Women’s roles in terrorist networks in Indonesia have until now been dictated by kinship ties through marriage, involving facilitating logistics and finance for terrorist acts. But there is a growing trend of women taking on combat roles.

Last December Detachment 88, Indonesia’s police counterterrorism unit, arrested three women who were allegedly involved in plotting a suicide bombing during the changing of guards ceremony at Merdeka Palace.

The women — Dian Yuli Novi, Arida Putri Maharani and Tutin Sugiarti — were part of a Solo-based terrorist network under the coordination of Bahrun Naim, the man allegedly behind the 2016 Jakarta attacks. A few days after their arrest, Detachment 88 also arrested Ika Puspitasari in a mosque near her home in Purworejo, Central Java.

… This article was written by Chaula Rininta Anindya, a research assistant with the Indonesia Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. It first appeared on East Asia Forum under a Creative Commons license and is reproduced here with its permission.