Women and terrorism - Social media plays a big role

Syaikhah Izzah Zahrah Al Ansari’s recent detention came amid rising concerns of women joining and supporting the Islamic State (IS) and IS-linked groups in the region.

In particular, Izzah’s case offers some significant lessons regarding the online radicalisation of youth, and women’s participation in terrorist groups.

Izzah, 22, might be the first Singaporean woman to be detained for links to the IS, but she is not the only woman to join an Islamist terrorist group in the region. In December last year, Detachment 88, Indonesia’s counter-terrorism squad, arrested Dian Yulia Novi for planning an attack on the presidential palace in Jakarta. Novi, a 27-year-old woman, had become radicalised through social media when she lived in Taiwan.

Women used to play a more limited role in waging jihad. Women participated in Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) as wives of the members, bearing their children and acting as facilitators, fundraisers and propagandists on small-scale websites and chat-rooms for other women.

In fact, the JI in South-east Asia was generally averse to women’s involvement on the battlefield. These perceptions were largely shaped by the JI’s links to Al Qaeda which, as leader of the global jihadist movement, had relegated women’s roles to the domestic sphere until 2009.

A shift was visible thereafter as Umaima Hassan Ahmad, the wife of Al Qaeda’s current leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, released a letter intended as a call to recruit women, making it permissible for females to wage jihad to support the group.

According to a report by the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, based in Indonesia, the roles of women in Islamist terrorist organisations have been evolving from being wives and mothers to becoming jihadists and providing logistical support to suicide bombers with active combat roles. This is largely attributed to Al Qaeda’s successor, the IS, which has continually placed more emphasis on women’s involvement in a diverse set of roles in its magazines, Dabiq and Rumiyah. Since the IS intends to create a viable Islamic caliphate, or its version of a state, women need to be involved in state-building roles beyond their traditional duties as mothers and wives.

In the second issue of Rumiyah, published in October last year, the IS referred to women of the ‘‘ummah’’, waging jihad and surpassing men by giving examples of the San Bernardino shootings in the United States and the suicide bombings in Kenya last year.

By doing so, the IS glorified women performing their duties as defenders of the caliphate, beyond their traditional roles. The San Bernardino shooters were venerated, with the woman and her husband choosing to die in a police battle, leaving their six-month-old infant parentless.

The image of the orphaned infant’s crib with soft toys, carried in the media, was used by the IS in Dabiq to glorify the parents’ dedication to their mission. This hunger for glory is evident in Izzah’s case as, along with intentions to marry an IS fighter or supporter, she also wanted to receive military training to engage in armed combat.

The IS has also pressed for women to wage jihad in light of their perceived ability to perpetrate attacks due to the lack of physical checks. Attacks conducted by women have more shock value and are thus likely to increase the group’s visibility at a time when it is losing territory and evidently facing defeat in Iraq and Syria. As long as the IS remains on the defensive, it will continue to target and recruit more women outside Iraq and Syria to gain operational leverage.

PREVENTIVE POLICIES NEEDED

In its broader efforts to utilise more women for the caliphate, IS has an extended network of female recruiters. These women regularly post information about the so-called caliphate in Iraq and Syria, and justify IS barbarism through the argued persecution of Muslims by the West or the “disbelievers”.

In 2014, ‘‘Dr Shams’’, a 26-year-old Malaysian woman who had joined the IS in Syria, launched her blog called The Diary of a Muhajirah. She referred to herself as the ‘‘Bird of Jannah’’ and evoked symbolic power by comparing the men and women of the IS to lions and lionesses, adding to the appeal for women interested in joining the IS.

Overall, the IS’ more inclusive approach towards women and the presence of social media propaganda targeted at women are catalysts for their growing radicalisation.

How can Singapore and the region counter the IS propagandists’ elaborate efforts to bring women into their fold? The speedy and continuous spread of IS propaganda and recruitment material on social media increases the vulnerability of young men and women. A part of the solution, then, lies within the regulation and monitoring of the online domain.

Taking down social media accounts that are linked to the IS is one of the key steps. In the first six months of 2016, Twitter removed 235,000 accounts that promoted terrorism. This is, in part, a viable strategy that decreases the visibility of IS propaganda and limits its followers.

However, the accounts tend to re-appear after a while. For instance, Izzah had shared pro-IS pictures on multiple occasions through her social media accounts, which were taken down periodically. However, she was able to create new accounts easily to get in touch with IS supporters and members.

It is evident that online policing or closing down social media accounts is a reactive measure that can be ineffective. There is a need for preventive policies, such as community policing and the promotion of counter-narratives to IS propaganda in the online domain. The IS’ elaborate social media campaign gives women like Izzah a chance to feel accepted and create bonds in the radical online community. Keeping this in mind, preventive policies, such as the introduction of media literacy programmes targeting youth, are needed.

These initiatives should be focused on training youth, specifically young women, to critically evaluate the relationships they build online and the vast amount of information available, which can often be manipulative and inaccurate. This will allow a critical approach to IS propaganda, hate speech and violence-oriented material. Unless efforts are made to curb the influence of social media, cases of other young women like Izzah are likely to emerge in Singapore and the region periodically.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Sara Mahmood is a Research Analyst with the International Centre of Political Violence & Terrorism Research (ICPVTR) at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Singapore.