even left university prematurely, not finishing their studies to

25

join an insurgent group full time. Another common trait which had been evident in cases

were that many of the men were singles, they had no families of their own (Russells and

Miller, 1977 cited in Jenkins, 1979 p. 1). A motive which has been mentioned in literature as

a motive for men to join an insurgent group would the belief in a strong cause (Von Knop,

2007 p. 399).

4.6 Common Traits: Female Terrorism

According to the study in the article Myths and Realities of Female-Perpetrated Terrorism

written by authors Karen Jacques and Paul J. Taylor from Lancaster University (Jacques and

Taylor, 2013 p. 35), a few common traits for female terrorists which the authors mentioned in

their article was that women prior to joining a terrorist organization were less likely to have

held an employment, the chances a woman had converted to another religion from a religion

were minimal. Another distinct trait was that the women were mostly from the place the

terrorist organization was based in, it was highly unlikely that they had immigrated to the

country. Female terrorists were usually not married at the time of joining a terrorist group,

many had suffered through the means of losing a husband, many of them were widows, if

they were not widows, divorce was also common within the circle of terrorist women, which

was something which set them apart from their respective male counterparts (Jacques and

Taylor, 2013 pp. 41-42).

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5. Analysis

Female terrorist as it has been stated above are more of the rare trait, most of the terrorist acts

committed and terrorists, in general, are males (Morgan, 2001 pp. 11-12). There are a few

well-known male terrorists, for example, there’s Ali Atwa, who is a member of Lebanese

Hizballah, and also a wanted man by the FBI (FBI, 2016). The perhaps most famous and

someone many people have heard of and know of is Osama Bin-laden, who was the head of

the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda (GlobalSecurity.org, 2006) and the one who commanded

the attack on 9/11(Chaliand and Blin, 2007 pp. 328-331). However, the following subchapter

will be dedicated to introducing a few more known female terrorists. These four women will

be the four cases which will be examined closer to see what motives drove them.

5.1 The Baader - Meinhof gang.

The Baader-Meinhof gang was a terrorist organization, which was based in West Germany

during the 1970’s and were active until around the 1990’s. The organization was also known

as the Rote-Armee-Fraktion when translating into English became the Red Army faction. The

Baader-Meinhof organization followed a socialist frame, it was mainly the Marxism-

Leninism agenda which characterized their ideas and beliefs (Sjoberg et al., 2011 p. 60). The

organization was formed at the end of the 1960’s, more specifically in 1969 by Andreas

Baader, who was a university student at the time and by Ulrike Meinhof who worked as a

journalist in a German newspaper (Gonzalez-Peres, 2008 p. 115). One of the standpoints the

Baader-Meinhof organization strongly protested against was the role the United States of

America played in the Vietnam War, the organization was also highly against imperialism

and was against capitalism and fought for the removal of both standpoints. The Baader-

Meinhof organization wished to dispose of the democracy structure which existed at the time

in Germany, which also at the time was backed and protected by enterprises and corporations.

The Baader-Meinhof gang wanted to relieve the country of the democracy structure with the

help of a revolution in a socialist agenda (Gonzalez-Peres, 2008 pp. 115-116).

In what has been seen dictated in history before, many of the left-wing organizations or

groups had a very high percentage of women involved in the organization's structure. In the

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Baader-Meinhof group there were a lot of women participating in the gang's activities,

however, two of the women stood out more prominently in the organization. The first one,

which has already been mentioned above was Ulrike Meinhof and the second one was

Gudrun Ensslin (Sjoberg et al., 2011 p. 60). According to author, activist and feminist Robin

Morgan (Robin Morgan, 2015), who directs a critique to the two women in the Baader-

Meinhof gang, the reason for Ulrike Meinhof and Gudrun Ensslin involvement and for them

joining the Baader-Meinhof organization held a romantic one notion to it, Morgan stated that

Ensslin only joined due to the fact that she was romantically involved with Andreas Baader,

and only got involved in it for his sake, meanwhile Meinhof who was not romantically linked

with Baader but to another colleague or associate of his, namely Rudi Dutschke, Meinhof,

and Dutschke were lovers. However, when Dutschke left the country after an attack on his

life, Meinhof was left alone and thus joined Baader and Ensslin in their activities and later,

together they formed the RAF-Rote Armee Fraktion (Morgan, 2001 p. 171).

5.2 Leila Khaled

Leila Khaled is a known female political activist and terrorist, born in Palestine, who later, as

a child fled to Lebanon to escape the danger from the Israeli in her own country. She was a

part of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine(PFLP) (Irving, 2012 pp. 1-3), The

PFLP is a Palestinian National Movement who sought to liberate Palestine from the hands of

the Israeli and to destroy the country in the process (Council on Foreign Relations, 2005).

Khaled is known for being the first woman to hijack an airplane in 1969, Khaled alongside a

colleague, hijacked an airline cruiser on route to Tel Aviv, Israel from Rome, Italy (Irving,

2012 p. 1). The following year in 1970, Leila Khaled hijacked yet another airliner bound for

New York, United States of America, however unlike the previous time, Khaled was

apprehended on the airliner whilst attempting to execute the hijacking, the flight was

interrupted and landed in the United Kingdom where Leila Khaled was arrested by the British

police (Irving, 2012 pp. 1-2).

When reading the book Leila Khaled: Icon of Palestinian Liberation by author Sarah Irving,

the author's retells the state of the political situation at the time and the circumstances around,

the tensions surrounding it and which slowly shaped the political view and standpoint the

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Palestinians found themselves in the ongoing and relatively new conflict between Palestine

and Israel. The thought that becomes an ideal which shaped Palestinians such as Leila Khaled

according to Sarah Irving, was that by not being in Palestine, by being forced to leave your

birth country and by not having a home shaped the political view of many young Palestinians.

The situation Palestine was in and the conflict with Israel helped pave the way to activism for

the return of the country for young Palestinians, the idea of getting their country back and the

chance to return to their old homes motivated people to join in the fight of an independent

Palestine (Irving, 2012 p. 15).

A critical point to Leila Khaled’s activities and her role in the PFLP was criticized by Robin

Morgan, according to Morgan, Leila Khaled had as a terrorist acted in the same way as a man

had done, she had followed terrorism through the mindset of a man and in doing so, she had

ignored the fact of her own gender and ignored the stand of the Palestinian women. Khaled

has also let the women down when it came down to the necessities. By doing so, Khaled had

in doing so, betrayed the very mentality of what it meant to be a woman, according to

Morgan (Morgan, 2001 p. 173). Leila Khaled met the critique in an interview in the German

paper Berliner Frauenzeitung, and interview which had been conducted of journalist Elvira

Ganter, Khaled answered the critique by informing that she indeed represented the

Palestinian women but mostly Khaled stood for the representation of the Palestinians as a

people, as it had been the nationals and the country who were suppressed and not only the

women (Ganter, 1981 p. 14)

5.3 Kim Hyon-Hui

Kim Hyon-Hui was another notorious terrorist in the circle of female terrorists, born in North

Korea in 1962, Kim was a North Korean agent who blew up the Korean Air Flight 858 in

1987 (MacDonald, 1991 pp. 33-34). Kim Hyon-Hui was recruited in the early years of her

life and was a part of the North Korean intelligence. The Olympic games of 1988 were set to

be in Seoul, South Korea that year. The leader of North Korea in the 1980’s was Kim Il-sung

and he wanted to put a stop to South Korea and prevent the neighboring country from hosting

the famous Olympic games and also to discourage participating countries to go to South

Korea. Thus in 1987 the leader of North Korea gave two agents a mission and sent the two

agents to attack an Airliner, bound for the destination of South Korea. On November 1987,

29

the agents, one was Kim Hyon-Hui, a young female North Korean operative was sent out on

a mission alongside a senior agent, Kim Seung-Il (Oberdorfer and Carlin, 2014 p. 144). The

two agents boarded a plane in Baghdad, Iraq on route to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

The two operatives got off the plane in Abu Dhabi and later boarded a new plane which took

them to Bahrain. When the Korean Air Flight 858 left the runway in Abu Dhabi on route to

Seoul, South Korea, the airliner was blown up in mid-air around off the coast of Burma

killing all of the passengers and crew onboard the aircraft. There was a total of 115

passengers plus a crew. The majority of the passengers onboard the plane was of Korean

nationality, but there was also one Indian and one Lebanese national included in the death

count (UNSC, 1988).

The two North Korean agents were not entirely successful in the execution of the plan, they

were also supposed to get away with it but the two agents were caught and apprehended in

Bahrain by Bahraini police officers at the airport. Rather than getting arrested by Bahraini

police officers, Kim Seung-Il committed suicide on the spot by biting into poison ampules

which had been hidden, Kim Hyon-Hui never had the time to ingest the poison as it was

taken away from her by the police. Detained and brought to prison, Kim Hyon-Hui was later

extradited to South Korea by South Korean authority when it became known that she was a

North Korean agent and not a citizen of northern China as she first claimed that she was. The

North Korean operative was first sentenced to death by the South Korean authority but was

later pardoned due to the fact that the authorities believed that Kim Hyon-Hui had been

brainwashed by the North Korean government into doing their bidding (Oberdorfer and

Carlin, 2014 p. 144).

In Robin Morgan’s book, The Demon Lover: The roots of Terrorism, Robin mentions that

Kim was described as being a beauty and glamorous by the press. Kim was described by

Morgan to be the beautiful and perfect glamor price for terrorism, her beauty was something

which was being used to trick men (Morgan, 2001 p. 16). She was looked upon by men as a

sex symbol, she had caught their fascination and thus she was reduced to the status of an

object of fascination by men. Some scientists or experts had before coming to a conclusion

that women who joined a terrorist group and engaged in terrorist acts, were not of the good-

looking types, experts stated that females who engage are such act were very unattractive and

single. By becoming a terrorist, they said, was the only option they had of finding themselves

30

a man, they were too unattractive to interest a man otherwise. However, the beauty North

Korean agent Kim Hyon-Hui posed to become somewhat of an issue to the expert's

statement, as she was the contradiction personified against the expert's standpoint

(MacDonald, 1991 pp. 34-35).

5.4 Sana Mahaydali

Sana Mahaydali, born in Lebanon in 1968 and died on 9th of April 1985 in a suicide bombing

mission which was believed to be the first-ever noted female suicide bomber. Sana

Mahaydali was a member of SSNP, short for the Syrian Social Nationalist Party

(Pobednik1985, 2016). Mahaydali had a short life, at the young age of 17 (Bloom, 2011 p.

23), Mahayadli carried out what would become known to the world as the first woman

suicide bomb attack. She filled a car with explosives and detonated it in Lebanon on the 9th

of April 1985, killing herself along with two Israeli soldiers in the process. Two others were

injured as well in the suicide attack (Aljazeera, 2010). She was also known to be called the

Bride of the South (Pobednik1985, 2016).

5.5 Results

The motives women have been, as it has been stated earlier are very individualistic as well,

depending or the region, time and ongoing activities which would surround the person at that

moment. Most of the motives women have for joining an insurgent group are due to the

hopes of creating a better life for herself and for the ones she loves the most (Galvin, 1983 p.

23). Following the Four R:s created by Mia Bloom, the motives which drive women to join a

terrorist group is divided into four factors: Respect, Relation, Revenge, and Redemption with

the additional factor of Rape (Bloom, 2011 pp. 235-237). In the existing literature and when

looking for the female terrorists in for example the Chechen black widows, the most

prominent motive which could be identified was the factor for revenge. An example would be

the Black widows got their names after their attacks and bombings due to lost loved ones

such as husbands or a relative to the war with the Russians (Williams, 2014) Rape has been

used to break women and force them into terrorist groups as they sometimes offer a way to

redemption for what has happened to them as well (Bloom, 2011 pp. 236-237).

However, as some experts claims, women do it for selfless reasons too (Galvin, 1983 p. 23)

31

whilst other experts state that there are no differences in motives between men and women, as

women join a terrorist group for the exact same reasons as men (Von Knop, 2007 p. 399).

The two statements offer two different kinds of views from different perspectives, as they

both give a certain insight into the perspective of a female terrorist minds, what drives a

person to join is highly individual and thus it is very hard to foresee who would join a

terrorist group based on a personality and the behavior of one, different factors needs to be

counted in such as the socio-economic background, as well as the situation surrounding the

women at the time. This in order to protect women and hindering them from perhaps joining

an organization1.

The women joining the organization looked into in this research are from areas where males

ruled, women had in that aspect, little chance to succeed and to choose a career for

themselves as it was expected by woman to stay home, as it was written in the Al-Khansaa

article, women were the mothers of terrorist, they were responsible for giving birth to a new

generation of terrorist, motherhood was valued according to the article in Al-Khansaa (Al-

Khansaa, 2004). Many of the women joining a terrorist organization were single women, for

example, some had been forced into an organization due to rape (Bloom, 2011 pp. 236-237),

whilst there was proof of women joining to make the life better for herself and her children

(Galvin, 1983 p. 23).

5.6 Motives of Female Terrorists

A woman’s motive for joining a terrorist organization are usually very different from the

motives of a man. According to Deborah M. Galvin’s article The Female Terrorist: A Socio-

Psychological Perspective, women’s motive for joining a terrorist organization is related to a

better future. Galvin states in her article that when women decide to join a terrorist group, it

would in the hunt for a better future for herself and for her children (Galvin, 1983 p. 23).

Another reason pointed out in the article was to help other people to meet the needs of others

which drives a woman to seek themselves into a terrorist organization. Unlike the motives of

men, which is stated in the article was the dream of achieving glory and power for

themselves, women’s motives are more centered towards the life surrounding herself, whilst a

1 See the discussion from above.

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man’s motive according to Galvin was a bit more selfish and self-centered (Galvin, 1983 p.

23). However, according to author Katharina Von Knop the one who wrote the article: The

Female Jihad: Al Qaeda's Women, the motivation a woman had for joining a terrorist

organization was the same as the male terrorists, the author means that there are no

immediate differences in the motives between the sexes but it was the differences in the

structure of genders which at the time would have created some extra motive for the woman,

as they were more oppressed than the man in the social structure which is infused in the

society today (Von Knop, 2007 p. 399).

The literature surrounding female terrorism, there are a lot of different kinds of explanation

for the motives and reasoning a woman have for entering a terrorist organization. Authors

such as Robin Morgan, claims that there is a romantic link involved in the process of a

woman joining a terrorist group, that is evident in the Baader-Meinhof case where Morgan

argues that the reason for Ulrike Meinhof and Gudrun Ensslin to first join the group was due

to the fact that both were romantically involved with the men who according to Morgan were

the original founders of RAF (Morgan, 2001 p. 171). Morgan also acknowledges the motives

of Leila Khaled as well, in her book Morgan argues the fact that Khaled also joined for not

only personal reasons such as to regain a lost country but because she had a romantic

relationship with one of the fighters, a fighter whom she later married (Morgan, 2001 pp.

214-215).

To follow Mia Bloom’s four R:s, the Respect, Revenge, Redemption, and Relationship

including the additional part of Rape, there were a few terrorist acts which would fall under

the categories Bloom has created. One which fits into the category of revenge is Chechnya’s

famous black widows, who got their notorious names after they had lost their husbands to the

Russian army, drained in sorrow and seeking for revenge, the women took up arms in the

Chechen insurgent groups in order to take revenge on their fallen loved ones, including

sacrificing their lives to the cause (TRAC, 2016). According to the concept, Bloom has

created to categories motives for women joining terrorist groups, the Chechen black widows

would certainly fall under the category of the Revenge factor as the women did take up arms

after the death of their beloved. The death of their loved one’s motivated women to join an

insurgent group. The men could have died in combat against the Russians in one of the two

big Chechen wars, or they could have died in the cleansing operation the Russian authority

33

ordered after defeating the Chechen resistance to sort out Chechen rebels, many innocent men

died under horrid circumstances (Williams, 2014). Relationships also play its part in the

decision for becoming a Black widow, the majority of the women have had some form of

relationships towards the deceased, whether the deceased was a blood relative or a lover

(TRAC, 2016).

According to Professor Brian Glyn Williams, who is a Professor of Islamic History at the

University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth (Williams, 2016), martyrdom has become

increasingly popular within the circle of Black Widows bombings. The reason for this is,

indicated by Professor Williams were that terrorists had painted up a nice picture of

martyrdom for young girls, as the recruited ones were relatively young in age and

manipulated them into entering a life of martyrdom. The young women were led to believe

that martyrdom was a well-worth cause and that they would have a good place in heaven if

they went through the act, thus luring them into executing suicide bombings under false

pretenses. The young girls who were being manipulated had a strong belief in the faith and

were prepared to die in the name of the faith for the cause and took up the suicide missions

without questioning the act and the manipulation of the terrorists who lured them into it

(Williams, 2014).

Leila Khaled fought for the independence of her country and fought for the return of her

people. A thought which had been spread throughout the minds of young Palestinians

including Leila Khaled was the dream of an independent Palestine. Revenge for what the

Israeli did to their country drove the young Palestinians to take up arms against Israel. For

Leila Khaled, revenge was to take back the land which had been stolen years ago, it was the

thought of returning to the motherland was a part of the motives for the struggle (Irving, 2012

p. 15). She also had a relationship with one of the fighters in her guerilla group, a fighter she

later married, which also ticks the relationship box that her relationship could have been a

contribution to her decision to continue the battle, as it was mentioned above that was one of

the critiques Robin Morgan had concerning Khaled’s motives (Morgan, 2001 p. 173).

Kim Hyon-Hui did what she was instructed to do when she blew up the plane to Seoul in

1987, her action caused the deaths of multiple South Koreans and she was sentenced to death

for her actions, she was then pardoned for her actions, the South Korean government saw her

34

as a victim, brainwashed by her own government, the North Korean one (Oberdorfer and

Carlin, 2014 p. 144). Following Bloom’s four R:s, Kim Hyon-Hui did only her duty she

thought was right at the time, she was brainwashed according to the South Korean

Government (Oberdorfer and Carlin, 2014 p. 144), however, respect could also be a part of

the motive, she thought to herself that she could earn the respect of the people and the

government, as respect was something which had to be given and earned (Bloom, 2011 p.

236).

5.7 Through the scope of the three theories

Dealing with female terrorism, it can be considered a sensitive subject, as it can be somewhat

of a difficult topic to do research on. Female terrorism is less known of a subject than male

terrorism, much of the information out in the established research concerning terrorism has

always been focused on males as terrorists. The idea of a woman becoming a terrorist is a

hard notion to grasp as it is considered to be unfeminine to act violently and to destroy life,

women are seen to be the protectors of life, they give life, not destroy it. The women whom

becomes terrorists and commit a terrorist crime are often portrayed as beasts in the media, the

attention the report gains are huge, the broadcasts are viewed by many and civilians as well

as politicians are even more horrified of the act, more so of the fact as it had been committed

by a woman (Bloom, 2011 p. 33).

The motives, which has been discussed above, are many. Special and different circumstances

and different thinking had forced women to join terrorist organizations, although there is

evidence which suggests that some women actually do join on their own free will, not all of

them were forced (Von Knop, 2007 p. 399). Different places also offer different ways of life,

which will also affect the decision a woman makes before entering a terrorist group. The

motive set forward by Deborah M. Galvin, that the search for a better future for the woman

herself and her children is what is the biggest motive a woman has (Galvin, 1983 p. 23). The

patriarchal society structure is in some countries more prominent than others, for example in

Chechnya. In many of the countries where terror networks are active, there is a more

prominent male dominance culture, women have a stricter role in society (Von Knop, 2007 p.

399), through the scope of the theory of Gynocentrism, women have always been subordinate

to the man, the women have never truly become the one in power, the patriarchal society does

35

not allow for female rule, it is for male domination. Which is why in many places women

have a harder time establishing themselves in a society governed mostly by men (Von Knop,

2007 pp. 399-400). Part of the motive was the search for better options for the woman herself

and her offspring shows a lot of maternal instinct, sometimes when a woman joins a terrorist

organization it is to find security, better future, and options for her children, the mother would

sacrifice herself for something she believed would generate a change, so that her children

would have a chance for a better future (Galvin, 1983 p. 23). Even in terrorist networks,

women are considered to be the nurturers, a woman has the gift to bear life, the next

generation of warriors. Al-Khansaa was a magazine which was published online in 2004 by a

special branch of the terrorist network Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia. The magazine was directed

towards women and it contained guidelines for Muslim women, the article spoke of the

woman's role in the Al-Qaeda family and its relation to jihad and what was expected of the

women. Umm Badr, the woman who introduced the guidelines in the Al-Khansa magazine

stated that in the woman, in a family, was a warrior of Jihad, a woman’s role was to protect

Islam, her duty was to teach her children about the wonders of Islam, educate the child in the

principles of Jihad and raise them into becoming good soldiers for the cause. She was a

mother, but not only was she a mother, she was also a sister, a wife, and a daughter, her role

was to continue the traditions and to support her husband in the fight against infidels (Al-

Khansaa, 2004). Motherhood is, therefore, a strong connection to terrorism, women work

hard to support the man in his activities, whether it is in the background of a terrorist

assembly or at home, raising the children to fight their cause. Motherhood is indeed important

to maternal feminism, but there are no notices of the woman’s own ideas and agenda,

depending on the circumstances and the upbringing the women had, they most likely did not

have any choices to go their own path. The women are bound to the family. If the death of a

family member occurred, a woman’s duty was to continue the man’s legacy, by continuing to

race the children in the way of Jihad (Al-Khansaa, 2004). In the case of the Chechen black

widows, there was a strong bond of male domination there as well, women followed the

men’s order, family bond was important (Von Knop, 2007 p. 399).

Ulrike Meinhof and Gudrun Ensslin in the Baader - Meinhof gang, sought to change the

political structure which ruled in their native country at that time, the two women fought for a

revolution to take place to rid the world of its current dominant form which they sought was

wrong for the world order (Gonzalez-Peres, 2008 pp. 115-116). The world the two women

36

faced was still seen to be a world dominated by men which had a long history which stretches

over centuries. The women, however, sought to extinguish the world order as they saw it

then, the order of capitalism was to be eradicated and replaced by a new order which was

built on a socialist leadership. The women made a name for themselves, both of them became

the leaders of the RAF (Sjoberg and Gentry, 2011 p. 63).

Leila Khaled, one of the more notorious female terrorists, lived in her early life in a war

struck country, occupied by a foreign military force. As a young child, Leila Khaled fled her

birth country and to the refugee camp in Lebanon, but the dream of an independent Palestine

lived on and grew stronger and became a mantra which engulfed the life of young Leila

Khaled, which has been mentioned earlier in the text. The belief of an independent Palestine

motivated Khaled into taking up arms in order to try and fight for her birth country (Irving,

2012 p. 15). Khaled comes from a war struck background which shaped her whole

perspective, the love for the homeland drove her, Khaled never truly put the women's

perspective and situation as the more important one over the task of returning the home

country of the Palestinians. Khaled fought for the independence of her country, for her

people, she did not divide the people into separate groups but saw them as a whole. Khaled

did not see herself as only a woman but as a warrior Palestinian for her country (Ganter, 1981

p. 14). Her beliefs that her country would once again become free from the Israeli occupation

drove her to continue the struggle. She became famous after her successful attempt of

blowing up the South Korean air flight 858, she did it as an act to her country, she followed

the orders of her government and in the process killing many people (Oberdorfer and Carlin,

2014 p. 144).

37

6. Concluding Remarks Through the three theories

Starting from the how women are viewed in society by society, women have always been

considered as the weaker of the two sexes, and should always be undermined the men. When

a woman commits a terrorist act, the society views the woman’s action as a lot more

horrendous and wrong than if a male had committed the same act. The reason which has been

stated earlier in the essay was due to the fact that a woman is considered weaker, a woman

was the bearer of life, for her to commit a terrorist act was just simply unimaginable as it was

not seen as a task a woman could do. A woman was supposed to protect life, not destroy it.

When a woman kills innocent people in the name of terrorism, she is more demonized than

her male counterpart, many view her act as more hideous than the acts of a male terrorist

(Bloom, 2011 p. 34). The differences in traits between female and male terrorists are quite

distinct, whilst the men are usually more educated and have no family of their own, many

women however prior to them joining an insurgent group often have had a family of their

own, they were usually widowed after their husbands who sometimes belonged to a terrorist

group or the loss drove the women to join one (Jacques and Taylor, 2013 pp. 41-42)

Women, however, did not always have a prominent role in terrorist groups except a few

exceptions, women tended to have a more reserved role in the organization such as a

caretaker of the males (Sjoberg et al., 2011 p. 2).This is not always the case as there have

been prominent females acting on the active side of the terrorist organizations, examples such

Ulrike Meinhof who was the leader of the RAF (Gonzalez-Peres, 2008 p. 115) and Leila

Khaled who hijacked two aircraft (Irving, 2012 pp. 1-2), also broke the traditionally viewed

positions of what a woman was capable of through the usage of violence (Von Knop, 2007 p.

399). Women are being used more and more for direct attacks due to their low attraction

range, they are more likely to succeed in their attacks as they have an easier time slipping

through the security measures set out by security personnel and by governments (Bloom

2011, p. 233), as it has been mentioned before, terrorist attacks are rarely associated with

women as it is not in women’s nature to destroy life (Bloom, 2011 p. 34).

The most prominent reasons given through the literature has been revenge and a belief for a

strong cause (Cunningham, 2010 p. 186), women who have lost a beloved turned to terrorist

organizations in order to seek justice and revenge to those who have been lost and died at the

38

hands of say a country, this is evident in the case of the Chechen black widows who join the

fight after they had lost a loved one to the Russians in one of the wars (TRAC, 2016). Leila

Khaled sought for the liberation of her own homeland from the hands of the Israelis, and the

belief for an independent Palestine pushed her to take up arms to fight for the cause she

strongly believed in (Irving, 2012 p. 15). Another example for another group which had a

strong belief in the destruction of a system was the Baader-Meinhof gang which believed in a

social revolution and the destruction of the democratic system in Germany (Gonzalez-Peres,

2008 pp. 115-116). Looking at the motives throughout the literature, depending on what the

regional situation looked like, the motives varies from area to area, something which has been

noted whilst reading the literature was that conflict areas tended to have an increase in

insurgent activities. This cause has been seen in, for example, the Chechen case, where a

woman has participated in terrorist groups to avenge a fallen beloved one. It can be seen in

the case of Leila Khaled as well (Irving, 2012 p. 15), as the PFLP wants to regain what has

once been lost to them, a country (Council of Foreign Relations, 2005).

39

7. Discussion and further research

Women joining a terrorist organization and committing terrorist acts are becoming more and

more frequent, women are being used to carry out a terrorist attack due to lack of supervision

when it comes to women slipping through security checks as still to this day, women are not

considered to be capable of carrying out an attack. It is a momentum which needs to change

as there is an increase in women participating in terrorist acts. Security groups and

governments need to take precaution, as it is a task which could easily be conducted by

women as it could have been a man performing the task. A thorough investigation is needed

to try and help prevent attacks carried out by both men and women. Motives are highly

personal and there is not very much that differs men and women in that part as women have

similar causes as men do. Women have to their advantage of being thought as the mother to

life which is why many perceive her as incapable of destroying life, but she just as capable of

doing it as it has been showed and proved by the actions the women have taken when joining

insurgent groups and carried out an attack. There are so many issues which would drive a

person to join an insurgent group, revenge, love, redemption, belief in a cause are a few

factors which are important to understanding. It will give a more contemporary explanation.

To create a profile to seek out potential terrorists is a gruesome task as there are plenty of

factors which needs to be taken into account when creating a profile. Concentrating only on a

specific region or race of people would be fruitless as human beings are never alike, creating

a profile out of those requirements would give an inconsistent profile. To use it to identify

future terrorist would not give satisfying results. The motives of the specific terrorist

organization also need to be considered as it will also give an explanation to what it is a

person is specifically looking for.

The notion of women being incapable of carrying out an attack is a thought which needs to be

purged from human minds as women are more than likely to commit an attack, especially if

they have the advantage of being a woman and have an easier time to slip through the

scrutiny of the security personnel as they are viewed to be more weak and harmless. More

control can be seen as essential in order to prevent future attacks.

40

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