It's a fantastic vetting mechanism for the terrorist organizations. They are always worried about being infiltrated and so if someone is related to an existing member they feel that they're most trustworthy. So this is something we see -- it's all in the family.

Mia Bloom

Categorized in : Top News

The best predictor of a woman's involvement in terrorism, whether it's a secular or religious group, is a relationship with a terrorist: her father, brother, husband or even her son. Terrorism becomes a bit of a family business.

husband brother religious

The issue of motherhood is no longer salient. In fact, the very first female bomber for Hamas posed in her last will and testament video with her two kids.

motherhood two kids

Women are secretaries of state and prime ministers - but people still don't expect women to be involved in violence.

prime violence people

When I was in Sri Lanka with the [Tamil] Tigers, there were editorials in the paper saying that soldiers really had to stop raping Tamil women at checkpoints because they were just creating more operatives. The [Tigers] were cognizant of this and exploited it: "Don't be a victim, join the movement.

sri-lanka creating soldier

Misuse of the Koran to provide legitimacy for violence is common, particularly in Europe, where terrorists tend not to be well-educated Muslims.

violence common europe

I did a study of soldiers returning from Iraq, and their levels of PTSD were much higher if they had had to shoot a woman or child, even if they knew the person was a suicide bomber.

iraq suicide children

When the bombers are women - and children, which I predict we'll see more of - the terrorists get more bang for their buck, because there's more media attention.

bangs media children

It's cheap, and you have a thinking, breathing bomb that can adjust to circumstances and cross the street to hit another target if the original one doesn't look good.

breathing target thinking

With a civilian target, female bombers tend to be more successful... by Mia Bloom

With a civilian target, female bombers tend to be more successful and cause more damage.

bombers female successful

Acts perpetrated by women, particularly attractive women, get far... by Mia Bloom

Acts perpetrated by women, particularly attractive women, get far more media attention.

attractive media attention

A lot of movements use women's involvement to shame men when recr... by Mia Bloom

A lot of movements use women's involvement to shame men when recruitment is sagging.

sagging use men

The terrorists provide an outlet where with just one action, a raped woman can go from being a source of dishonour to her family to being a source of pride in a culture of martyrdom.

pride action culture

It's interesting the degree to which the parents are giving the organization access to their children, it's not a coercive endeavor like what we saw in Africa. The kids are not being kidnapped. The kids are not being coerced. For the most part, what we're seeing is kids posing with a big smile and at least in one case saying goodbye to the parents.

The way you got the kids out of child soldiering in Liberia, Uganda or Mozambique was you use two things. You use the family and you use religion, the problem with ISIS is that they've distorted the religion, and the families are colluding with ISIS to allow them access to the kids. So there's additional challenges, and we don't have a really good template to use ... it's a big problem.

ISIS is integrating children into its project in a way that is more reminiscent of a state than a non-state actor. It's thinking with the long term in mind. It's not just bringing children into its ranks and using them immediately on the battlefield. What it's doing is bringing them in, indoctrinating them, training them, spending a lot of time instilling them with jihadist ideology.

It's certainly ISIS' first female suicide bomber. by Mia Bloom

It's certainly ISIS' first female suicide bomber.

Up until now ISIS has been very clear. The role for women is cooking, cleaning and childcare. They do not have women on the front lines.

It was done more of a defense mechanism rather than as an act of violence. Islamic State has said in its propaganda many times women are to remain in the home and really their participation in jihad is more nurturing role as a mother and a wife.