Radicalisation of the Female Worker

Jakarta Post

15 September 2017

More often than not, the suicide bomber was a male who volunteered to end his life so that his family could obtain permanent welfare benefits from a self-proclaimed liberation organization. Just as plausible was the male who lost his moral and religious compass amidst a worldly global economy and chanced upon the prospect of providential redemption through an act of “selfless terrorism” against “infidels.”

However, in Asia women are now reportedly also tempted to embrace terrorist causes for reasons of psychological displacement, searching for a sense of “place” in dominant power structures. The case reported in the New York Times of Ayu (not her real name) in Hong Kong and the one of Syaikhah Izzah Zahrah Al Ansari in Singapore showcase the very real possibility that women are equally salient targets for radicalization by the likes of Islamic Satets (IS), Al-Qaeda and Jamaah Islamiyah.

… Tamara Nair is research fellow at the Center for Non-Traditional Security Studies; Alan Chong is associate professor at the Centre for Multilateralism Studies, both in the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

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