How Female Terrorists Use Preconceptions to their Advantage
Male terrorists tend to get most of the press, but terrorist cells are recruiting more women, often due to security forces considering them less suspicious.
The May 2013 edition of the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist Listincluded its first woman – Joanne Chesimard, wanted for the 1973 killing of a New Jersey State Trooper. This addition calls attention to the phenomenon of female participation in terrorism. As illustrated in the 30-year anniversary of Chesimard incident, female contribution to terrorist activity is not new.
Ulrike Meinhof, co-founder of the Red Army Faction in West Germany, and Fusako Shigenbu, a founder of the Japanese Red Army, are two examples of the leadership roles in modern terrorism. Women have carried out prominent operations under the mantle of diverse terrorist groups, including: the Turkey-based PKK, Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, FARC in Colombia and violent jihadist groups, in Russia, especially in Chechnya.