Women in Combat: Identifying Global trends

International Feminist Journal of Politics, 2016

While a significant literature on women’s participation in armed rebel groups exists, much of this work is focused on individual cases or regional comparisons among movements. This has led to a lack of cross-national work on women in insurgencies, and a limited understanding of the extent to which women are engaged in civil conflict internationally. This paper introduces new data on women’s involvement in 72 insurgencies active since 1990, and assesses the validity of several assumptions about women and rebellion drawn from existing literature on women in conflict and on civil wars, generally. Among the findings, I show that women are active in rebel groups much more often than current scholarship acknowledges. This involvement also includes frequent service in combat and leadership roles, where male participants are often presumed to be the default. Finally, while forced recruitment tactics are frequently used to bring women into service, much of this participation appears to be voluntary in nature.

Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict, 2019

Recent scholarship suggests that the prevalence of female fighters is determined by various demand and supply factors. On one hand, the voluntary supply of female fighters is dependent on women who are driven by various motivations, ranging from grievances to ideology. On the other hand, violent organizations frequently employ female fighters to gain important tactical and strategic advantages. Focusing on insurgent groups, we posit that two situational factors are critical in determining female participation in combat; lower opportunity costs for women to participate, and a high demand for armed fighters by groups. We argue that high levels of unemployment amongst the female labour force within a state result in lower opportunity costs for women to join an insurgency, while territorial control by groups generates a higher need for armed fighters. Both of these conditions generate the optimal conditions for women to participate in combat roles. We test our arguments by using logistical regression models on a sample of 140 insurgent groups globally from 1998 to 2012. Our findings provide support for our hypotheses that both high levels of female unemployment, and territorial control by insurgent groups increase the likelihood of the prevalence of women fighters in insurgencies.

Politikon

ABSTRACT In an attempt to pay attention to the growing trend of terrorism and insurgent conflicts in Africa, this article examines the involvement of women as agents of terror. The prevailing narration of armed conflicts including terrorism and insurgency in Africa and across the world are largely masculine. In this framework, women are only recognised as victims in a series of campaigns of terror engineered by men. However, the enduring involvement of women and young girls as combatants, (suicide) bombers, spies and bates, recruiters, mobilisers, motivators, strategists, camerawomen and media crew in operations, procurers and suppliers (including transporters and porters) of arms, ammunitions, foods and messages to insurgents among other domestic services like sex, cooking, cleaning and property maintenance in camps comes to mind. Drawing from the pull of experience in Africa and elsewhere, this study interrogates the motivations and patterns of women involvement in terrorism and insurgency, and associated organisational dynamics.

Modern warfare disproportionally affects the lives of women and girls. Females experience armed conflict differently to men due to the gendered division of roles and responsibilities. Historically, direct combat involved participation exclusively by men, with civilians, comprising mainly of women and children, suffering due to displacement and direct targeting. As a result, women are frequently victims of gender-based violence, as well as torture, forced disappearance and murder. In modern conflicts however, women are not only victims but also perpetrators of violence; they take up arms and commit violent acts, either voluntarily or under duress. Women actively participate in organised rebellion and warfare in several societies with a history of violent extremism and domestic terrorism, transgressing traditional gender roles and altering gender relations. This paper will examine the motivation behind women's participation in warfare, violent extremism and acts of terrorism, and whether it differs to their male counterparts. Furthermore, it explores whether women's participation in armed conflict breaks down patriarchal systems and increases gender equality, are for pragmatic reasons, or a combination of both. Female combatants in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of Sri Lanka will be used to highlight the significant role of women in armed conflict.

More than 600 Muslim women from Western countries have joined forces with ISIS and hailed from their home countries to the proclaimed ‘Islamic Caliphate’ in Syria and Iraq. As the conflict has lasted for almost five years, dramatic changes to family structure have occurred, with approximately 1.6 million widows in Iraq and even more female-headed households. The ongoing conflict with ISIL has increased the number of widows and female-headed households. Essential findings in my current research have articulated clearly that Iraqi women, displaced women, widows and female –headed households living in territories- controlled by ISIL are vulnerable to abuses and maltreatment. No terrorist group has been able to lure so many female Western recruits so far, although the numbers of females moving to ISIL have started to decrease due to US-RUS areal strikes and the ground offensive which has been jumpstarted by the Iraqi army. My research aims at explaining the reasons behind such unprecedented success, the motivation and driving forces of Western Muslimas to team up with ISIS and their roles in the ‘Islamic State’ (women used for propaganda purposes, women participating in the so called law-enforcement as part of the women´s police force “al-Khansaa Brigade”, etc.) The research compares living conditions in ISIS’-occupied territories with the expectation induced by ISIS’ recruiters in women from Western counries who had expressed their willingness and an interest to make hijra and gang up with ISIS. According to a report published by Human Rights Watch (HRW), ISIL imposes abusive restrictions on Iraqi and Syrian women and girls and severely limits their freedom of movement and access to health care and education in areas under its control. Interviewed women reported that they have to deal with restricted access to health care and education due to discriminatory ISIS policies, including rules limiting male doctors from touching, seeing, or being alone with female patients. In rural areas, ISIS opted for a policy which prevents girls to take school classes; a practice sloganeered also by terrorist organizations such as Boko Haram. Understanding the motivations for women to join ISIL is vital to figure out how to stem the flow of females heading towards ISIL and to address the security threat posed to the Western world by possible female returnees, or radicalized sympathizers who are unable to leave their countries of origin.

2020

In relation to female combatants, it has been argued that they have distinct incentives for joining an armed combat. This essay is going to illustrate that this argument fails to draw an accurate picture of female participation in violence and thus reinforces gendered identities. Even though gender-specific determinants for women can be identified, this essay suggests that greater importance should be given to social conditions as well as the sociology and ethics of the insurgent groups involved rather than distinct motivations for men and women. This is also because the insurgent groups’ ideology and the framing of the conflicts affect the reasons to join an armed combat. This argument will be illustrated by using the cases of Kurdish female combatants, being part of a liberation movement with the aim of an emancipated society and the case of the ‘Black Widows’ of Chechnya, a group of female suicide bombers willing to sacrifice themselves in the name of a ‘holy war’. As can be deri...

ICSVE Brief Reports

On International Women’s Day it seems important to recognize strong women and the unique characteristics of women to play important roles in defeating terrorism. In the past days, taking part in the Institute for Defense Studies and Analysis Combating Terrorism Conference in New Delhi, India, I had the opportunity to meet and listen to the story of Lamia Haji Bashar, a Yazidi girl who at age 15 was captured with her entire family by ISIS. Lamia ended as a sex slave of ISIS, “owned” and abused by five different men. She finally escaped but not without paying a high price—the two women she was with were exploded on a landmine and she lost one of her eyes and was disfigured by the explosion. Yet she remains an extremely beautiful young woman speaking out in courage about her ordeal of rape and enslavement, speaking up for the thousands of Yezidi, Sunni and Shia girls and boys still in captivity and whose lives have been derailed by the extreme brutality of ISIS. Women are both victims and actors in terrorism and unfortunately play a significant role in ISIS—even cooperating in the enslavement of other women, who they dehumanize and also abuse. We know that terrorism tends to be a male-dominated profession, yet groups like ISIS have made a very strong call to women to travel to Syria and Iraq to join their ranks. Many find this incomprehensible, yet when we listen to actual terrorists tell their stories we find how they were seduced and how we might better protect women from this face-to-face and Internet seduction that is taking place all over the world.

Armed conflicts to a larger extent are a case to the African women. Women and girl’s experience of war is manifold, as soldiers, as victims of armed conflict, as war booty, and as single heads of households. It is estimated that close to 90 per cent of current war casualties are civilians, the majority of whom are women and children, compared to a century ago when 90 per cent of those who lost their lives were military personnel. Although entire communities suffer the consequences of armed conflict, women and girls are particularly affected because of their status in society and their sex. Parties in conflict situations often rape women, sometimes using systematic rape as a tactic of war. Other forms of violence against women committed in armed conflict include murder, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy and forced sterilization. Despite this, women should not be viewed solely as victims of war. They assume the key role of ensuring family livelihood in the midst of chaos and destruction, and are particularly active in the peace movement at the grassroots level, cultivating peace within their communities. However, armed conflicts to a lesser extent have become a blessing to African women. This essay is an attempt to critically examine the effects of armed conflicts to the African women. The effects range from political, social and economic issues.

2003

BRIDGE (development - gender) Institute of Development Studies University of Sussex Brighton BN1 9RE, UK Tel: +44 (0) 1273 606261 Fax: +44 (0) 1273 621202 Email: bridge@ids.ac.uk Website: http://www.ids.ac.uk/bridge/ ... Amani El Jack (author) is a PhD candidate in ...

lambert publishers, 2021

Conflict is common but armed conflict must not be common. Conflict is sometimes a vehicle of social change. However, armed conflict has shown to be negatively affecting women more than men and resulting in gender-specific disadvantages, particularly for women, who are always relegated to the fringes of the society by the mainstream, gender-blind understandings of conflict and reconstruction. The status of women reflects power imbalances in social structures that exist in pre-conflict periods and are exacerbated by armed conflict and its aftermath. The acceptance of gender stereotypes, patriarch and other cultural beliefs are one of the main reasons that such gender blindness persists. This essay will explore this conundrum aided by various feminisms and empirical case studies such as the Boko Haram in Nigeria, Darfur conflict in Sudan and the Rwandan Genocide.