1 00:00:01,094 --> 00:00:01,876 Good afternoon. 2 00:00:02,414 --> 00:00:06,706 Welcome to the Women in Al Qaeda conference sponsored by the Bradley Foundation, the Fletcher 3 00:00:06,730 --> 00:00:11,499 School, Women in International Security, and the Jebson Center for Counterterrorism Studies. 4 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:16,581 We are thrilled to have all of you here for what I know will be an engaging and exciting afternoon. 5 00:00:17,092 --> 00:00:22,056 Today we are joined by journalists, practitioners, academics from all over the 6 00:00:22,081 --> 00:00:26,986 world to explore the role of women inside al Qaeda and its affiliated organizations. 7 00:00:27,567 --> 00:00:29,449 The conference will be broken up into two panels. 8 00:00:29,850 --> 00:00:33,042 The first, Women in Suicide Terrorism, focuses on the use of 9 00:00:33,067 --> 00:00:36,910 women as kinetic resources, specifically as suicide bombers. 10 00:00:37,192 --> 00:00:40,664 The second, Women of Al Qaeda, addresses the 11 00:00:40,728 --> 00:00:44,039 logistical and functional support roles of women in 12 00:00:44,064 --> 00:00:47,183 Al Qaeda, as well as whether and how Western 13 00:00:47,255 --> 00:00:50,248 governments can effectively track and counter them. 14 00:00:50,361 --> 00:00:53,304 I would now like to introduce Brigadier General retired 15 00:00:53,328 --> 00:00:56,271 Russell Howard, who will be giving the opening remarks. 16 00:00:56,782 --> 00:00:58,694 General Howard is the founding director of the Jebson 17 00:00:58,829 --> 00:01:01,359 Center for Counterterrorism Studies at the Fletcher School. 18 00:01:01,760 --> 00:01:04,051 Prior to assuming his current responsibilities, 19 00:01:04,075 --> 00:01:06,315 General Howard was head of the Department of 20 00:01:06,339 --> 00:01:08,605 Social Sciences and the founding director of 21 00:01:08,644 --> 00:01:10,894 the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. 22 00:01:11,655 --> 00:01:14,900 His previous positions include Deputy Department Head of the 23 00:01:14,924 --> 00:01:18,721 Department of Social Sciences, Army Chief Staff Fellow at the Center 24 00:01:18,745 --> 00:01:22,459 for International Affairs at Harvard University, and Commander of 25 00:01:22,483 --> 00:01:26,198 the First Special Forces Group Airborne at Fort Lewis, Washington. 26 00:01:26,779 --> 00:01:29,031 General Howard holds a Bachelor of Science 27 00:01:29,095 --> 00:01:31,622 degree in Industrial Management from San Jose 28 00:01:31,646 --> 00:01:35,955 State University, a Bachelor of Arts in Asian Studies from the University of Maryland, 29 00:01:36,205 --> 00:01:40,056 a Master of Arts degree in International Management from the Monterey Institute of 30 00:01:40,081 --> 00:01:46,104 International Studies, and a Master of Public Administration degree from Harvard University. 31 00:01:46,764 --> 00:01:50,896 General Howard was an Assistant Professor of Social Sciences at the US Military 32 00:01:50,920 --> 00:01:55,636 Academy and a Senior Service College Fellow at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. 33 00:01:55,848 --> 00:01:56,869 General Howard. 34 00:02:01,632 --> 00:02:03,234 Notice everyone's holding their applause. 35 00:02:03,275 --> 00:02:05,404 I guess you're waiting for, I'm just joking. 36 00:02:08,022 --> 00:02:09,744 Thanks, Jenny, for the kind introduction. 37 00:02:10,726 --> 00:02:13,731 And welcome to the Women in Al Qaeda conference. 38 00:02:14,475 --> 00:02:20,223 We're glad you're here and hopeful that you will find our two panels topical and interesting. 39 00:02:21,683 --> 00:02:24,918 Before my brief remarks, I'd like to thank our sponsors, the Bradley 40 00:02:24,943 --> 00:02:29,715 Foundation, Women in International Security, and the Fletcher School. 41 00:02:30,353 --> 00:02:31,675 for making this possible. 42 00:02:32,377 --> 00:02:37,045 Because classes get out about four o'clock, we'll probably have people coming in, so don't worry. 43 00:02:39,089 --> 00:02:41,854 This is a conference about women in al-Qaeda. 44 00:02:43,216 --> 00:02:45,621 It could be a conference about women in security. 45 00:02:46,182 --> 00:02:50,910 It could be a conference, but the underlying theme is women. 46 00:02:52,325 --> 00:02:56,500 It's interesting for us, particularly some in the room that have been associated with the 47 00:02:56,525 --> 00:03:02,519 military for so long, how many more roles and missions women are undertaking in the services. 48 00:03:03,461 --> 00:03:07,266 I'm struck by a story that was in newspaper in Dubuque, Iowa recently. 49 00:03:08,588 --> 00:03:11,171 I was there, my publisher McGraw Hill, we had a little meeting. 50 00:03:11,732 --> 00:03:14,616 And so my wife and I were there and we read the newspaper. 51 00:03:15,918 --> 00:03:17,620 And it was in the local newspaper. 52 00:03:17,645 --> 00:03:20,950 This story had about a fifth grade class in Dubuque. 53 00:03:21,552 --> 00:03:26,824 And the story sort of went, the teacher, the fifth grade teacher, asked all the students 54 00:03:26,886 --> 00:03:33,449 in the class to go home that night and ask their parents about a story with a moral to it. 55 00:03:34,010 --> 00:03:37,002 You know, the moral of the story is, you know, all 56 00:03:37,048 --> 00:03:38,356 look me in the eye now and know what I'm talking about. 57 00:03:38,376 --> 00:03:40,038 You know, the moral of the story is. 58 00:03:40,078 --> 00:03:44,212 So, sure enough, the kids went home and that night they 59 00:03:44,236 --> 00:03:48,370 all asked their parents about a story with a moral to it. 60 00:03:49,936 --> 00:03:52,358 And they all came back, and they were kind of going through and giving up. 61 00:03:52,418 --> 00:03:55,381 And of course, little Johnny, it was his turn, about halfway through the class. 62 00:03:56,742 --> 00:04:00,686 And so the teacher said, well, Johnny, do you have a story with a, do you talk to your parents? 63 00:04:01,346 --> 00:04:06,511 Do you have a story that has a moral to it that your parents say, yes, yes, Miss Smith, I do. 64 00:04:07,172 --> 00:04:08,753 What would you care to share it with? He said, well, of course. 65 00:04:08,773 --> 00:04:11,594 So he gets up in front of the class, and he's saying that 66 00:04:11,619 --> 00:04:15,539 my dad told me this story last night about my Aunt Kate. 67 00:04:17,021 --> 00:04:19,403 My Aunt Kate is a combat 68 00:04:20,007 --> 00:04:22,710 Marine pilot, Lieutenant Colonel. 69 00:04:24,672 --> 00:04:26,754 And so, oh yes, tell us the story. 70 00:04:27,435 --> 00:04:31,279 She said, well, my aunt Kate three weeks ago was shot down in Afghanistan. 71 00:04:32,396 --> 00:04:33,107 Really? 72 00:04:33,531 --> 00:04:34,443 Yes. 73 00:04:34,602 --> 00:04:36,224 And she parachuted from her helicopter. 74 00:04:37,342 --> 00:04:38,121 Really? 75 00:04:39,287 --> 00:04:40,789 And she had three things with her. 76 00:04:41,830 --> 00:04:43,231 She had a bottle of Jack Daniels. 77 00:04:44,713 --> 00:04:47,135 She had a cabler knife and a pistol. 78 00:04:49,085 --> 00:04:49,958 Really? 79 00:04:50,888 --> 00:04:55,675 Yes, on the way down, parachuting down, she drank the bottle of Jack 80 00:04:55,700 --> 00:04:59,760 Daniels because she did not want to break the bottle when she hit the ground. 81 00:05:01,521 --> 00:05:06,847 And when she hit the ground, there were 12 Taliban there waiting for her. 82 00:05:08,041 --> 00:05:08,950 Oh, what did she do? 83 00:05:09,811 --> 00:05:15,257 Well, she pulled out her pistol, and she shot seven of them, one round in the chamber. 84 00:05:16,789 --> 00:05:17,763 But there were still more. 85 00:05:17,801 --> 00:05:19,883 He says, yes, she pulled out her K-more knife, 86 00:05:19,998 --> 00:05:22,602 And she stabbed all but one and then broke the knife. 87 00:05:24,024 --> 00:05:26,367 And then she killed the last one with her bare hands. 88 00:05:27,629 --> 00:05:30,494 Oh my God, Johnny, that's a terrible story. 89 00:05:31,134 --> 00:05:33,218 What on earth could be the moral of that story? 90 00:05:34,199 --> 00:05:37,222 And Johnny said, my dad says, the moral of that story 91 00:05:37,246 --> 00:05:40,268 is don't mess with Aunt Kate when she's been drinking. 92 00:05:49,276 --> 00:05:50,497 We didn't get that on tape, did we? 93 00:05:50,537 --> 00:05:51,897 I hope not. 94 00:05:54,547 --> 00:05:57,686 This conference is one facet of a year-long 95 00:05:57,710 --> 00:06:00,848 project that the Bradley Foundation supports. 96 00:06:01,789 --> 00:06:06,292 The project's initial focus was to examine an apparent emerging trend 97 00:06:06,316 --> 00:06:10,819 within the al-Qaeda movement that employed women as suicide bombers. 98 00:06:11,780 --> 00:06:15,944 Interestingly, the death of Abu Masab al-Zarqawi allowed 99 00:06:15,969 --> 00:06:19,148 us to broaden the project beyond its initial scope. 100 00:06:20,056 --> 00:06:26,818 as it appeared until yesterday, or today, that female suicide bombers, the original title of the 101 00:06:26,843 --> 00:06:32,790 project of this conference, and this conference, were basically a phenomenon of al-Zarqawi's leadership. 102 00:06:33,410 --> 00:06:39,477 And when he was killed, Al-Qaeda's use of females as suicide bombers stopped until today. 103 00:06:40,758 --> 00:06:44,325 So, and I have to add lib here, because the speech that 104 00:06:44,350 --> 00:06:47,245 I wrote last night is no longer titleing appropriate. 105 00:06:48,153 --> 00:06:55,527 We changed the focus, we broadened the project to include women in al-Qaeda. 106 00:06:57,510 --> 00:07:03,278 So the Jebson Center then started to investigate the role of women not only in the suicide 107 00:07:03,302 --> 00:07:08,811 and suicide operations context, but also as important support activities operators. 108 00:07:09,365 --> 00:07:13,291 Why were we initially interested in Al Qaeda's use of women as suicide bombers? 109 00:07:13,812 --> 00:07:15,495 Three reasons resonate. 110 00:07:16,075 --> 00:07:22,185 First, their use of women in this role was out of character and thus of interest to us. 111 00:07:23,026 --> 00:07:26,672 Second, could female suicide bombers be a threat to the United States? 112 00:07:27,473 --> 00:07:32,533 And third, the notion of suicide terrorism or martyr operations, as our 113 00:07:32,558 --> 00:07:37,549 adversaries call them, are of great interest no matter which gender conducts them. 114 00:07:38,407 --> 00:07:42,437 We concentrate a lot on terrorists' potential use of weapons of mass 115 00:07:42,461 --> 00:07:47,035 destruction, WMD, chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons. 116 00:07:47,695 --> 00:07:52,406 But one could, and several do, argue that suicide operations 117 00:07:52,431 --> 00:07:55,622 are more serious threat than weapons of mass destruction. 118 00:07:56,343 --> 00:07:57,964 Suicide operations are not new. 119 00:07:58,685 --> 00:08:03,849 Centuries ago, the assassins conducted them as part of the never-ending Shia Sunni debate. 120 00:08:04,630 --> 00:08:07,873 Kamikaze operations are well known to my father's generation 121 00:08:08,410 --> 00:08:13,334 In fact, he survived two kamikaze attacks while serving on a destroyer in the Pacific. 122 00:08:14,195 --> 00:08:17,583 And while most of our attention is focused on Islamic 123 00:08:17,608 --> 00:08:21,090 extremists' use of suicide bombers, liberation 124 00:08:21,114 --> 00:08:28,568 tigers of Tamil Eelam, LTTE, and Sri Lanka are probably the world's leaders in these types of operations. 125 00:08:29,409 --> 00:08:30,970 Why conduct suicide operations? 126 00:08:31,634 --> 00:08:32,671 They're cheap. 127 00:08:33,367 --> 00:08:38,417 $150 to $300 is what a typical suicide bombing costs. 128 00:08:40,101 --> 00:08:40,867 They work. 129 00:08:42,174 --> 00:08:45,260 Bruce Hoffman calls a suicide bomber the ultimate smart bomb. 130 00:08:45,455 --> 00:08:46,291 Think about it. 131 00:08:46,720 --> 00:08:52,548 The suicide bomber's guidance system, the brain, can incorporate real-time intelligence, detect 132 00:08:52,572 --> 00:08:58,276 countermeasures, and if necessary, change the time, location, and direction of the attack. 133 00:08:59,317 --> 00:09:00,899 Who uses suicide operations? 134 00:09:01,325 --> 00:09:02,148 The weak. 135 00:09:02,862 --> 00:09:07,668 Suicide operations reduce the superior enemies' technological advantages. 136 00:09:08,149 --> 00:09:08,910 They are a tool. 137 00:09:09,228 --> 00:09:11,852 a tactical and strategic tool of the weak. 138 00:09:13,074 --> 00:09:14,356 Who are they directed against? 139 00:09:15,377 --> 00:09:21,815 Robert Pate, who many in this room know, will tell you in modern times, say for the past 20 years, 140 00:09:21,839 --> 00:09:28,276 all suicide operations have been directed against democracies because we are open and vulnerable. 141 00:09:29,859 --> 00:09:32,162 Who are suicide bombers and what motivates them? 142 00:09:32,996 --> 00:09:35,387 I'll leave that up to our first panel to provide those 143 00:09:35,412 --> 00:09:38,712 answers and elaborate in what I've already discussed. 144 00:09:39,620 --> 00:09:44,479 By broadening the project beyond its initial scope, the Jebson Center, with the full support 145 00:09:44,504 --> 00:09:50,136 of the Bradley Foundation, and the focus of today's second panel, is now investigating 146 00:09:50,161 --> 00:09:56,813 the role of women, not only as kinetic resources, but also as avenues of logistical support, 147 00:09:56,838 --> 00:10:04,480 ideological support, and in the creation of a jihadi reserve organization and auxiliary. 148 00:10:04,984 --> 00:10:07,559 Our inquiry has revealed that women play a significant 149 00:10:07,584 --> 00:10:10,846 role inside al-Qaeda and have a role in the jihad. 150 00:10:11,366 --> 00:10:15,747 But their involvement consists largely of support functions that reflect and embrace the 151 00:10:15,772 --> 00:10:20,996 traditional roles and responsibilities that Muslim women play in patriotic societies. 152 00:10:21,716 --> 00:10:27,368 The research conducted to date demonstrates that women are not only involved in al-Qaeda and affiliated 153 00:10:27,392 --> 00:10:33,488 movements in important support and logistical roles, but they also provide emotional and ideological support 154 00:10:34,025 --> 00:10:37,588 for men who are actively engaged in operations and combat. 155 00:10:38,249 --> 00:10:41,428 Interestingly, while al-Qaeda women are performing these support 156 00:10:41,453 --> 00:10:45,715 functions worldwide, they are most engaged in Western societies. 157 00:10:46,586 --> 00:10:53,729 Additionally, our research notes a feeling that the womb is important to the jihadi cause as 158 00:10:53,754 --> 00:10:56,959 offspring ensure that the movement will survive and 159 00:10:56,983 --> 00:11:00,188 that it will be carried into the next generation. 160 00:11:01,329 --> 00:11:02,310 More on all of this. 161 00:11:02,662 --> 00:11:04,644 by our second distinguished panel. 162 00:11:05,625 --> 00:11:07,768 Briefly, let me address two other points. 163 00:11:08,543 --> 00:11:12,440 This is a student-organized planned and run conference. 164 00:11:13,363 --> 00:11:17,868 Other than Janine Lenahan, who may be out there, or maybe Janine, are you here? 165 00:11:19,322 --> 00:11:20,443 Yeah, see, she's working. 166 00:11:21,885 --> 00:11:26,759 The center of- Janine Lenahan, the center of gravity for the conference and all we do in 167 00:11:26,783 --> 00:11:31,656 the Jebson Center, all of us engaged in the Women in Al-Qaeda Conference in this project 168 00:11:32,176 --> 00:11:34,278 our students, even me. 169 00:11:35,319 --> 00:11:37,948 I'm the world's oldest PhD candidate. 170 00:11:39,516 --> 00:11:40,393 It's true. 171 00:11:41,329 --> 00:11:42,416 We are all students. 172 00:11:43,228 --> 00:11:46,079 This is the culmination of several months' work, 173 00:11:46,103 --> 00:11:48,954 and I like all of those who helped put this on. 174 00:11:49,555 --> 00:11:52,057 If you're in here, they're not here. 175 00:11:52,398 --> 00:11:53,699 If you would stand up, who's here? 176 00:11:53,779 --> 00:11:54,860 Jenny, stand up. 177 00:11:54,880 --> 00:11:57,623 Who's all here that helped- stand up in the back? 178 00:11:57,643 --> 00:12:01,187 Colleen, Stacey, they're shy, they're shy. 179 00:12:02,804 --> 00:12:06,918 Finally, it is important again to recognize the sponsors who 180 00:12:06,943 --> 00:12:09,714 have provided much of the financial support for the conference. 181 00:12:10,175 --> 00:12:12,468 The Lyndon Harry Bradley Foundation, as I 182 00:12:12,493 --> 00:12:14,501 have mentioned earlier, are major supporters. 183 00:12:14,901 --> 00:12:17,185 Diane Sailor is here from Bradley. 184 00:12:17,225 --> 00:12:17,906 Diane, where are you? 185 00:12:19,648 --> 00:12:20,439 There you are. 186 00:12:24,355 --> 00:12:28,761 I say here on my notes that she's sitting up front, but she's not. 187 00:12:29,602 --> 00:12:32,233 The Fletcher School is a supporter, and we are happy to be 188 00:12:32,257 --> 00:12:34,887 one of the first events in the renovated Fletcher School. 189 00:12:35,608 --> 00:12:38,070 It took three years, but the results were worth the wait. 190 00:12:38,971 --> 00:12:43,986 And finally, Women in International Security, WIIS, 191 00:12:44,011 --> 00:12:47,620 acronym WICE, whoo, got it, is a sponsor of this event. 192 00:12:48,260 --> 00:12:53,754 WICE is an important security studies asset to our nation, and I count many of its 193 00:12:53,778 --> 00:12:59,271 founders, including Fran Burwell, Gail Maddox, and Catherine Kelleher, as close 194 00:12:59,470 --> 00:13:00,331 personal friends. 195 00:13:01,092 --> 00:13:03,975 Interestingly, this is the inaugural event for the 196 00:13:03,999 --> 00:13:06,881 Women in International Security New England chapter. 197 00:13:07,462 --> 00:13:09,934 The chapter has signed up nearly 200 members 198 00:13:09,958 --> 00:13:12,429 after just forming in February of this year. 199 00:13:13,331 --> 00:13:18,158 Today to help us launch the conference, Jolene, did I get that right? 200 00:13:18,210 --> 00:13:18,932 Where are you? 201 00:13:19,560 --> 00:13:21,222 Jolene, is it Jolene? 202 00:13:21,243 --> 00:13:22,965 I'm going to introduce you, so hold on here. 203 00:13:22,985 --> 00:13:25,574 She has a bio that takes me about three and a half hours to admit it. 204 00:13:26,631 --> 00:13:28,954 Jolene Shoemaker, the executive director of 205 00:13:29,390 --> 00:13:32,514 Weiss is going to help open the ceremony today, conference today. 206 00:13:33,315 --> 00:13:37,240 Ms. Schumacher joined Weiss as the executive director in January of last year. 207 00:13:37,861 --> 00:13:42,483 Previously, she has worked for Hunt Alternatives, the Department of 208 00:13:42,508 --> 00:13:47,952 Defense, and was a Presidential Management Fellow from 2000 to 2002. 209 00:13:48,569 --> 00:13:50,898 Ms. Schumacher is an expert on the Balkans in Eurasia. 210 00:13:51,398 --> 00:13:54,559 She earned a JD and a master's degree from Georgetown University 211 00:13:54,583 --> 00:13:58,047 and a master's degree in the University of California in San Diego. 212 00:13:58,634 --> 00:14:01,810 Please welcome her as she gives us her remarks. 213 00:14:09,788 --> 00:14:11,811 Thank you very much, General Howard. 214 00:14:11,852 --> 00:14:12,753 Appreciate it. 215 00:14:12,773 --> 00:14:18,100 And I just wanted to thank Paula, especially Paul Broadwell and Jenny Dow for 216 00:14:18,124 --> 00:14:23,451 involving and inviting WISE to be part of this important conference today. 217 00:14:23,471 --> 00:14:28,702 And as General Howard mentioned, it's also the day we're 218 00:14:28,726 --> 00:14:34,203 launching the new chapter, the New England chapter of WISE. 219 00:14:34,555 --> 00:14:38,287 here and we're very excited to be a part of this. 220 00:14:38,864 --> 00:14:44,200 I just wanted to spend a few moments talking along the lines of the role of women. 221 00:14:44,399 --> 00:14:49,801 in different segments of international security about our organization 222 00:14:49,871 --> 00:14:53,154 and sort of what it does for those of you who might not know about it. 223 00:14:53,675 --> 00:14:56,697 There's also some literature outside if you're- in case 224 00:14:56,721 --> 00:14:59,685 you want to join, which we'd love for you to join. 225 00:14:59,785 --> 00:15:01,408 It's open to men and women. 226 00:15:02,990 --> 00:15:06,484 The mission of WISE is essentially to support the advancement 227 00:15:06,508 --> 00:15:10,002 of women in the field of foreign policy and defense affairs. 228 00:15:10,488 --> 00:15:14,199 and to also at the same time facilitate the policy dialogue 229 00:15:14,223 --> 00:15:18,319 on many of the most pressing issues in international security. 230 00:15:19,200 --> 00:15:23,384 We're actually entering our 20th anniversary this year, which is very 231 00:15:23,409 --> 00:15:29,375 exciting and it's also a great timing to be launching a chapter up here. 232 00:15:30,697 --> 00:15:33,882 We're affiliated with Georgetown University. 233 00:15:33,902 --> 00:15:37,727 We're actually housed in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. 234 00:15:38,146 --> 00:15:46,338 And we have over 1,400 members worldwide in representing 47 countries. 235 00:15:47,039 --> 00:15:50,548 At this moment, we have 12 international affiliates. 236 00:15:50,925 --> 00:15:56,733 And we already have existing chapters in Denver, in Seattle, and in Southern California. 237 00:15:57,154 --> 00:16:00,395 And I'm so pleased that we'll be adding New England, a New England 238 00:16:00,420 --> 00:16:05,706 chapter to those, the work of these other regional groups as well. 239 00:16:06,226 --> 00:16:12,637 WISE is essentially also a repository of expertise where, as I said, we're 240 00:16:12,662 --> 00:16:17,470 a global organization representing global perspectives on these issues. 241 00:16:17,831 --> 00:16:21,640 And our members are really working in diverse segments, 242 00:16:21,665 --> 00:16:26,108 sectors, and all career levels of international security. 243 00:16:26,493 --> 00:16:30,485 They're working on issues ranging from non-proliferation to arms 244 00:16:30,509 --> 00:16:34,501 control, to terrorism, to human rights, to conflict resolution. 245 00:16:35,442 --> 00:16:39,086 And we also bridge the policy, academic, practitioner divide. 246 00:16:39,126 --> 00:16:42,407 It's an important part of what we do since our members are 247 00:16:42,431 --> 00:16:45,712 so representative from the diverse segments of this field. 248 00:16:46,433 --> 00:16:50,263 We really bring together different perspectives which is so essential 249 00:16:50,288 --> 00:16:55,302 to dealing with these very challenging issues in the world today. 250 00:16:55,653 --> 00:16:57,815 the international security realm. 251 00:16:58,416 --> 00:16:59,437 So what is it we do? 252 00:16:59,497 --> 00:17:00,819 We do all kinds of things. 253 00:17:00,859 --> 00:17:02,180 We share knowledge. 254 00:17:02,281 --> 00:17:04,823 We facilitate connections. 255 00:17:05,484 --> 00:17:08,876 We support the advancement, as I said, of women and 256 00:17:08,900 --> 00:17:12,292 professionals in this field and career opportunities. 257 00:17:12,772 --> 00:17:17,903 And most important, perhaps, we support the next generation, which is why it's also so 258 00:17:17,927 --> 00:17:23,905 appropriate that we're launching this chapter here today, because so much of what we do is really 259 00:17:24,222 --> 00:17:28,920 Trying to support those who are students who will be taking up the positions 260 00:17:28,945 --> 00:17:34,210 of leadership and decision-making in the coming years And we do these things 261 00:17:34,235 --> 00:17:39,116 through a variety of different types of events events like where we are today 262 00:17:39,141 --> 00:17:45,437 substantive panels professional development workshops mentoring networking 263 00:17:45,738 --> 00:17:46,600 And that type of thing. 264 00:17:46,620 --> 00:17:50,247 And we also do special projects really looking at the complex 265 00:17:50,271 --> 00:17:53,897 of roles of women in different areas of international security. 266 00:17:54,759 --> 00:17:59,076 And to give you an idea of the broad range of roles of women we're really looking 267 00:17:59,101 --> 00:18:04,056 at this afternoon as we're looking at women and their roles in terrorist activity. 268 00:18:04,081 --> 00:18:11,698 this morning WISE in Washington DC was looking at women's roles in peacemaking and the peace process 269 00:18:11,722 --> 00:18:19,249 and was also launching a report we just did on women's roles in actually UN peacekeeping operations. 270 00:18:19,319 --> 00:18:22,691 And we just recently looked at women's roles and supporting 271 00:18:22,715 --> 00:18:26,087 the next generation in science, technology, and security. 272 00:18:26,548 --> 00:18:28,630 So that's a little bit about what we do. 273 00:18:28,931 --> 00:18:32,487 And again, I thank all the other partners for allowing 274 00:18:32,511 --> 00:18:35,999 WISE to be part of this very important conference. 275 00:18:36,019 --> 00:18:39,201 And we look forward to bringing the recommendations and 276 00:18:39,225 --> 00:18:42,407 discussion back to the policymaking community in DC. 277 00:18:42,547 --> 00:18:43,268 Thank you very much. 278 00:18:49,289 --> 00:18:50,150 Thank you, JoLynn. 279 00:18:50,591 --> 00:18:52,975 I would now like to bring up the members of our first panel. 280 00:18:54,096 --> 00:18:58,793 Members of the first panel include Farhana Ali, an associate international policy 281 00:18:58,817 --> 00:19:04,828 analyst at the RAND Corporation, Asaf Mogadam, a research fellow in national security at 282 00:19:04,853 --> 00:19:09,824 the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University, Alyssa Stack 283 00:19:09,849 --> 00:19:14,368 O'Connor, the acting assistant secretary of defense for the support to public diplomacy, 284 00:19:14,618 --> 00:19:19,075 in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and Nicole Argo, a PhD candidate in 285 00:19:19,100 --> 00:19:22,633 the Department of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 286 00:19:23,134 --> 00:19:25,786 The panel will be moderated by Paula Broadwell, Deputy 287 00:19:25,810 --> 00:19:28,864 Director of the Jebson Center for Counterterrorism Studies. 288 00:19:29,215 --> 00:19:34,259 Paula is also a PhD candidate at the Kennedy School of Government's Public Policy 289 00:19:34,284 --> 00:19:39,172 Program at Harvard University and a national security education program, Boren Fellow. 290 00:19:39,693 --> 00:19:43,808 She has previously worked with Special Operations Command, the FBI, and 291 00:19:43,832 --> 00:19:47,947 other government agencies on counter-terrorism analysis and operations. 292 00:19:48,468 --> 00:19:50,733 She holds an MA in international security 293 00:19:50,832 --> 00:19:53,658 and a certificate in conflict resolution from the University 294 00:19:53,682 --> 00:19:56,220 of Denver Graduate School of International Studies. 295 00:19:56,721 --> 00:19:59,031 She graduated with a Bachelor's of Science in Systems 296 00:19:59,056 --> 00:20:01,908 Engineering and Political Geography from the U.S. 297 00:20:01,928 --> 00:20:03,290 Military Academy at West Point. 298 00:20:03,549 --> 00:20:04,358 Paula. 299 00:20:10,381 --> 00:20:12,509 As we launch into the first panel on the 300 00:20:12,533 --> 00:20:14,904 role of women in terrorism and suicide bombings, 301 00:20:14,928 --> 00:20:19,354 I wanted to talk for just a minute about women in counterterrorism and women in security. 302 00:20:19,857 --> 00:20:22,801 I had the chance to spend this past weekend in Washington D.C. 303 00:20:22,841 --> 00:20:25,898 with four generations of my family, and I took my nephews and 304 00:20:25,922 --> 00:20:29,793 nieces on a tour of the Smithsonian, by the Pentagon, by the 305 00:20:29,818 --> 00:20:32,886 Capitol Building, the White House, and I'm sure many of you 306 00:20:32,911 --> 00:20:35,139 remember your first time there and how inspirational it was. 307 00:20:35,159 --> 00:20:38,560 I had to slip one of my nephews $5 when he asked if that's 308 00:20:38,584 --> 00:20:40,959 where I worked when we drove by the Capitol Building, 309 00:20:40,984 --> 00:20:45,247 but it made me, I started to think about this conference, 310 00:20:45,272 --> 00:20:48,177 of course it's been on my mind for many weeks, 311 00:20:48,157 --> 00:20:53,303 about the role of women in security and the women in those halls of the buildings we were driving by. 312 00:20:53,344 --> 00:20:58,876 And the role models that they serve for us in inspirational and empowering message 313 00:20:58,901 --> 00:21:03,336 that they send to women in graduate school and women in high schools that we can do it. 314 00:21:03,356 --> 00:21:04,838 If we can dream it, we can do it. 315 00:21:05,819 --> 00:21:10,325 And I thought about some of the trailblazers here at the Fletcher School and within our community. 316 00:21:10,785 --> 00:21:14,390 We have Tony Chase who formerly served as an Undersecretary of State. 317 00:21:14,750 --> 00:21:16,813 We have Alyssa Stack O'Connor who's currently in 318 00:21:17,063 --> 00:21:20,030 the Office of the Secretary of Defense as a deputy principal. 319 00:21:20,711 --> 00:21:24,342 And I'm sure many women in this room will rise to the highest levels of 320 00:21:24,366 --> 00:21:28,569 national security in the United States and in other countries around the world. 321 00:21:29,030 --> 00:21:32,498 And I'm very excited to help you in any way that I can along the way. 322 00:21:32,538 --> 00:21:36,186 And I see Weiss as an empowering vehicle in that pursuit. 323 00:21:36,740 --> 00:21:41,132 But when you juxtapose these opportunities and these role models and this feeling 324 00:21:41,157 --> 00:21:45,934 of empowerment and energy with the women that we're going to discuss on this panel, 325 00:21:45,958 --> 00:21:50,568 why is it that they choose to make the ultimate sacrifice of giving their lives to 326 00:21:50,592 --> 00:21:55,545 their organization through suicide terrorism rather than pursuing a more positive end? 327 00:21:56,266 --> 00:22:01,212 What is it that motivates them and gets them to sign up for such pursuits? 328 00:22:02,373 --> 00:22:08,270 Between 1985 and 2006, over 220 women have become human bombs that 329 00:22:08,295 --> 00:22:12,305 represents 15% of the global total, not an insignificant number. 330 00:22:13,146 --> 00:22:17,972 Most of those women come from Sri Lanka, from Chechnya, and from Palestinian organizations. 331 00:22:18,432 --> 00:22:23,599 But others have come from Uzbekistan, India, Pakistan, Iraq, and Belgium. 332 00:22:24,660 --> 00:22:28,052 And as General Howard alluded this morning, there was another attack in 333 00:22:28,076 --> 00:22:31,468 Northeast Baghdad where a woman blew herself up and killed 16 people. 334 00:22:32,107 --> 00:22:38,358 So this causes us to ask, is this a growing phenomena or just a passing tactic and trend? 335 00:22:39,640 --> 00:22:42,142 Well, I think that our panelists will do a much better job of 336 00:22:42,167 --> 00:22:44,908 answering this question than me, but I hope that we address some of the 337 00:22:44,933 --> 00:22:48,879 questions of how terrorist organizations mobilize women and what are 338 00:22:48,903 --> 00:22:53,203 the social networks and community relationships that affect recruitment? 339 00:22:53,487 --> 00:22:58,340 As I think about these questions, I think about why I'm excited to get involved in WISE, in 340 00:22:58,364 --> 00:23:03,216 a group, in something bigger and greater that makes me feel like I can do whatever I dream. 341 00:23:03,396 --> 00:23:07,660 And I'm sure that many of those women are mobilized by the same sort of inspiration. 342 00:23:08,821 --> 00:23:11,887 So for the audience, I challenge you during this conference to 343 00:23:11,912 --> 00:23:16,146 think about, in your areas of policy study, in international law, in 344 00:23:16,170 --> 00:23:19,568 economic development, security studies, what are the points of 345 00:23:19,592 --> 00:23:23,333 intervention that you can influence to empower others, men and women? 346 00:23:23,474 --> 00:23:29,065 Those thoughts in mind, I'd like to introduce our first speaker, Ms. Farhana Ali. 347 00:23:29,707 --> 00:23:32,452 And she is joining us from a trip from Pakistan. 348 00:23:32,472 --> 00:23:35,699 She was recently doing some data gathering on behalf of RAND. 349 00:23:36,300 --> 00:23:39,046 And we appreciate your efforts to make it up here. 350 00:23:39,066 --> 00:23:41,469 I know you have family concerns as well and a very 351 00:23:41,493 --> 00:23:44,537 challenging position for women that are trying to do it all. 352 00:23:45,461 --> 00:23:47,313 As Jenny mentioned, Farhana is an associate 353 00:23:47,338 --> 00:23:49,768 international policy analyst at the RAND Corporation. 354 00:23:50,429 --> 00:23:52,877 She has done extensive research on the ideology 355 00:23:52,901 --> 00:23:54,774 of terrorist organizations such as Al Qaeda 356 00:23:54,799 --> 00:23:57,128 and affiliated jihadist, jihad networks, 357 00:23:57,152 --> 00:24:00,081 religious extremism, and female suicide bombers. 358 00:24:01,107 --> 00:24:03,027 She writes for journals such as the Terrorism Monitor 359 00:24:03,052 --> 00:24:06,411 and Terrorism Focus, and recent articles include the 360 00:24:06,435 --> 00:24:09,244 "London plot draws attention to potential female suicide 361 00:24:09,268 --> 00:24:12,077 bombers" and "Muslim female fighters, an emerging trend." 362 00:24:12,766 --> 00:24:16,074 She speaks Arabic, French, Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu. 363 00:24:16,876 --> 00:24:19,020 Farhana holds an MA in security policy studies 364 00:24:19,044 --> 00:24:21,188 from the Elliott School of International Affairs 365 00:24:21,212 --> 00:24:23,191 at George Washington University and a BA in 366 00:24:23,215 --> 00:24:25,478 political science from Southwestern University. 367 00:24:26,019 --> 00:24:27,282 Farhana, the stage is yours. 368 00:24:36,307 --> 00:24:37,810 Thank you for the kind introduction. 369 00:24:38,370 --> 00:24:43,981 Seven years ago, I began examining this issue of women in Al Qaeda when I was a 370 00:24:44,006 --> 00:24:47,466 counterterrorism analyst with the US government before I joined the Rand Corporation. 371 00:24:47,987 --> 00:24:52,846 At that time, in the year 2000, there was hardly anyone in the US government who was actually 372 00:24:52,870 --> 00:24:57,558 looking at this issue and very few scholars on the outside who gave this much attention. 373 00:24:57,603 --> 00:25:03,513 That's not to say that there weren't other scholars who gave focus to female terrorists. 374 00:25:03,533 --> 00:25:05,285 In fact, a great deal of work had been done on 375 00:25:05,310 --> 00:25:07,996 that because there were, as indicated earlier, 376 00:25:08,021 --> 00:25:12,708 female terrorists within the PKK and LTTE and other secular nationalist organizations. 377 00:25:13,089 --> 00:25:17,384 When it became what came to religious-oriented motivations and religious-oriented 378 00:25:17,408 --> 00:25:21,605 groups such as Al Qaeda represents, there was very little work done and therefore 379 00:25:21,683 --> 00:25:25,628 the international attention that this has now received is very encouraging 380 00:25:25,652 --> 00:25:29,596 and I'm pleased and grateful to be here and thank the Tufts University. 381 00:25:31,219 --> 00:25:40,836 I'd like to begin with five key questions that I'm sure that for me has kind of framed this research and also 382 00:25:41,953 --> 00:25:44,492 each of these questions actually can be broken down into 383 00:25:44,517 --> 00:25:47,929 a separate briefing, but I'd like to kind of tackle them 384 00:25:48,127 --> 00:25:51,093 as succinctly as I can given the time constraints. 385 00:25:51,494 --> 00:25:53,017 Why now is an important question? 386 00:25:54,340 --> 00:25:57,643 Since now that we've seen the trend with the suicide bombing that's taking place in 387 00:25:57,668 --> 00:26:02,776 Baghdad this morning and other attacks that likely will occur in the near future. 388 00:26:03,224 --> 00:26:07,588 When people ask the question, why now, they often look at the time frame of the year 2000. 389 00:26:07,863 --> 00:26:10,971 And the reason why I use that as a cutoff date is because that was a year when 390 00:26:10,996 --> 00:26:14,409 the Chechen woman, Hava Beriav, detonated herself against a Russian convoy. 391 00:26:14,749 --> 00:26:18,080 Two years later, Wafa Erdois was the first Palestinian who detonated 392 00:26:18,104 --> 00:26:21,435 herself in a Jerusalem marketplace killing, wounding over 100 people. 393 00:26:21,896 --> 00:26:28,582 So that is the kind of time frame that most recent scholars look at in terms of why now. 394 00:26:28,722 --> 00:26:32,107 I would argue that female jihadis had actually 395 00:26:32,305 --> 00:26:37,193 played a very significant role, if not an auxiliary role, even before the year 2000. 396 00:26:37,494 --> 00:26:41,717 What role do women play is, there are many roles that women play, and I actually will spend 397 00:26:41,741 --> 00:26:45,869 a great deal of time talking about the role that women play in driving the propaganda. 398 00:26:46,450 --> 00:26:49,909 Again, it's more of a support function, even though now we 399 00:26:49,948 --> 00:26:53,843 see an emerging trend of women in an operational role. 400 00:26:54,033 --> 00:26:57,219 The third question of who are the women of Al-Qaeda? 401 00:26:57,449 --> 00:27:00,033 also begs the question, is there a pattern? 402 00:27:00,613 --> 00:27:04,258 Are there certain similarities that one can draw between these different women? 403 00:27:05,039 --> 00:27:06,842 And I will look at that as well. 404 00:27:07,182 --> 00:27:10,854 The fourth question is actually of greater interest to me because I think that not much 405 00:27:10,879 --> 00:27:16,510 attention has been given to this and that is within the Salafi Jihadi clerical establishment. 406 00:27:16,535 --> 00:27:21,087 By Salafi Jihadi, I mean those clerics and even Al-Qaeda leaders and 407 00:27:21,112 --> 00:27:26,289 members who espouse the use of violence to propagate their cause. 408 00:27:26,730 --> 00:27:29,634 What are the views amongst them about the role of women? 409 00:27:29,678 --> 00:27:34,381 In other words, is it permissible, according to them, for women to participate in Jihad? 410 00:27:34,742 --> 00:27:40,302 And there are divergent views among leaders such as bin Laden to Yusuf Al-Ayiri, 411 00:27:40,327 --> 00:27:45,000 aka Swift Sword, who is a former Saudi Al-Qaeda operations manager. 412 00:27:45,037 --> 00:27:47,100 And so I would look more closely at that. 413 00:27:47,400 --> 00:27:49,593 And then, of course, I've always, as a US government 414 00:27:49,618 --> 00:27:52,949 analyst, been trained to look at the future. 415 00:27:53,329 --> 00:27:55,290 That's our job when you're looking at policy and 416 00:27:55,314 --> 00:27:57,275 you're trying to recommend it to the White House. 417 00:27:57,596 --> 00:27:58,818 What can we expect next? 418 00:27:58,858 --> 00:28:01,708 And so my last slide will look at what can we expect 419 00:28:01,732 --> 00:28:04,526 if the current, the status quo remains the same. 420 00:28:05,007 --> 00:28:11,326 I'd like to just offer definitions because I think that it will, when we use the term al-Qaeda, 421 00:28:12,033 --> 00:28:16,023 We know it's a formidable effort by worldwide security agencies. 422 00:28:16,175 --> 00:28:19,824 It's no longer the hierarchical, pyramidical organization that we know it as today. 423 00:28:20,225 --> 00:28:25,775 So when I use the term al-Qaeda, I really mean a global jihadi movement because 424 00:28:25,800 --> 00:28:29,066 it is the movement that actually spawned the organization in the first place. 425 00:28:29,148 --> 00:28:30,570 I use the term Mujahidaat. 426 00:28:30,590 --> 00:28:31,993 It's not a term that I invented. 427 00:28:32,013 --> 00:28:34,257 It's a term that you see in the jihadist communiques. 428 00:28:34,597 --> 00:28:37,979 Mujahidah is the feminine plural for Mujahideen, 429 00:28:38,003 --> 00:28:41,168 which is the Arabic for the male fighters. 430 00:28:41,910 --> 00:28:45,115 We know the use of this term, of course, in the Afghan war. 431 00:28:45,095 --> 00:28:46,197 who fought the Soviets. 432 00:28:47,222 --> 00:28:50,783 And here, of course, Mujahidaat and Mujahideen stem from the word 433 00:28:50,808 --> 00:28:53,267 jihad, which is from the Arabic jihad, which means to struggle. 434 00:28:53,768 --> 00:28:57,734 So in their minds, they are struggling for a cause. 435 00:28:58,355 --> 00:29:03,535 And that struggle, in that struggle, they're using jihad 436 00:29:03,560 --> 00:29:09,892 or martyrdom operations to achieve the highest ends. 437 00:29:10,392 --> 00:29:11,644 The last two terms, 438 00:29:12,095 --> 00:29:14,285 I think are important, especially when we look at the 439 00:29:14,310 --> 00:29:17,342 Salafi jihadi clerical debate, and that's fard al-ayn. 440 00:29:17,743 --> 00:29:20,839 It's important because jihad in the Islamic doctrine and 441 00:29:20,864 --> 00:29:25,995 jurisprudence had always been mandatory for men and not for women. 442 00:29:26,495 --> 00:29:29,620 Does that mean that women did not participate in the battlefield? No. 443 00:29:29,900 --> 00:29:32,964 1400 years ago, women also participated on the battlefield. 444 00:29:33,025 --> 00:29:37,030 Women also fought valiantly alongside their men to protect the faith. 445 00:29:37,110 --> 00:29:38,931 It was a different historical context. 446 00:29:38,993 --> 00:29:44,229 But if you look, the reason why I go back to the earlier days is because the precedence 447 00:29:44,253 --> 00:29:49,453 that those women set is important to understand why these women today in their 448 00:29:49,478 --> 00:29:53,976 communiques in the jihadi magazines, which I will show you examples of, also refer to 449 00:29:54,001 --> 00:29:59,543 those women and say, if those women could fight, then we too have an important role. 450 00:29:59,942 --> 00:30:03,240 We too can make a contribution in the global jihadi movement. 451 00:30:03,327 --> 00:30:05,270 The last term, Bid'a, is innovation. 452 00:30:06,430 --> 00:30:11,275 And really what it is, is anything that falls outside the Islamic faith, and that is suicide. 453 00:30:12,136 --> 00:30:17,562 However, I must note that according to the jihadi mindset, they never use the term suicide. 454 00:30:17,822 --> 00:30:22,467 They do not consider jihad, they do not consider martyrdom, suicide operations. 455 00:30:22,787 --> 00:30:24,489 In fact, they think that suicide is a 456 00:30:24,519 --> 00:30:27,676 Western-imposed term, and therefore they neglect it. 457 00:30:29,667 --> 00:30:32,764 To look at the first question of why now, 458 00:30:32,789 --> 00:30:36,210 why now is actually sort of an abbreviated question 459 00:30:36,235 --> 00:30:41,858 for why now is there international attention given to this issue, as indicated earlier. 460 00:30:41,878 --> 00:30:46,470 It's, and I wrote this down as you, you said this sir. 461 00:30:46,527 --> 00:30:49,501 about the attacks now, the threat actually that these 462 00:30:49,526 --> 00:30:52,413 women could have on the United States or Western interest. 463 00:30:52,438 --> 00:30:55,223 And I think from a security standpoint, from a law enforcement 464 00:30:55,247 --> 00:30:57,848 standpoint, that actually is one of the telling points. 465 00:30:59,311 --> 00:31:01,267 But even though female terrorists, as I indicated 466 00:31:01,292 --> 00:31:03,595 earlier, have always been important, they never 467 00:31:04,060 --> 00:31:07,211 they were more confined to local nationalist causes, 468 00:31:07,236 --> 00:31:09,135 but now that you have this international scope 469 00:31:09,159 --> 00:31:11,515 of al-Qaeda and women joining that organization, 470 00:31:11,540 --> 00:31:14,234 it's become more important for us to look at this. 471 00:31:14,674 --> 00:31:17,938 I offer two propositions or what I call preliminary assessments. 472 00:31:18,459 --> 00:31:23,506 One is that the Mujahidaat are choosing these operations because of their social structure. 473 00:31:24,027 --> 00:31:26,230 Why do I look at it within that framework? 474 00:31:26,287 --> 00:31:28,453 Because for Muslim women, 475 00:31:28,833 --> 00:31:31,156 They are nurturers of Islamic society. 476 00:31:31,656 --> 00:31:32,938 They are the child bearers. 477 00:31:33,278 --> 00:31:35,280 They support their husbands. 478 00:31:35,681 --> 00:31:40,926 They play a critical role within that overall environment. 479 00:31:41,207 --> 00:31:45,379 So when that social structure deteriorates or is threatened or is violated, 480 00:31:45,403 --> 00:31:49,236 Dr. Carla Cunningham actually uses this term contextual pressures. 481 00:31:49,616 --> 00:31:53,558 And whatever term you want to use, the point is whenever that's violated, 482 00:31:54,061 --> 00:32:00,249 You find that women for personal, political, or various other reasons enjoying the cause. 483 00:32:00,610 --> 00:32:04,978 The second reason to me is far more important in some ways, and this 484 00:32:05,003 --> 00:32:08,845 is a tactical operational reason, in the fact that in the post-911 485 00:32:08,870 --> 00:32:12,205 environment, because of the increased arrest and crackdown of male 486 00:32:12,230 --> 00:32:19,374 jihadis, women become an attractive option to conduct these operations. 487 00:32:20,015 --> 00:32:26,889 The last point about bending the rules also is going to tie in when I speak about the Salafi jihadi 488 00:32:26,914 --> 00:32:33,320 debate because the patriarchal Muslim or male jihadi 489 00:32:34,072 --> 00:32:38,117 would not allow a woman to participate in jihad. 490 00:32:38,137 --> 00:32:42,875 In fact, male jihadis would in fact honor the woman and protect the woman 491 00:32:42,900 --> 00:32:46,896 in fact seed is their primary role to take part in these operations but 492 00:32:46,921 --> 00:32:51,263 you see that the younger generation of Al Qaeda is now sort of bending 493 00:32:51,288 --> 00:32:54,898 the rules and allowing for more flexibility for these women to take part 494 00:32:56,228 --> 00:32:57,913 So what role do women play? 495 00:32:58,714 --> 00:33:02,553 I've argued that women have always been a part of the 496 00:33:02,578 --> 00:33:06,417 al-Qaeda family, primarily in an auxiliary role. 497 00:33:06,993 --> 00:33:11,110 But these two roles, the role of the mother and the wife is important. 498 00:33:11,230 --> 00:33:16,636 And you can go back even before 2000, during the days of the Afghan jihad, there were women. 499 00:33:17,177 --> 00:33:20,862 They might have been invisible to us because they were unknown to us. 500 00:33:21,195 --> 00:33:25,380 But women were very much a part of the Afghan jihad, but we were not seen by us. 501 00:33:25,731 --> 00:33:28,225 I have collected a series of magazines that came out 502 00:33:28,319 --> 00:33:31,366 of Peshawar, which is a city in northern Pakistan 503 00:33:31,391 --> 00:33:34,327 that's now been, after the Afghan war, it's been 504 00:33:34,352 --> 00:33:37,514 overtaken by mostly Patans, which are Afghanis. 505 00:33:37,539 --> 00:33:46,127 And if you look at the magazines that I'm going to show you, these women actually, while they 506 00:33:46,152 --> 00:33:51,538 did not fight in the Afghan jihad, they were a part of Bin Laden's family and his entourage. 507 00:33:52,159 --> 00:33:55,924 Men often traveled, as we know, with their families to the training camps in Afghanistan. 508 00:33:57,105 --> 00:34:00,369 They were always there, as one might say, behind the scenes. 509 00:34:01,027 --> 00:34:03,999 The second issue of women is equality. 510 00:34:04,454 --> 00:34:08,361 is something that I find Western observers and scholars raise. 511 00:34:08,401 --> 00:34:10,823 They raise the issue of female emancipation because 512 00:34:10,847 --> 00:34:13,269 we like to look at it in a very gender-specific way. 513 00:34:14,371 --> 00:34:18,859 But in actuality, in terms of faith and accountability, women are equal in jihad. 514 00:34:18,879 --> 00:34:24,266 Women are entitled to the same rewards as men of martyrdom. 515 00:34:24,527 --> 00:34:26,810 That wasn't always the case 1400 years ago. 516 00:34:26,890 --> 00:34:30,375 It was a woman in Islamic history, her name was Umm Suleim. 517 00:34:30,795 --> 00:34:33,316 She raised the issue with Prophet Muhammad and she said, 518 00:34:33,341 --> 00:34:36,763 these men go to battle and they fight and they become Shahid. 519 00:34:36,864 --> 00:34:38,786 They become martyrs and they reap the rewards. 520 00:34:39,127 --> 00:34:41,209 Why do we not have the same benefits? 521 00:34:41,530 --> 00:34:44,152 And then the revelation came and so women were then entitled 522 00:34:44,176 --> 00:34:46,527 to those rewards, which I'll show you in the second slide. 523 00:34:46,772 --> 00:34:50,626 But before I do that, I want to make the point about the greater sacrifice. 524 00:34:50,923 --> 00:34:53,697 Because women are nurturers of an Islamic society, when you 525 00:34:53,722 --> 00:34:57,391 lose a woman, you lose the integral part of that society. 526 00:34:57,411 --> 00:34:59,434 You lose the woman who is raising her children. 527 00:34:59,494 --> 00:35:01,497 You lose the person who supports her husband. 528 00:35:01,998 --> 00:35:05,180 In fact, you have, I would argue, a greater vacuum that 529 00:35:05,204 --> 00:35:08,386 exists within society when a woman commits the sacrifice. 530 00:35:09,061 --> 00:35:11,624 Very briefly, looking at the martyrdom for women, 531 00:35:12,275 --> 00:35:14,707 I often get asked the question, you know, if men are 532 00:35:14,732 --> 00:35:17,164 entitled to 72 virgins then what's in it for the women. 533 00:35:17,824 --> 00:35:19,968 And I would say that actually that's false. 534 00:35:20,468 --> 00:35:22,251 But where does this come from? 535 00:35:23,413 --> 00:35:26,050 Because you do see continuously within the jihadi 536 00:35:26,075 --> 00:35:29,243 literature there is the quotation of 72 versions. 537 00:35:29,263 --> 00:35:32,088 72 does not exist in the Quran as the number. 538 00:35:32,541 --> 00:35:37,149 The term virgins is translated from the Arabic term khood al-ayn. 539 00:35:37,216 --> 00:35:38,958 from Imam Thadmidi. 540 00:35:39,178 --> 00:35:42,195 Imam Thadmidi is an Islamic scholar and it exists 541 00:35:42,219 --> 00:35:45,805 within his oral tradition or otherwise known as Hadith. 542 00:35:46,261 --> 00:35:50,972 And this has just been now taken for gold. 543 00:35:51,670 --> 00:35:54,544 But there are other Islamic scholars and 544 00:35:54,568 --> 00:35:58,084 commentators who actually refute the 72 virgins and 545 00:35:58,109 --> 00:36:04,996 they translate Hud al-Ain as something of the most pure, the most compassionate, untouched, 546 00:36:05,144 --> 00:36:11,385 even one considers it raisin, so there are other indications for 547 00:36:11,410 --> 00:36:15,703 that term, but you can see that women also have the same rewards. 548 00:36:16,785 --> 00:36:19,527 Logistics benefit, because I'm for the interest 549 00:36:19,551 --> 00:36:22,173 of time, I want to focus on the propaganda, 550 00:36:22,197 --> 00:36:26,593 and then my other panelists will give you case studies on the operational advantages. 551 00:36:27,385 --> 00:36:29,617 Before I talk about that, the role models, I don't want 552 00:36:29,642 --> 00:36:33,095 to underestimate the Palestinian and Chechen examples. 553 00:36:33,212 --> 00:36:37,551 This had a very powerful effect on this woman, Umm Usama, who in March 554 00:36:37,576 --> 00:36:40,929 2003, in the London paper, Shalq al-Qa'us had had an interview. 555 00:36:41,385 --> 00:36:46,010 And in that, she said that she's the leader of 556 00:36:46,059 --> 00:36:48,200 the Al Qaeda women's organization in Saudi Arabia. 557 00:36:48,524 --> 00:36:53,034 And she said it was the operations by women in Palestine and Chechnya inspired them. 558 00:36:53,433 --> 00:36:57,161 She also said that the camps were prepared for the coming stage of Jihad. 559 00:36:57,923 --> 00:36:59,667 And there's a quote that I didn't put here. 560 00:36:59,692 --> 00:37:02,767 She said, we are preparing for the new strike announced by our leaders 561 00:37:02,792 --> 00:37:06,521 and I declare it will make America forget the September 11 attacks. 562 00:37:07,143 --> 00:37:10,706 Women propagate the message in a very powerful way, particularly with the Internet. 563 00:37:10,786 --> 00:37:13,088 I call the Internet the virtual University of Jihad. 564 00:37:13,128 --> 00:37:16,531 The first picture here is of course, you know, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. 565 00:37:16,551 --> 00:37:18,700 His wife, Umm Muhammad, came out with a communique 566 00:37:18,725 --> 00:37:22,271 shortly after his death in which he said that, you know, I 567 00:37:22,296 --> 00:37:25,793 glorify my husband's martyrdom, but now I ask you, the 568 00:37:25,818 --> 00:37:29,263 Ummah, the Muslim community to seek vengeance for his death. 569 00:37:29,723 --> 00:37:34,368 The last one here is actually the term in Arabic, Mujahidat, which is female fighter. 570 00:37:34,488 --> 00:37:36,990 It was on the Internet and has now been taken off. 571 00:37:37,130 --> 00:37:43,059 Al-Khansaa was a magazine that came out also through the Al-Qaeda Wing in Saudi Arabia, 572 00:37:43,084 --> 00:37:46,586 and Al-Khansaa used to be the name of a seventh century poetress in Arabia. 573 00:37:46,927 --> 00:37:48,249 This is a very important magazine. 574 00:37:48,269 --> 00:37:49,827 It was launched in August 2004. 575 00:37:49,852 --> 00:37:54,379 It had critical stories and articles, one that comes to mind as what role can 576 00:37:54,404 --> 00:37:59,379 sisters play in jihad, in which one of the things that it stated was that women can 577 00:38:00,029 --> 00:38:03,052 prepare themselves physically, psychologically, and mentally. 578 00:38:03,072 --> 00:38:06,405 And for example, she should prepare herself physically by 579 00:38:06,429 --> 00:38:10,180 doing certain exercises within the home to prepare for jihad. 580 00:38:10,741 --> 00:38:16,367 I talked briefly about the sacred role of the mother in Islamic, you know, in the religion. 581 00:38:16,407 --> 00:38:19,591 The mother is far more important than the role of the father. 582 00:38:19,911 --> 00:38:23,397 And you see in certain interviews like this one in March 583 00:38:23,421 --> 00:38:26,181 2002, this woman is actually the mother of a Hamas, 584 00:38:26,759 --> 00:38:28,001 A suicide operative. 585 00:38:28,322 --> 00:38:30,645 And I just wanted to read quickly what she said in her interview. 586 00:38:30,747 --> 00:38:33,071 She said, Jihad is a religious commandment upon us. 587 00:38:33,340 --> 00:38:36,345 We must instill this idea in our son's souls. 588 00:38:36,475 --> 00:38:38,378 She says, I'm a Muslim. I believe in Jihad. 589 00:38:38,398 --> 00:38:40,101 My son was not destroyed. 590 00:38:40,441 --> 00:38:41,283 He's not dead. 591 00:38:41,372 --> 00:38:43,836 He's living a life happier than I. 592 00:38:43,887 --> 00:38:45,189 Who are the Mujahidaat? 593 00:38:45,229 --> 00:38:47,501 I'm not going to spend any time on this because I know the 594 00:38:47,525 --> 00:38:50,157 other panellists have case studies that they will refer to this. 595 00:38:50,498 --> 00:38:52,501 But you can see that there are some unknowns. 596 00:38:52,521 --> 00:38:55,085 In fact, I would argue many of these women are unknown to us. 597 00:38:55,946 --> 00:38:58,338 Deborah Scroggins, my colleague, did a fascinating story in 598 00:38:58,362 --> 00:39:00,754 the Vogue magazine on Aafia, so I'll let her talk about this. 599 00:39:00,961 --> 00:39:04,547 But look at this very last quote from Hamid Mir, who I met in Pakistan. 600 00:39:04,660 --> 00:39:07,475 He kind of boasts about this point, about that, you know, 601 00:39:07,499 --> 00:39:10,025 women in Pakistan are more extremists than the men, and he says 602 00:39:10,050 --> 00:39:13,191 there are many Aafia Siddiqui's here, which actually isn't 603 00:39:13,215 --> 00:39:16,798 quite untrue, since I just, this Sunday, came back from Pakistan. 604 00:39:17,139 --> 00:39:20,442 This photograph is a Jama'at al-Dawah, which is the new 605 00:39:20,466 --> 00:39:23,769 name for Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, which is a radical group. 606 00:39:23,789 --> 00:39:25,987 And you see that the women in these radical groups, 607 00:39:26,012 --> 00:39:29,012 this actually happened while I was in Pakistan. 608 00:39:29,197 --> 00:39:32,768 These women of the Jamia Hafsa Seminary, the 609 00:39:32,793 --> 00:39:36,877 Madrasa, in their full niqab, which is the niqab 610 00:39:36,902 --> 00:39:41,372 is the headdress, and you only show your eyes, are now taking the law in their own hands. 611 00:39:41,452 --> 00:39:43,054 They're acting as a moral police. 612 00:39:43,795 --> 00:39:47,600 And I would argue that they're being used by the men in Pakistan. 613 00:39:47,620 --> 00:39:50,174 In fact, yesterday there was a male religious leader 614 00:39:50,199 --> 00:39:52,627 who said, on behalf of these women, that if the 615 00:39:52,652 --> 00:39:55,368 government of Pakistan did not impose Sharia law, 616 00:39:55,392 --> 00:39:57,791 that there would be suicide bombings in the country. 617 00:39:58,373 --> 00:40:01,486 I don't have any time to discuss this, but I'd be happy to during 618 00:40:01,511 --> 00:40:05,539 the Q&A because I think this is something that isn't given much 619 00:40:05,564 --> 00:40:08,445 attention to in terms of what are the various scholars saying about 620 00:40:08,470 --> 00:40:11,740 Muslim women and what are their various views of Muslim women. 621 00:40:11,765 --> 00:40:12,906 But I want to point to one. 622 00:40:12,926 --> 00:40:16,830 Dr. Abdullah Azam, if you recall, was the veteran Mujahidin coordinator of Afghanistan. 623 00:40:17,130 --> 00:40:20,603 He wrote an article in Defense of Muslim Lands in which he was probably the 624 00:40:20,628 --> 00:40:25,806 first contemporary jihadi to say that women have a right to participate in jihad 625 00:40:25,998 --> 00:40:28,641 And he considered Jihad the sixth pillar of Islam. 626 00:40:29,121 --> 00:40:33,065 And then there were all these other magazines as well who considered it important duty. 627 00:40:34,207 --> 00:40:37,480 So let me conclude with saying that women have always played 628 00:40:37,505 --> 00:40:41,354 an important role in Jihad and in the Al-Qaeda family. 629 00:40:41,735 --> 00:40:44,783 But the point that I want to end with is a last bullet, is that 630 00:40:44,808 --> 00:40:48,522 I consider these women a riding wave of Al-Qaeda's success. 631 00:40:48,822 --> 00:40:51,685 In other words, it could be just short lived and temporary. 632 00:40:58,484 --> 00:40:59,124 Wow. 633 00:40:59,840 --> 00:41:03,614 I'd like to make three points that I'm very excited that there's a Q&A period 634 00:41:03,638 --> 00:41:07,860 because I think Farhana has a lot of knowledge in her head that I'd like to elicit. 635 00:41:08,260 --> 00:41:10,664 Second, we hope that this conversation continues 636 00:41:10,689 --> 00:41:13,093 during our break and the reception later today. 637 00:41:13,434 --> 00:41:16,221 And third, the Bradley Foundation has helped us to 638 00:41:16,336 --> 00:41:18,279 has given us the funds to create an anthology. 639 00:41:18,359 --> 00:41:21,900 So all of the, hopefully, all of our speakers today will contribute 640 00:41:21,924 --> 00:41:25,089 to a compendium of articles that you can read more about. 641 00:41:25,149 --> 00:41:28,214 And I'm sure Farhana has some articles online with Rand. 642 00:41:28,254 --> 00:41:29,816 But thank you, Farhana. 643 00:41:30,197 --> 00:41:33,822 Our second speaker is Dr. Assaf Moghadam. 644 00:41:33,842 --> 00:41:35,745 Recently, he received his doctoral degree from 645 00:41:35,770 --> 00:41:39,410 Fletcher and gave a wonderful dissertation defense. 646 00:41:39,871 --> 00:41:42,834 He is associate of the Jebson Center, and he is currently a 647 00:41:42,858 --> 00:41:45,820 research fellow in national security at the Olin Institute, 648 00:41:46,137 --> 00:41:48,042 in strategic studies at the Harvard University. 649 00:41:50,306 --> 00:41:52,782 In his dissertation, Asaf examined the causes for the 650 00:41:52,807 --> 00:41:56,338 global spread of suicide terrorism, arguing that the most 651 00:41:56,362 --> 00:41:59,668 important factors for the globalization of martyrdom are the 652 00:41:59,692 --> 00:42:02,998 rise of al-Qaeda and its guiding ideology, Salafi jihadism. 653 00:42:03,637 --> 00:42:09,341 Asaf serves on the editorial board of the Journal Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 654 00:42:09,366 --> 00:42:12,787 and he's held positions at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard, 655 00:42:12,812 --> 00:42:16,730 the Belfour Center at Harvard, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, 656 00:42:16,754 --> 00:42:20,394 as well as the Center for Non-Proliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute. 657 00:42:20,995 --> 00:42:26,121 He's also worked at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and traveled quite a bit abroad. 658 00:42:26,642 --> 00:42:28,468 He's the author of a textbook called The Roots of 659 00:42:28,493 --> 00:42:31,568 Terrorism and publishes regularly in leading journals. 660 00:42:32,122 --> 00:42:34,905 Asaf holds his PhD from Fletcher, as well as a 661 00:42:34,929 --> 00:42:37,630 MALD degree, Masters of Arts in Law and Diplomacy, 662 00:42:38,110 --> 00:42:44,073 for non-Fletcherites here, and a BA in Political Science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 663 00:42:44,634 --> 00:42:45,295 Assaf, welcome. 664 00:42:53,110 --> 00:42:54,055 Thanks, Paula. 665 00:42:54,704 --> 00:42:56,826 The introduction was longer than my presentation. 666 00:42:57,807 --> 00:43:00,414 Well, maybe not quite. 667 00:43:02,648 --> 00:43:06,152 All right, so I'm really happy to be here today for two reasons, well, for many reasons. 668 00:43:06,172 --> 00:43:09,453 But two of them are, once it's really my first presentation 669 00:43:09,478 --> 00:43:13,040 as a PhD student and to have it at my alma mater. 670 00:43:13,060 --> 00:43:16,545 What is now really my alma mater is really an honor. 671 00:43:17,025 --> 00:43:19,767 And second of all, I'm really happy to present my case study 672 00:43:19,791 --> 00:43:22,532 on Jordan, which was generously funded by the Jepsen Center. 673 00:43:22,852 --> 00:43:25,515 So let me start. 674 00:43:25,816 --> 00:43:28,339 I know much more about suicide attacks and al-Qaeda. 675 00:43:28,999 --> 00:43:31,963 So what I'm going to do is I'm going to place women 676 00:43:32,382 --> 00:43:34,648 and especially the Amman bombings also in the 677 00:43:34,672 --> 00:43:37,508 context of suicide terrorism and al-Qaeda in general. 678 00:43:38,629 --> 00:43:41,452 Let me first provide a little bit of background about the Amman bombings. 679 00:43:43,475 --> 00:43:50,079 On November 9th, 2005, at about 8.30 p.m., four individuals walked into three 680 00:43:50,104 --> 00:43:55,048 hotels in Amman, the Radisson SAS, the Grand Hyatt, and the Days Inn Hotel. 681 00:43:55,450 --> 00:44:00,676 A few minutes later, three men detonated their IEDs at these hotels. 682 00:44:00,701 --> 00:44:01,863 They killed 57 people. 683 00:44:02,539 --> 00:44:06,904 One woman who also was among the four, her device failed to detonate. 684 00:44:07,242 --> 00:44:09,885 Her name was Sajida Al-Rishawi. 685 00:44:10,629 --> 00:44:13,092 She was married to the ringleader of the cell. 686 00:44:13,332 --> 00:44:15,855 His name was Ali Hussein Ali al-Shamari. 687 00:44:16,813 --> 00:44:18,941 The four perpetrators were Iraqis who were sent to Jordan 688 00:44:18,966 --> 00:44:23,480 by al-Qaeda in Iraq, and the indictment of the attacks 689 00:44:23,505 --> 00:44:28,058 specified that Abu Musab al-Zarkawi, the leader of al-Qaeda 690 00:44:28,082 --> 00:44:31,738 in Iraq, was responsible for the planning of the attack. 691 00:44:32,082 --> 00:44:35,132 Before Sajida al-Rishawi and her husband Ali 692 00:44:35,156 --> 00:44:38,704 Hussein took the taxi to the Radisson SAS Hotel, 693 00:44:39,022 --> 00:44:41,331 She was recorded with a video camera, and one 694 00:44:41,355 --> 00:44:43,697 of the statements that she uttered was, she read 695 00:44:43,722 --> 00:44:46,490 some Quranic verses, but she also said the word, 696 00:44:46,514 --> 00:44:49,282 the statement, the Roman Empire has been defeated. 697 00:44:50,404 --> 00:44:53,495 Sajida was captured three days later in the city of Salt, 698 00:44:53,519 --> 00:44:56,997 where she was hiding at the home of a close relative of hers. 699 00:44:58,478 --> 00:45:02,994 So when we think about what causes suicide terrorism, or terrorism in general really, 700 00:45:03,018 --> 00:45:07,372 I think it's very useful to have a framework to use various levels of analysis. 701 00:45:07,993 --> 00:45:10,828 I'm going to look at an individual level of analysis, a group 702 00:45:10,853 --> 00:45:14,042 level of analysis, and the larger environmental context. 703 00:45:14,683 --> 00:45:17,996 It is very important to understand that the reasons why individuals 704 00:45:18,020 --> 00:45:21,333 engage in suicide attacks are very different from why groups do it. 705 00:45:21,754 --> 00:45:25,279 So we have to keep those levels separate. 706 00:45:26,068 --> 00:45:28,743 Let me start with the individual level of analysis, and here 707 00:45:28,768 --> 00:45:31,961 I'm going to focus on the woman bomber, Sajida al-Rishawi. 708 00:45:33,183 --> 00:45:36,530 She was 35 years old, and she studied until the sixth grade. 709 00:45:37,190 --> 00:45:39,047 She told the court after the bombing that she had 710 00:45:39,174 --> 00:45:44,466 married Ali Hussein, the ringleader of the bombings, only 711 00:45:44,446 --> 00:45:49,149 a few days before, and only in order to get access into Jordan from Iraq. 712 00:45:50,050 --> 00:45:55,594 She was a sister of Mubarak Atrus al-Rishawi, who was a right-hand 713 00:45:55,618 --> 00:46:01,077 man of Abu Musab al-Zarkawi, and who fell in Fallujah in 2004. 714 00:46:02,045 --> 00:46:05,409 The Jordan Times reported that a total of three brothers 715 00:46:05,433 --> 00:46:08,612 of Sajida fell as part of the insurgency in Iraq. 716 00:46:09,133 --> 00:46:11,794 So one of the likely motives for her action, 717 00:46:11,819 --> 00:46:13,778 for her decision to become a suicide bomber, 718 00:46:14,213 --> 00:46:17,417 a failed suicide bomber was likely to be revenge. 719 00:46:19,420 --> 00:46:22,551 Because there's so little known about the motivations 720 00:46:22,575 --> 00:46:26,201 of the Amman bombers, I supplemented my analysis of the 721 00:46:26,226 --> 00:46:29,537 individual level with several biographies from Jordanian 722 00:46:29,562 --> 00:46:32,598 jihadists who actually ended up in Iraq as suicide bombers. 723 00:46:33,359 --> 00:46:36,884 I was given access to these biographies courtesy of the site institute. 724 00:46:37,404 --> 00:46:40,657 And there are several things that are really interesting that 725 00:46:40,681 --> 00:46:43,933 crystallize from these six biographies of the suicide bombers. 726 00:46:44,167 --> 00:46:47,050 It's titled The Biographies of the Jordanian Martyrs in Iraq. 727 00:46:47,070 --> 00:46:51,360 It's a 21-page booklet that was distributed on Jihadist websites and was 728 00:46:51,384 --> 00:46:56,099 attributed to the Mujahideen Shura Council, which includes al-Qaeda in Iraq. 729 00:46:56,880 --> 00:47:00,232 So the first thing that crystallizes from these bios is that 730 00:47:00,256 --> 00:47:03,607 there is no single profile for Jordanian suicide bombers. 731 00:47:03,974 --> 00:47:08,759 And that really is true for suicide bombers in general. 732 00:47:08,872 --> 00:47:14,423 Second, we see for example that of these six Jordanian jihadists who went to Iraq, 733 00:47:14,448 --> 00:47:18,587 who ended up in Iraq, there was one electronics student, another one was a lawyer. 734 00:47:19,047 --> 00:47:21,090 And another one was a Christian convert. 735 00:47:21,190 --> 00:47:24,495 So not even everybody came from a religious Islamic background. 736 00:47:25,176 --> 00:47:28,327 The second issue that crystallizes from these biographies 737 00:47:28,351 --> 00:47:31,446 is that is the extreme commitment of these jihadists. 738 00:47:32,107 --> 00:47:35,913 These jihadists were not only willing to die, but they were absolutely eager to do so. 739 00:47:36,814 --> 00:47:40,521 Many of them actually try to participate in a jihad 740 00:47:40,546 --> 00:47:42,484 in other countries before they ended up in Iraq. 741 00:47:42,723 --> 00:47:45,375 Some of them went to Chechnya before they went to Iraq, 742 00:47:45,399 --> 00:47:48,396 which tells me that there was really an extreme commitment. 743 00:47:49,378 --> 00:47:53,076 This suggests in my eyes that there is a very, very strong influence of an 744 00:47:53,100 --> 00:47:57,255 ideology, of Salafi jihadist ideology, which I'm going to talk about a bit more. 745 00:47:59,294 --> 00:48:01,998 What about the organizational level, the group level of analysis? 746 00:48:02,498 --> 00:48:06,824 Why has Al-Qaeda in Iraq decided to engage in this bombing? 747 00:48:07,125 --> 00:48:12,185 This is of course Abu Musab al-Zarkawi who died in June 2006 in Jordan, 748 00:48:12,210 --> 00:48:15,777 actually just when I was visiting there, but not as a result of that. 749 00:48:18,300 --> 00:48:24,429 And so there are three things that I believe come to the 750 00:48:24,454 --> 00:48:27,833 fore when we think about the reasons why Al-Qaeda in Iraq has 751 00:48:27,965 --> 00:48:30,150 why it has engaged in this suicide attack. 752 00:48:30,812 --> 00:48:33,935 And this really comes across when you read the statements that Abu 753 00:48:33,960 --> 00:48:38,711 Musab al-Zarkawi and al-Qaeda in Iraq has released on jihadist websites. 754 00:48:39,412 --> 00:48:43,442 First of all, the first issue is to punish Jordan. 755 00:48:44,249 --> 00:48:46,811 It's important to remember here that Al-Qaeda, that 756 00:48:46,835 --> 00:48:49,397 Jordan has long been on Al-Qaeda's list of targets. 757 00:48:49,422 --> 00:48:52,744 The reason is Jordan's close relationship to the 758 00:48:52,804 --> 00:48:55,890 West, the peace treaty signed with Israel in 1994. 759 00:48:56,527 --> 00:48:59,119 Following 9-11, Jordan has been an avid supporter, 760 00:48:59,143 --> 00:49:01,735 maybe not an avid, but it has supported the U.S. 761 00:49:01,775 --> 00:49:02,757 in its war on terrorism. 762 00:49:03,257 --> 00:49:07,183 It has provided logistical support to the United States in its war against Iraq. 763 00:49:07,704 --> 00:49:11,096 These are reasons why Abu Saba Zarqawi and Al-Qaeda 764 00:49:11,121 --> 00:49:13,092 in Iraq have decided that Jordan must be punished 765 00:49:13,392 --> 00:49:18,957 but also to set an example and to warn other countries not to follow in Jordan's step. 766 00:49:20,078 --> 00:49:25,390 Second of all, however, there's also a personal level, a 767 00:49:25,415 --> 00:49:28,887 personal enmity that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had in Jordan. 768 00:49:29,327 --> 00:49:30,648 He himself is Jordanian. 769 00:49:31,069 --> 00:49:34,292 He's been arrested in Jordan for his involvement in various terrorist attacks. 770 00:49:34,572 --> 00:49:39,737 He was involved in the October 2002 assassination of Lawrence Foley. 771 00:49:39,886 --> 00:49:41,970 who was a US diplomat in Jordan. 772 00:49:42,551 --> 00:49:47,709 He was also involved in the so-called Jayusi plot, which was foiled in 2004, which 773 00:49:47,734 --> 00:49:52,672 involved the attack of Jordanian and American targets using chemical weapons in Jordan. 774 00:49:53,132 --> 00:49:58,924 So there's a long history of Abu Musab al-Zarkawi, a long history of enmity against Jordan. 775 00:49:59,191 --> 00:50:04,740 Finally, Salafi jihadism, and I'm gonna again speak about that more in detail. 776 00:50:05,678 --> 00:50:09,863 Zarkawi sees Jordan as part and parcel of the infidel west, 777 00:50:09,912 --> 00:50:12,722 and he has personally laid out the reasons for attacking 778 00:50:12,746 --> 00:50:15,840 Jordan, saying that the kingdom is a heretical regime, an 779 00:50:15,865 --> 00:50:19,765 apostate government that is spreading, quote, obscenity. 780 00:50:20,555 --> 00:50:25,050 So these are, as I see it, three of the main reasons for- the strategic reasons 781 00:50:25,075 --> 00:50:28,508 for Al Qaeda's use of suicide attacks and the Amman bombings in particular. 782 00:50:29,210 --> 00:50:34,512 Going to tactics, in terms of the tactical reasons for the use of suicide 783 00:50:34,537 --> 00:50:41,871 attack and the use of the woman as part of the perpetrating cell, it is really 784 00:50:43,572 --> 00:50:48,098 First of all, we have to talk about the tactical benefits of suicide terrorism in general. 785 00:50:48,478 --> 00:50:50,966 Suicide attacks, as General Howard has pointed out, they're 786 00:50:50,991 --> 00:50:54,426 cheap, they're highly effective, they're the ultimate smart bomb. 787 00:50:54,986 --> 00:50:58,408 Zarkawi himself has said in a statement after the bombing, 788 00:50:58,432 --> 00:51:01,613 after the Amman bombings, that suicide missions were 789 00:51:01,637 --> 00:51:05,122 employed, quote, in order to hit the targets with accuracy 790 00:51:05,146 --> 00:51:08,263 and cause the maximal number of deaths, end quote. 791 00:51:09,678 --> 00:51:13,800 In addition, suicide attacks have disproportionately, have a disproportionately large 792 00:51:13,825 --> 00:51:20,991 psychological effect on- when they're compared to non-suicidal terrorist attacks. 793 00:51:21,792 --> 00:51:23,993 One result is that the suicide bombings in Amman 794 00:51:24,018 --> 00:51:29,381 have wreaked major economic harm on Jordan. 795 00:51:30,162 --> 00:51:34,185 Actually, many Jordanians that I spoke to have told me that it would 796 00:51:34,210 --> 00:51:37,491 only take one or two additional similar attacks as the ones in Amman. 797 00:51:37,792 --> 00:51:40,876 in order to wreak catastrophic harm, long-term harm on Jordan. 798 00:51:41,937 --> 00:51:44,629 More than ordinary terrorist attacks, suicide attacks are also 799 00:51:44,653 --> 00:51:47,344 a way for the organization to demonstrate its determination. 800 00:51:47,964 --> 00:51:51,328 The group's members appear extremely committed, and this has two effects. 801 00:51:51,409 --> 00:51:56,128 First of all, it helps to exacerbate the psychological effect of suicide bombings, 802 00:51:56,153 --> 00:51:59,458 and we have to always remember that terrorism is a tool of psychological warfare. 803 00:51:59,974 --> 00:52:00,880 Second of all, 804 00:52:01,298 --> 00:52:05,474 by portraying the suicide bombers as heroes who have made the ultimate 805 00:52:05,499 --> 00:52:09,034 sacrifice for a noble cause, suicide attacks become a recruiting tool by 806 00:52:09,059 --> 00:52:14,206 themselves because these people are perpetrated as heroes and individuals 807 00:52:14,231 --> 00:52:20,049 who are susceptible to that want to, some want to emulate those heroes. 808 00:52:21,011 --> 00:52:24,336 So what does the issue of women have to do with suicide attacks? 809 00:52:25,700 --> 00:52:31,497 Now, if suicide attacks help to multiply the already existing benefits, tactical benefits of terrorism, 810 00:52:31,521 --> 00:52:36,920 then we can think of the inclusion of women to help multiply the benefits of suicide attacks. 811 00:52:37,621 --> 00:52:42,087 And here's why. First of all, as has already been mentioned, women elicit much 812 00:52:42,111 --> 00:52:46,577 less suspicion than men and are therefore useful for the purposes of deception. 813 00:52:47,215 --> 00:52:49,724 In the case of the Amman attacks, for example, on 814 00:52:49,749 --> 00:52:52,716 November 7th, when Ali Hussein al-Shamari and his wife, 815 00:52:52,741 --> 00:52:57,089 Saajida, were crossing the border to Iraq, the excuse was 816 00:52:57,114 --> 00:53:00,660 that his wife was seeking fertility treatment in Jordan. 817 00:53:01,201 --> 00:53:04,926 This would have worked probably less well when 818 00:53:04,951 --> 00:53:07,395 there were two men who were crossing the border. 819 00:53:08,730 --> 00:53:15,144 The use of women also helps to maximize the psychological damage of suicide attacks. 820 00:53:15,564 --> 00:53:18,422 As I said, suicide attacks are a tool of psychological warfare, 821 00:53:18,446 --> 00:53:21,212 but the use of women actually helps multiply that benefit. 822 00:53:21,673 --> 00:53:24,677 Because first of all, the use of women helps humiliate the enemy. 823 00:53:25,718 --> 00:53:28,944 Because it is the supposedly weaker sex that 824 00:53:28,969 --> 00:53:32,087 helps to create a lot of damage among the enemy. 825 00:53:32,868 --> 00:53:35,852 But second of all, it also warns the enemy 826 00:53:36,001 --> 00:53:39,667 that the resistance movement has a much, much broader base if women are included. 827 00:53:40,629 --> 00:53:44,745 Most importantly, perhaps women terrorists and suicide bombers especially make 828 00:53:44,769 --> 00:53:48,884 for excellent role models, and they may influence other women to join the ranks. 829 00:53:49,044 --> 00:53:51,942 This happened with Wafa Idris, which Farhan Ali already 830 00:53:51,967 --> 00:53:55,739 mentioned, who had a huge impact on other Palestinian women. 831 00:53:56,437 --> 00:53:59,466 This becomes also particularly clear in Iraq today, 832 00:53:59,491 --> 00:54:03,008 where dozens of communiques by al-Qaeda in Iraq and other 833 00:54:03,033 --> 00:54:06,859 similar groups show how women suicide bombers are actually 834 00:54:06,884 --> 00:54:10,219 able to shame men into following in their footsteps. 835 00:54:14,703 --> 00:54:17,597 The individual and the group level, it's worth just to see 836 00:54:17,622 --> 00:54:21,094 that in the larger context of Salafi jihadist ideology. 837 00:54:22,846 --> 00:54:26,939 And here's a picture of Abdullah Azam, the co-founder of 838 00:54:26,964 --> 00:54:30,021 Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden's mentor, and also a Jordanian. 839 00:54:31,003 --> 00:54:32,746 I'm not going to go into too much detail. 840 00:54:33,407 --> 00:54:36,031 I'm not going to describe Salafi Jihadism in too much detail, 841 00:54:36,055 --> 00:54:38,678 but I'll be happy to speak more about the ideology in the Q&A. 842 00:54:39,248 --> 00:54:42,100 But Salafi jihadists is a radical ideology that emerged 843 00:54:42,131 --> 00:54:45,275 out of a broader based movement called Salafiyah. 844 00:54:45,976 --> 00:54:49,473 Salafi jihadism is a violent version of Salafiyah, 845 00:54:49,498 --> 00:54:52,607 which took hold in Afghanistan during the 1980s. 846 00:54:53,444 --> 00:54:56,995 And Salafi jihadists are known to engage in taqfir, 847 00:54:57,020 --> 00:55:01,062 which is the labeling of Muslims who do not agree 848 00:55:01,140 --> 00:55:05,310 with al-Qaeda's ideology as infidels or kufars in 849 00:55:05,335 --> 00:55:07,720 Arabic, which is where the word taqfir comes from. 850 00:55:09,674 --> 00:55:13,361 We should see the Amman bombings and other suicide attacks waged by 851 00:55:13,385 --> 00:55:17,408 al-Qaeda in the larger context of the overall rise of Salafi jihadism. 852 00:55:18,010 --> 00:55:22,927 In my dissertation, which looks at the causes for the global rise of suicide attacks, 853 00:55:22,951 --> 00:55:27,868 I've coded all the organizations that have perpetrated suicide attacks between 1981 854 00:55:28,186 --> 00:55:31,250 and 2005, according to their ideological orientations. 855 00:55:31,870 --> 00:55:36,490 What we see here is that the number of Salafi jihadist organizations within 856 00:55:36,515 --> 00:55:40,381 those organizations that conduct suicide attacks have been steadily on the rise. 857 00:55:41,999 --> 00:55:44,312 In terms of percentages, what we see that 10 years 858 00:55:44,337 --> 00:55:47,978 ago or in 1995, in the mid 1990s, there were 25% 859 00:55:48,002 --> 00:55:50,968 a quarter of all organizations that perpetrated 860 00:55:50,992 --> 00:55:53,957 suicide attacks were Salafi jihadists in nature. 861 00:55:54,747 --> 00:55:59,285 In 2005, on the other hand, we see that already over half of all the groups 862 00:55:59,310 --> 00:56:02,114 that have perpetrated suicide attacks are Salafi jihadists in nature. 863 00:56:02,797 --> 00:56:06,310 And I can get into more detail about how I coded those groups in the Q&A. 864 00:56:06,695 --> 00:56:09,219 or if people want to see me afterwards in private. 865 00:56:09,800 --> 00:56:15,949 I'm not going to talk about Salafi jihadism in Jordan too much, but it evolved in the 1960s. 866 00:56:15,969 --> 00:56:21,056 It took a hold in the 1980s when Jordanian fighters from Afghanistan returned to Jordan. 867 00:56:21,636 --> 00:56:27,425 Instead, I'm going to just turn to the conclusion and just emphasize again that 868 00:56:28,682 --> 00:56:30,859 First of all, the amount of attacks, like other attacks, 869 00:56:30,884 --> 00:56:33,436 are best viewed, again, from various levels of analysis. 870 00:56:34,378 --> 00:56:36,840 The individual motives to engage in suicide attacks in the 871 00:56:36,864 --> 00:56:39,673 case of the female suicide bomber appears to have been revenge. 872 00:56:40,507 --> 00:56:44,939 And as I said, the biographies that I looked at in order to supplement that analysis 873 00:56:45,012 --> 00:56:51,606 suggests that the influence of ideology in Salafi jihadism in general, in particular, is very high. 874 00:56:52,422 --> 00:56:56,511 On the group level, we can distinguish between strategic and tactical motives. 875 00:56:56,932 --> 00:57:02,403 On the strategy side, the attacks in Jordan were consistent with the jihadist ideology. 876 00:57:02,618 --> 00:57:05,344 Jordan was and remains part and parcel 877 00:57:05,369 --> 00:57:11,744 of the Infidel West, a supporter, a lackey of the West in the eyes of the jihadists. 878 00:57:12,546 --> 00:57:16,232 And the attacks were also used to send a strategic message 879 00:57:16,256 --> 00:57:19,682 to other potential enemies of the Salafi jihadists. 880 00:57:20,185 --> 00:57:21,628 in terms of the tactical reasons. 881 00:57:21,708 --> 00:57:24,939 As I said, the dispatch of a female bomber should be seen in 882 00:57:24,964 --> 00:57:29,622 the context of the general tactical benefits of suicide attacks. 883 00:57:29,642 --> 00:57:32,843 Most importantly, the use of a woman multiplies what is already a huge 884 00:57:32,868 --> 00:57:37,336 tactical advantage afforded to organizations who apply suicide attacks. 885 00:57:38,037 --> 00:57:40,101 And since we're pressed for time, I think I want to stop here. 886 00:57:47,152 --> 00:57:50,835 We did give a soft-the-name agent provocateur 887 00:57:50,859 --> 00:57:54,541 after Zarkawi was taken out during his visit. 888 00:57:54,882 --> 00:57:56,764 Maybe we'll have to send you to a zero stand next. 889 00:57:58,094 --> 00:58:00,405 Our next speaker is Alyssa Stack O'Connor. 890 00:58:00,930 --> 00:58:05,016 She's the principal deputy, support to public diplomacy, in the office of the Under 891 00:58:05,041 --> 00:58:09,701 Secretary of Defense for Policy within the office of the Secretary of Defense, OSD. 892 00:58:10,502 --> 00:58:13,081 Ms. Stack O'Connor has held several positions within OSD, 893 00:58:13,106 --> 00:58:16,770 including the acting director, policy planning, deputy director, 894 00:58:17,138 --> 00:58:20,704 Detainee Policy and Assistant for Sensitive Special Operations. 895 00:58:21,265 --> 00:58:23,850 Awesome to see a woman in so many leading roles. 896 00:58:25,112 --> 00:58:29,374 From 2005 to 2006, Ms. Stack O'Connor served as an OSD representative 897 00:58:29,399 --> 00:58:32,343 on the faculty of the Naval War College where she taught 898 00:58:32,368 --> 00:58:35,690 various courses including an elective on counterterrorism and she 899 00:58:35,714 --> 00:58:39,036 conducted research on how and why terrorist groups employ women. 900 00:58:39,056 --> 00:58:41,560 She currently does this research on her free time. 901 00:58:41,911 --> 00:58:44,655 which I don't imagine she has a lot of on weekends and evenings. 902 00:58:44,695 --> 00:58:46,738 So it's great. You're able to join us too. 903 00:58:46,758 --> 00:58:47,919 We know how busy your schedule is. 904 00:58:48,680 --> 00:58:49,602 Everyone here for that matter. 905 00:58:50,403 --> 00:58:52,645 Her research findings have been published in the Joint Forces 906 00:58:52,670 --> 00:58:55,450 Quarterly and the Journal on Terrorism and Political Violence. 907 00:58:55,770 --> 00:58:58,514 She's an active member of the WISE community in Washington, D.C. 908 00:58:59,235 --> 00:59:03,182 and Mrs. Stack-O'Connor holds an MS from the National War College and a Master of 909 00:59:03,206 --> 00:59:07,747 International Affairs from Columbia University and a BA from the University of Washington. 910 00:59:08,128 --> 00:59:09,049 So the floor is yours. 911 00:59:15,948 --> 00:59:16,769 Well, thank you very much. 912 00:59:16,789 --> 00:59:21,371 I wanted to echo what Farhana said when I started this project, 913 00:59:21,396 --> 00:59:24,997 this formal project, this research project, about three years ago. 914 00:59:25,418 --> 00:59:29,534 I think Farhana and one other woman in the FBI were the only people I found that were 915 00:59:29,559 --> 00:59:35,148 doing research on women in violence, the women were the perpetrators, not the victims. 916 00:59:35,766 --> 00:59:39,956 And having done this research as a long-term hobby, it's 917 00:59:40,042 --> 00:59:44,544 been very difficult to find work, secondary material, 918 00:59:45,421 --> 00:59:49,126 or primary sources on this, so it's very exciting for me to see a 919 00:59:49,151 --> 00:59:52,354 crowd this size and to see so many people interested in this topic now. 920 00:59:53,190 --> 00:59:55,780 And I want to thank Tufts and Wise and Bradley Foundation 921 00:59:55,805 --> 00:59:58,963 for providing this forum and encouraging this debate. 922 00:59:59,882 --> 01:00:00,845 I do work for the U.S. 923 01:00:00,885 --> 01:00:03,789 government, however my remarks today are purely my own. 924 01:00:04,490 --> 01:00:07,173 Anything I have to say today is not U.S. 925 01:00:07,214 --> 01:00:11,419 government policy, it is not the policy of the Department of Defense. 926 01:00:11,703 --> 01:00:14,807 Afterwards, you want to hear about the policies of the Department of Defense. 927 01:00:14,867 --> 01:00:15,688 I'm happy to do so. 928 01:00:16,029 --> 01:00:19,253 But I do want to provide you that disclaimer that this is my work. 929 01:00:20,454 --> 01:00:22,657 Today, I'll focus on the Chechen groups. 930 01:00:27,604 --> 01:00:32,510 I consciously, when I started this project, chose to look at almost everybody except Al Qaeda. 931 01:00:32,690 --> 01:00:37,098 Because to look at Al Qaeda, particularly the main group of Al 932 01:00:37,123 --> 01:00:40,360 Qaeda, requires a lot of time, a lot of depth, a lot of Arabic 933 01:00:40,610 --> 01:00:42,032 A lot of skills I don't have, frankly. 934 01:00:42,309 --> 01:00:44,428 So I went for the cases that I had some more 935 01:00:44,453 --> 01:00:48,280 background in and wanted to see also cross-culturally. 936 01:00:49,342 --> 01:00:56,091 The groups that I looked at here, the LTTE, the Hindu group, the Palestinian and Israelis, 937 01:00:56,116 --> 01:01:02,059 Jewish, Christian, and Muslim, and then the Chechens, predominantly Muslim, but Muslim by culture. 938 01:01:02,736 --> 01:01:04,497 This isn't a group, particularly the bombers that are 939 01:01:04,522 --> 01:01:08,608 particularly well-educated or had even grown up in their faith. 940 01:01:08,825 --> 01:01:10,967 And these people are in outgrowth of the Soviet Union. 941 01:01:11,908 --> 01:01:12,909 So these are my case studies. 942 01:01:12,969 --> 01:01:15,632 I wanted to highlight here just three of the major 943 01:01:15,656 --> 01:01:18,755 themes that I saw, strong in each case, but cut across. 944 01:01:19,316 --> 01:01:22,126 And when I looked at also women in the IRA and girls and 945 01:01:22,150 --> 01:01:25,422 gangs in the United States, you see many of these same themes. 946 01:01:25,882 --> 01:01:28,405 But in each case, I found one particularly strong. 947 01:01:28,445 --> 01:01:31,248 And I'm going to focus today because this is about women in al-Qaeda. 948 01:01:31,668 --> 01:01:35,365 The Chechen groups have at least a philosophical, if not operational, 949 01:01:35,389 --> 01:01:38,595 link to what we think of as sort of al-Qaeda headquarters 950 01:01:38,845 --> 01:01:40,007 I'll focus my remarks there. 951 01:01:40,841 --> 01:01:44,669 I want to highlight here, though, whereas I'm calling these groups and these people 952 01:01:44,694 --> 01:01:50,748 terrorists, these people do not see themselves or their activities as terrorist or terrorism. 953 01:01:51,549 --> 01:01:56,527 I got to interview some people that were associated with LTTE and IRA, and the 954 01:01:56,551 --> 01:02:01,528 conversation shut down any time I brought up the T word, so it's very delicate. 955 01:02:04,090 --> 01:02:05,011 So onto the themes. 956 01:02:05,550 --> 01:02:09,935 Some of the themes you've already heard, but I'm going to focus on women as propaganda. 957 01:02:10,397 --> 01:02:14,162 And the thing I found in looking, again, across culturally and across time, three things stood out. 958 01:02:14,586 --> 01:02:16,949 The attacks by women have unique propaganda value. 959 01:02:17,366 --> 01:02:22,151 We, the audience for these attacks, view attacks by women differently. 960 01:02:22,628 --> 01:02:24,303 Even if the men and the women in the groups see 961 01:02:24,352 --> 01:02:26,917 themselves as completely equal, we make them unequal. 962 01:02:27,718 --> 01:02:31,262 And that has an impact on what we do in terms of policy making in it. 963 01:02:31,546 --> 01:02:35,993 And in terms of public panic and attention, women have to fight for their right to fight. 964 01:02:36,454 --> 01:02:40,300 That's a theme that I found particularly strong in the Palestinian case. 965 01:02:40,760 --> 01:02:42,383 And we can talk about that afterwards, too. 966 01:02:44,386 --> 01:02:46,747 We've talked a little or alluded here to what are 967 01:02:46,772 --> 01:02:50,095 perceived advantages of using women tactically. 968 01:02:50,767 --> 01:02:55,612 The groups that I looked at did not realize those tactical advantages. 969 01:02:56,673 --> 01:03:01,084 In fact, it was only women's demanding coupled with some tactical disadvantages 970 01:03:01,108 --> 01:03:05,122 that forced mainly male leadership in these groups to allow women in. 971 01:03:05,602 --> 01:03:10,455 And then in the LTTEs, probably the only case I looked at where women 972 01:03:10,480 --> 01:03:14,251 are fully integrated and even there, there's arguments that they are not. 973 01:03:15,072 --> 01:03:17,635 A couple other arguments that we can talk about is that 974 01:03:18,796 --> 01:03:22,426 that tactical necessity, when are women actually deemed necessary, 975 01:03:22,450 --> 01:03:26,024 and that they are a manpower reserve for the terrorist groups. 976 01:03:26,184 --> 01:03:27,926 A lot of the groups don't turn to women. 977 01:03:28,567 --> 01:03:30,289 In fact, they'll turn to children before they'll 978 01:03:30,314 --> 01:03:33,712 turn to women, until it's absolutely necessary. 979 01:03:34,113 --> 01:03:35,494 And finally, I found a correlation. 980 01:03:35,514 --> 01:03:36,655 I didn't put this up on the slide. 981 01:03:36,675 --> 01:03:38,337 It's something new I'm working on. 982 01:03:38,678 --> 01:03:41,897 I'm finding a correlation between women's involvement in these groups, particularly the 983 01:03:41,922 --> 01:03:47,267 secular groups, but also the religious ones, and women's involvement in the local labor force. 984 01:03:47,551 --> 01:03:49,902 If there's a shortage of men in the labor force, there's 985 01:03:49,926 --> 01:03:52,235 often also a shortage of men in the insurgent force. 986 01:03:52,695 --> 01:03:54,517 And that's when women have opportunities to come in. 987 01:03:55,778 --> 01:03:57,468 Finally, I wanted to comment on one of the questions I 988 01:03:57,493 --> 01:03:59,982 often get, which is about their rewards for martyrdom. 989 01:04:01,196 --> 01:04:04,859 And Fahana gave you the actual nuanced and correct answer. 990 01:04:05,233 --> 01:04:07,616 My answer has been much more flippant. 991 01:04:07,641 --> 01:04:09,562 72 male virgins would be a version of hell. 992 01:04:13,514 --> 01:04:17,457 So on to then the shahadis. 993 01:04:19,478 --> 01:04:21,900 What I want to focus on with this case is the media effect. 994 01:04:22,461 --> 01:04:25,656 This is just an abbreviated timeline of the 995 01:04:25,681 --> 01:04:28,186 number of attacks by some of the Chechen groups. 996 01:04:28,607 --> 01:04:31,853 And I'm purposefully just talking about the Chechen groups, rather 997 01:04:31,877 --> 01:04:35,073 than the specifically named groups, because they are so fluid. 998 01:04:35,493 --> 01:04:39,404 It was very difficult and plan-based, very difficult for me to be able 999 01:04:39,428 --> 01:04:43,681 to tell, even though they assigned themselves names, who's in this group? 1000 01:04:44,722 --> 01:04:47,865 The lack of data in the Chechen case in particular irked me. 1001 01:04:48,115 --> 01:04:49,357 It was very difficult to find. 1002 01:04:49,397 --> 01:04:53,619 When I did talk to some Chechens, including men who were involved in the First War, 1003 01:04:53,644 --> 01:04:56,427 whenever I brought up women, they said, I do not want to talk about this topic. 1004 01:04:57,548 --> 01:04:59,883 I tried also to talk to Russians on the other side, 1005 01:04:59,907 --> 01:05:02,195 get their combat experience, their perceptions. 1006 01:05:02,411 --> 01:05:04,033 They also did not want to talk about this topic. 1007 01:05:05,079 --> 01:05:07,021 So it was very difficult to get data for this case. 1008 01:05:07,582 --> 01:05:11,292 Because of that, I turned a lot to the media and journalistic 1009 01:05:12,291 --> 01:05:16,975 depictions, which brought me to this very interesting case. 1010 01:05:17,729 --> 01:05:19,717 of the zombies versus the black widows. 1011 01:05:20,799 --> 01:05:24,184 And what I found in this case is that it's not the truth of these women's involvement. 1012 01:05:24,445 --> 01:05:27,168 What I was originally looking at was why would groups want women? 1013 01:05:28,310 --> 01:05:30,974 And this is sort of the second level of analysis, the group level. 1014 01:05:31,435 --> 01:05:32,256 Why would they want them? 1015 01:05:33,217 --> 01:05:37,403 And what I quickly came to look at this is it doesn't matter why they want them. 1016 01:05:37,443 --> 01:05:38,625 It doesn't matter why 1017 01:05:39,280 --> 01:05:40,281 the women want to be in. 1018 01:05:40,501 --> 01:05:45,506 What matters is the effect, and that terrorism is an effect-based tactic. 1019 01:05:46,607 --> 01:05:49,939 The effect is communicated to us, the audience, through the 1020 01:05:49,964 --> 01:05:55,255 media, through mostly the private sector, for-profit media. 1021 01:05:56,116 --> 01:05:58,218 So it's the story that's important. 1022 01:05:58,738 --> 01:06:03,122 It's the fiction that's important, less the truth, because that's the effect. 1023 01:06:04,223 --> 01:06:07,026 That's how we in the audience interpret the events. 1024 01:06:08,339 --> 01:06:11,824 And the Chechens provide probably one of the most colorful 1025 01:06:11,848 --> 01:06:15,148 evocative cases in the zombies and the black widows. 1026 01:06:16,489 --> 01:06:18,211 Zombies, there's an example here. 1027 01:06:18,251 --> 01:06:21,816 This is one, a failed zombie, Zarema Muzhikhoeva. 1028 01:06:23,001 --> 01:06:29,931 She was a widow, had one child, and according to her own reporting, which 1029 01:06:29,972 --> 01:06:33,030 is mediated through the Russian security services and Russian media, 1030 01:06:33,247 --> 01:06:37,331 So you hear a lot of, even through that, there's a couple different stories that she tells. 1031 01:06:39,293 --> 01:06:43,946 She was widowed, was forced to marry her brother-in-law, or she was either forced 1032 01:06:43,971 --> 01:06:48,021 to marry the brother-in-law and thus tried to run, or was in debt and tried to run. 1033 01:06:48,462 --> 01:06:51,586 Either way, she ends up in these Chechen insurgent 1034 01:06:51,611 --> 01:06:53,820 camps where she alleges that she was raped and that 1035 01:06:53,845 --> 01:06:57,742 there was rampant sexual activity in the camps, that 1036 01:06:57,767 --> 01:07:02,916 she was drugged, and then flown to Moscow to conduct a 1037 01:07:03,200 --> 01:07:04,843 Suicide attack and her bomb failed. 1038 01:07:06,084 --> 01:07:07,867 This is her being convicted. 1039 01:07:08,748 --> 01:07:12,053 In this case, I think it's particularly interesting that the zombies- what interests me is. 1040 01:07:12,714 --> 01:07:15,799 The theme here is that Chechen women don't want to do this. 1041 01:07:16,360 --> 01:07:18,563 They're forced into it by evil Chechen men. 1042 01:07:19,244 --> 01:07:24,020 And this is very much a tactic, conscious or unconscious, for Russian government 1043 01:07:24,044 --> 01:07:28,819 and media outlets to discredit the Chechen group and ultimately the Chechen cause. 1044 01:07:30,233 --> 01:07:31,735 On the other side are the Black Widows. 1045 01:07:32,175 --> 01:07:34,926 They're much more sympathetic, and it's probably one that the Black 1046 01:07:34,951 --> 01:07:38,864 Widow title's been picked up more in the Western media than the zombies. 1047 01:07:38,904 --> 01:07:44,371 The zombies I saw a lot in Russian reporting, but not a lot in English or even in translation. 1048 01:07:46,714 --> 01:07:51,940 A good example here, this is from the Nordost Theater, hostage-taking. 1049 01:07:53,783 --> 01:07:59,650 They were all relatives of the first female suicide bomber, Kava. 1050 01:07:59,933 --> 01:08:03,997 somehow related, and it goes back to the clan-based nature of the Chechen groups. 1051 01:08:05,138 --> 01:08:09,962 But in this case, the underlying theme is that, again, women don't want to do this. 1052 01:08:10,022 --> 01:08:11,904 They're forced into it by evil Russians. 1053 01:08:12,484 --> 01:08:16,208 The Russians kill their husbands, kill their sons, kill their brothers. 1054 01:08:16,308 --> 01:08:17,649 It's always they kill the males. 1055 01:08:18,129 --> 01:08:20,672 There's never hardly any mention about they kill their sisters. 1056 01:08:21,032 --> 01:08:21,813 They kill their mothers. 1057 01:08:21,913 --> 01:08:22,994 It's about the males. 1058 01:08:23,394 --> 01:08:26,077 So given this, women have nothing. 1059 01:08:26,097 --> 01:08:28,759 If the men are gone, well, women obviously have nothing left to live for. 1060 01:08:29,060 --> 01:08:30,723 And thus, they turn to suicide terrorism. 1061 01:08:32,565 --> 01:08:36,319 In both cases, you'll note it's the relationship to men that matters, not the 1062 01:08:36,343 --> 01:08:40,097 individual woman's motivation, not the group's motivation in recruiting her. 1063 01:08:43,802 --> 01:08:47,348 And actually, in both cases, there is some truth that women do come to the groups. 1064 01:08:47,808 --> 01:08:49,591 They're mediated by their relationships with men. 1065 01:08:50,072 --> 01:08:52,435 There's usually a familial tie. 1066 01:08:53,217 --> 01:08:55,540 But that's not unique to terrorism. 1067 01:08:55,807 --> 01:08:58,310 If you look at the number of women elected to the U.S. 1068 01:08:58,350 --> 01:09:03,476 Congress, you know, the widow effect, many of them are widows of former congressmen. 1069 01:09:03,857 --> 01:09:06,500 The first female prime minister was the widow. 1070 01:09:06,900 --> 01:09:08,975 The first female prime minister in the world was in Sri Lanka 1071 01:09:08,999 --> 01:09:11,005 and she was the widow of an assassinated prime minister. 1072 01:09:11,726 --> 01:09:13,848 And so it's not unique to terrorism. 1073 01:09:14,115 --> 01:09:19,307 It's perhaps unique to women in a variable that we see repeated again and again. 1074 01:09:19,823 --> 01:09:23,899 Some offshoots, by the way, of the black widow zombie, 1075 01:09:23,924 --> 01:09:25,442 which are also particularly interesting and I didn't 1076 01:09:25,642 --> 01:09:28,205 wasn't able to delve into, but hopefully some of you can. 1077 01:09:29,447 --> 01:09:32,471 There's also the myth or the reporting on the White Stockings. 1078 01:09:32,931 --> 01:09:39,911 These are reported either Baltic or Ukrainian female snipers that reportedly were used 1079 01:09:39,936 --> 01:09:43,545 by the Russians to kill the Chechen insurgents in both the first and the second war. 1080 01:09:44,346 --> 01:09:49,152 They have these very fairy tale type descriptions of these blonde ice women 1081 01:09:49,368 --> 01:09:50,690 who kill with great lethality. 1082 01:09:51,420 --> 01:09:53,361 Another one is Black Fatima. 1083 01:09:53,905 --> 01:09:55,327 She occurs again and again. 1084 01:09:55,501 --> 01:09:57,218 And she's, again, very fairy tale-like. 1085 01:09:57,659 --> 01:10:00,521 Sort of this wicked witch who shows up at the 1086 01:10:00,545 --> 01:10:03,406 innocent Chechen female's house, recruits her. 1087 01:10:03,767 --> 01:10:07,872 She's even described as having grizzled hair, a long hooked nose and wearing a black cape. 1088 01:10:08,513 --> 01:10:12,338 And that she recruits these innocent girls, sends them off. 1089 01:10:12,638 --> 01:10:13,840 on their tactics. 1090 01:10:14,159 --> 01:10:17,277 And again, these are very interesting stories, 1091 01:10:17,302 --> 01:10:19,275 and they're very effective because they get 1092 01:10:19,299 --> 01:10:21,845 reported again and again, and they continue 1093 01:10:22,029 --> 01:10:24,414 a mythology that becomes the truth over time. 1094 01:10:25,997 --> 01:10:28,360 So what is the propaganda effect then? 1095 01:10:29,521 --> 01:10:30,603 We mentioned shaming men. 1096 01:10:30,984 --> 01:10:34,268 That's definitely, I saw, recurring in a lot of the blogs and websites. 1097 01:10:35,229 --> 01:10:38,854 But interestingly, I couldn't find it with recruiting within the Chechen cause. 1098 01:10:38,935 --> 01:10:42,139 I noticed that Chechen's using it to try to get Arabs to come to the fight. 1099 01:10:42,355 --> 01:10:44,786 saying, look at what our sisters are doing, and that 1100 01:10:44,810 --> 01:10:47,241 our sisters are being victimized by the Russian state. 1101 01:10:47,261 --> 01:10:48,223 You've got to come help us. 1102 01:10:48,823 --> 01:10:52,408 So again, they're using women as victims, even when the women are perpetrators. 1103 01:10:53,049 --> 01:10:56,193 And that carries over even to the audience, to these women's victims. 1104 01:10:56,974 --> 01:11:01,200 Reporting out of the theater was very much mixed. 1105 01:11:02,802 --> 01:11:06,186 You'd find statements like, the women don't want to be involved in these attacks. 1106 01:11:06,206 --> 01:11:07,588 They're drug raped, forced to do it. 1107 01:11:07,608 --> 01:11:09,190 I understand they're not to blame. 1108 01:11:09,457 --> 01:11:12,278 Or women- men in war is one thing, but if there are 1109 01:11:12,302 --> 01:11:15,123 women, I realize we might not get out of there alive. 1110 01:11:15,463 --> 01:11:18,715 So there's this great ambivalence in the audience, the idea 1111 01:11:18,739 --> 01:11:21,936 that the women don't want to be there, we should forgive 1112 01:11:21,960 --> 01:11:24,446 them versus they're really lethal and they're going to 1113 01:11:24,471 --> 01:11:28,376 kill us, held in the mind of the same people on occasion. 1114 01:11:31,860 --> 01:11:36,885 What I could not find was how conscious the male Chechen leaders are of exploiting this. 1115 01:11:37,205 --> 01:11:38,907 Like I said, I can find some things on blogs, 1116 01:11:39,241 --> 01:11:41,784 where people were saying, come protect the sisters. 1117 01:11:42,284 --> 01:11:47,269 But I couldn't find a lot of explicit use of women in the propaganda role. 1118 01:11:47,590 --> 01:11:51,075 I did find that much more clearly in the IRA 1119 01:11:51,380 --> 01:11:54,417 the LTTE, and even to some extent the Palestinian groups. 1120 01:11:54,937 --> 01:11:56,739 But in the Chechen case, I just couldn't find that. 1121 01:11:57,340 --> 01:12:01,151 Maybe because of the groups I looked at, the Chechens are the 1122 01:12:01,176 --> 01:12:06,970 youngest shortest history, sort of least internationally evolved. 1123 01:12:08,030 --> 01:12:13,447 Let me go skip to a couple other things, these themes again 1124 01:12:13,472 --> 01:12:16,402 that play out again and again in the media and within the group. 1125 01:12:19,276 --> 01:12:21,138 Sex is used a lot of times. 1126 01:12:21,530 --> 01:12:24,675 And again, it's not unique to terrorism. You can find it. 1127 01:12:25,556 --> 01:12:29,337 Charges leveled against women in our own US forces, 1128 01:12:29,362 --> 01:12:33,768 that they are loose, provocative, sexually immoral. 1129 01:12:33,988 --> 01:12:34,950 They join to find men. 1130 01:12:35,410 --> 01:12:37,193 These are common themes that are leveled at women. 1131 01:12:38,084 --> 01:12:39,505 from the ancient times to today. 1132 01:12:39,806 --> 01:12:41,147 So it's not unique to terrorism. 1133 01:12:42,388 --> 01:12:46,049 Motherhood, though, is a particularly strong theme that comes out again 1134 01:12:46,073 --> 01:12:49,734 and again, and again in legitimate militaries as well as these forces. 1135 01:12:51,336 --> 01:12:55,359 And then rape is the only motivation that I think 1136 01:12:55,384 --> 01:12:58,262 can be used, described to be uniquely feminine. 1137 01:12:58,982 --> 01:13:04,263 I found in the LTTE, I found was the only group that 1138 01:13:04,288 --> 01:13:06,589 explicitly used the fear of rape to recruit women. 1139 01:13:07,413 --> 01:13:10,155 They're also one of the few groups I found that actually wanted to 1140 01:13:10,179 --> 01:13:12,920 recruit women, and it took them about 12 years to get to that point. 1141 01:13:15,903 --> 01:13:19,144 So because I'm a policymaker, and because I did all this 1142 01:13:19,169 --> 01:13:22,071 work, the last question I had to ask myself is, so what? 1143 01:13:22,672 --> 01:13:27,578 So I found all this interesting stuff that occupies my mind, but so what? 1144 01:13:28,238 --> 01:13:31,142 So this is kind of what I came to as my so what. 1145 01:13:32,152 --> 01:13:35,655 First one thing that we need to realize is there's no such thing as a standard terrorist. 1146 01:13:35,675 --> 01:13:39,278 I've moved further and further away of the idea of profiling individuals. 1147 01:13:39,939 --> 01:13:44,523 What we can look at in security in particular is the profiling of circumstances. 1148 01:13:45,144 --> 01:13:49,107 And in that, then, ignoring anyone is dangerous. 1149 01:13:50,368 --> 01:13:52,517 At the same time, I'm going to skip to my 1150 01:13:52,542 --> 01:13:55,773 last point, we can't overstate or overestimate 1151 01:13:55,882 --> 01:14:01,163 the actual value of women in the groups or women in the group's strategic thinking. 1152 01:14:01,362 --> 01:14:05,974 Because I found many times that just as our labor force in 1153 01:14:05,999 --> 01:14:08,297 the private sector in the United States and the Western world, 1154 01:14:08,321 --> 01:14:12,107 militaries have a blind spot when it comes to employing, 1155 01:14:12,132 --> 01:14:15,255 recruiting, fully exploiting everything that women have to offer. 1156 01:14:15,558 --> 01:14:16,797 The same is true of these groups. 1157 01:14:17,310 --> 01:14:18,855 We can't deify them. 1158 01:14:19,319 --> 01:14:21,281 They have cultural blinders the same way we do. 1159 01:14:21,942 --> 01:14:23,684 Products of their societies just as we are. 1160 01:14:24,364 --> 01:14:28,348 So in how we look at women, that becomes more evident, or in how they look at women. 1161 01:14:28,565 --> 01:14:30,810 I think that becomes more evident than in many other areas. 1162 01:14:31,171 --> 01:14:32,354 So I'll conclude there. 1163 01:14:32,935 --> 01:14:35,842 Again, I'm happy to talk about any of the other related topics. 1164 01:14:44,382 --> 01:14:47,569 Our next speaker is actually doing some research for the Jebson Center. 1165 01:14:48,173 --> 01:14:51,337 on what Alyssa called the profiling of circumstances. 1166 01:14:52,118 --> 01:14:56,938 Ms. Nicole Argo is an MIT PhD candidate. 1167 01:14:57,375 --> 01:15:00,375 And she's been an associate of the Jebson Center for the 1168 01:15:00,399 --> 01:15:03,399 past year, working on a major government project we have, 1169 01:15:03,423 --> 01:15:06,754 which profiles suicide bombers across the globe, males and 1170 01:15:06,779 --> 01:15:09,821 females, and looks at psychological and contextual factors. 1171 01:15:10,582 --> 01:15:13,186 So I don't know if you'll have time to speak about a little bit of that. 1172 01:15:13,266 --> 01:15:15,229 But it's a very exciting project. 1173 01:15:15,269 --> 01:15:17,151 If you'd like to learn more, come on up to the center. 1174 01:15:17,823 --> 01:15:21,909 Nicole spent 2003, 2004 in Israel and the Palestinian Territories 1175 01:15:22,027 --> 01:15:25,377 as a researcher for the Preventative Defense Project at Stanford. 1176 01:15:25,837 --> 01:15:28,883 She was interviewing would-be suicide bombers in their communities. 1177 01:15:29,644 --> 01:15:31,608 This present inquiry, funded by the U.S. 1178 01:15:31,648 --> 01:15:35,035 Institute for Peace, studies the role that relationships, shaped 1179 01:15:35,060 --> 01:15:39,021 in part by community structure, play in bomber mobilization. 1180 01:15:39,912 --> 01:15:43,681 Nicole is written for the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Jerusalem Post, and 1181 01:15:43,706 --> 01:15:48,204 MIT Center for International Studies on the concept of what she calls human bombs. 1182 01:15:48,925 --> 01:15:52,791 She previously lived and worked in Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Rwanda. 1183 01:15:53,311 --> 01:15:55,656 She holds a master's degree in international policy 1184 01:15:55,681 --> 01:15:59,045 studies with a conflict and security emphasis 1185 01:15:59,070 --> 01:16:03,847 from Stanford University and a certificate in peace research from the University of Oslo. 1186 01:16:04,087 --> 01:16:05,129 Nicole. 1187 01:16:14,270 --> 01:16:15,252 How do we do this? 1188 01:16:18,558 --> 01:16:19,342 Perfect. 1189 01:16:19,580 --> 01:16:20,236 All right. 1190 01:16:20,261 --> 01:16:26,572 So I thought it would start off with a provocative title page, given that we have about 10 minutes. 1191 01:16:26,912 --> 01:16:31,128 And if I can cover my entire argument in 60 seconds of 1192 01:16:31,152 --> 01:16:34,740 describing this page, you need not listen to the rest. 1193 01:16:35,347 --> 01:16:38,310 But actually, this is very much the argument. 1194 01:16:38,510 --> 01:16:40,351 And thanks. 1195 01:16:41,332 --> 01:16:42,914 And so I just want to go into it briefly. 1196 01:16:42,950 --> 01:16:46,753 First to say that the woman on the left here is actually not the woman on the right. 1197 01:16:47,738 --> 01:16:53,202 This was a family that I interviewed, the parents of Muawiyah, a bomber from Nablus. 1198 01:16:53,883 --> 01:16:58,847 And then the woman on the right was a recent grandmother, a suicide bomber in Israel. 1199 01:16:59,808 --> 01:17:03,871 But the point of the two arrows is that 1200 01:17:04,372 --> 01:17:08,885 Although this mother did not want to lose her son as a 1201 01:17:08,910 --> 01:17:13,001 bomber, and although she did not think that violence was 1202 01:17:13,026 --> 01:17:15,143 going to get the Palestinians anywhere, she had for 1203 01:17:15,168 --> 01:17:18,900 decades been involved in resistance, nonviolent resistance. 1204 01:17:19,516 --> 01:17:25,579 And just over time, over circumstances changing would move 1205 01:17:25,853 --> 01:17:28,958 up the scale to doing different things and then back the scale. 1206 01:17:29,238 --> 01:17:32,363 So what were the needs of the community and how could she best fill in there? 1207 01:17:32,964 --> 01:17:38,764 And the grandmother as well I think had played many roles on a scale of nonviolent 1208 01:17:38,789 --> 01:17:42,479 to violent resistance until the day that she ultimately blew herself up. 1209 01:17:43,333 --> 01:17:46,707 But the real question that I would talk about today and 1210 01:17:46,779 --> 01:17:48,964 what I think is one of the central questions of this 1211 01:17:48,989 --> 01:17:53,853 conference is how do we understand female motivations? 1212 01:17:54,094 --> 01:17:57,697 Do they really differ from male motivations? 1213 01:17:58,017 --> 01:18:00,079 And are we? 1214 01:18:00,099 --> 01:18:03,317 This will be, I guess, my proposal to you. 1215 01:18:03,342 --> 01:18:07,335 Are we wrong to usually assume that the motivating 1216 01:18:07,360 --> 01:18:10,548 attribute is inside the person versus their circumstances? 1217 01:18:11,289 --> 01:18:14,592 I think that's a great line. 1218 01:18:14,612 --> 01:18:15,793 I'll carry it out from here. 1219 01:18:15,833 --> 01:18:18,135 Profiling circumstances is the way 1220 01:18:18,537 --> 01:18:20,079 of future research. 1221 01:18:20,619 --> 01:18:27,306 And then the second provocative piece of this, or intended provocation, is the bottom. 1222 01:18:27,827 --> 01:18:31,159 So looking at Rosie the Riveter, and if on the first 1223 01:18:31,184 --> 01:18:33,979 upper half, if I'm talking about individual motivations, 1224 01:18:34,003 --> 01:18:37,689 this bottom half is talking about cultural and societal 1225 01:18:37,714 --> 01:18:40,040 constrictions on the roles that we take in life. 1226 01:18:40,552 --> 01:18:42,894 And what we have here 1227 01:18:43,023 --> 01:18:46,006 during World War II is very similar to how a 1228 01:18:46,030 --> 01:18:49,104 lot of these terrorist societies view their own 1229 01:18:49,129 --> 01:18:51,588 resistance activities not as terrorism, but as 1230 01:18:51,613 --> 01:18:55,724 a valid, righteous force of integrity, dignity. 1231 01:18:56,004 --> 01:18:57,667 We have to fight even if we would lose. 1232 01:18:57,692 --> 01:18:58,901 We need to do our all. 1233 01:18:58,949 --> 01:19:01,273 And so you have these women at this stage 1234 01:19:01,433 --> 01:19:03,721 who are doing everything they can at home, joining 1235 01:19:03,746 --> 01:19:07,277 the labor force, making food, hiding people, whatever, 1236 01:19:07,302 --> 01:19:10,718 visiting people in hospitals, and then you have, as 1237 01:19:10,743 --> 01:19:14,421 things progress and the stakes get higher, women who are 1238 01:19:14,446 --> 01:19:17,135 willing to take up arms and do other things, and you 1239 01:19:17,159 --> 01:19:21,039 could, I would say, in discussion or just for a thought 1240 01:19:21,282 --> 01:19:23,494 experiment, I think you could think through cultures 1241 01:19:23,518 --> 01:19:26,123 around the world today and over time where we've seen that. 1242 01:19:26,708 --> 01:19:27,930 So the question is, 1243 01:19:28,957 --> 01:19:29,980 It's Paula's question. 1244 01:19:30,722 --> 01:19:35,874 What is it about all the women in this room who care about our country, about the collective 1245 01:19:35,899 --> 01:19:42,274 security of our world, and who are willing to do so much for it, to sacrifice for it? 1246 01:19:43,503 --> 01:19:46,988 Is there something innately different about us and the fact that we're doing it 1247 01:19:47,012 --> 01:19:50,855 constructively, looking at policy options and talking to each other about solutions? 1248 01:19:51,676 --> 01:19:54,704 Or is it that we're in a situation, a circumstance, 1249 01:19:54,728 --> 01:19:57,239 where we can come together peacefully and discuss 1250 01:19:57,264 --> 01:20:03,555 that, where we're able to look at political and social options for advancement and production? 1251 01:20:04,176 --> 01:20:07,323 And would we, this would be the scary question, 1252 01:20:07,702 --> 01:20:12,579 these talented and driven women in this room be considering other 1253 01:20:12,604 --> 01:20:16,090 options, potentially violent options in different scenarios. 1254 01:20:16,431 --> 01:20:18,232 So this is a question of radicalization. 1255 01:20:18,272 --> 01:20:21,095 It's the question of these arrows going forward and back. 1256 01:20:21,415 --> 01:20:28,860 And I'll try and talk to you about a few Palestinian families that I spoke with to talk 1257 01:20:28,885 --> 01:20:32,726 about those arrows and get at the project that we're doing here at the Jebson Center. 1258 01:20:33,647 --> 01:20:35,077 Let's see. 1259 01:20:35,467 --> 01:20:37,269 There you go. Thanks. 1260 01:20:37,857 --> 01:20:40,241 So the imperative is kind of obvious. 1261 01:20:40,281 --> 01:20:46,322 I'm going to go quickly through some of these, but I'll echo my previous distinguished colleagues and 1262 01:20:46,347 --> 01:20:51,222 saying that there is no profile and we're just going to keep hearing that in headlines over and over. 1263 01:20:51,242 --> 01:20:54,517 New plots continue to surface, many of them preempted. 1264 01:20:54,860 --> 01:20:58,860 Significant numbers of women being arrested, teenagers, white skin, 1265 01:20:58,885 --> 01:21:03,380 suspects, people baptized as Christians, many, many, many immigrants. 1266 01:21:04,241 --> 01:21:06,024 But all of these people shock us. 1267 01:21:06,064 --> 01:21:08,387 It seems, again and again, we keep saying, oh, I'm shocked. 1268 01:21:08,407 --> 01:21:09,228 I didn't expect this. 1269 01:21:09,929 --> 01:21:12,252 Well, we've never had a profile, as a matter of fact. 1270 01:21:12,332 --> 01:21:13,614 So we need to quit being shocked. 1271 01:21:13,975 --> 01:21:16,624 And instead of looking at the people and making the 1272 01:21:16,649 --> 01:21:19,963 fundamental attribution area of personal attributes, 1273 01:21:20,197 --> 01:21:22,620 I guess it's time for us to look at circumstances. 1274 01:21:23,081 --> 01:21:30,059 Of course, it is important to focus on women, one increasing sector of attempted terror 1275 01:21:30,083 --> 01:21:36,898 activities because they're growing systematically across organizations and places. 1276 01:21:36,979 --> 01:21:40,483 So in the Palestinian case, we have 67 women who have attempted 1277 01:21:40,700 --> 01:21:43,383 to blow themselves up in Israel between 2002 and 2006. 1278 01:21:44,024 --> 01:21:46,326 Nine of them were successful. 1279 01:21:47,020 --> 01:21:49,703 Most of them were in their early 20s, but you did have some older. 1280 01:21:49,770 --> 01:21:50,750 They were educated. 1281 01:21:51,072 --> 01:21:52,273 Most of them were unmarried. 1282 01:21:52,834 --> 01:21:53,795 You had a couple widows. 1283 01:21:54,015 --> 01:21:57,639 In general, their demographics reflect a lot of the male demographics. 1284 01:21:58,820 --> 01:22:03,602 So here are the questions that, whether we ask or not, are, I would 1285 01:22:03,627 --> 01:22:09,272 argue, influencing our policy decisions and the ways that we view 1286 01:22:09,750 --> 01:22:10,785 counter-terrorism. 1287 01:22:11,246 --> 01:22:13,329 One, are female terrorists motivated differently than men? 1288 01:22:13,890 --> 01:22:15,493 Are they recruited differently than men? 1289 01:22:16,314 --> 01:22:18,117 Will we see more of them in the future? 1290 01:22:18,838 --> 01:22:23,544 And should we be countering female motivations differently 1291 01:22:23,568 --> 01:22:28,273 in a war of ideas or in a kinetic counter-attack scale? 1292 01:22:29,857 --> 01:22:33,203 My arguments here are a little strong. 1293 01:22:33,243 --> 01:22:36,849 I would say it's all tentative, and I'm basing it on the Palestinian case, 1294 01:22:36,874 --> 01:22:40,114 but I think it's possible to talk about how it might be generalizable. 1295 01:22:41,376 --> 01:22:44,653 I would say, based on interviews with 70 bomber families 1296 01:22:44,678 --> 01:22:48,770 in Nablus and Ramallah, of which only three were female, 1297 01:22:49,229 --> 01:22:55,539 and successful bombers, that there was nothing innately different about their personalities, 1298 01:22:55,563 --> 01:23:01,178 demographics, experiences of loss, death of family members, friends, et cetera. 1299 01:23:03,344 --> 01:23:06,307 You have cases of, we'll talk more about that. 1300 01:23:06,440 --> 01:23:08,078 Question two is recruitment different. 1301 01:23:08,153 --> 01:23:10,815 I'm going to argue that also it doesn't appear to be so. 1302 01:23:10,835 --> 01:23:13,485 It does appear that there is recruitment or enlistment 1303 01:23:13,509 --> 01:23:16,561 through friends, family, sometimes coercive, but often not. 1304 01:23:17,622 --> 01:23:22,142 But that's actually what we see in 90%, 95% now of the cases 1305 01:23:22,167 --> 01:23:25,852 of Sunni extremists worldwide, according to Sageman and Atron. 1306 01:23:26,992 --> 01:23:28,293 Are we going to see more of them? 1307 01:23:28,773 --> 01:23:30,035 Definitely, I would say yes. 1308 01:23:30,415 --> 01:23:32,177 And should we counter them differently? 1309 01:23:32,565 --> 01:23:33,318 Yes and no. 1310 01:23:33,598 --> 01:23:34,339 I'll get to that. 1311 01:23:34,898 --> 01:23:38,753 To me, one of the biggest things for people who are studying motivations 1312 01:23:38,793 --> 01:23:43,753 in general and especially motivations with women is that we have no data. 1313 01:23:44,349 --> 01:23:48,354 And the data that we do have is biased in a lot of directions. 1314 01:23:48,675 --> 01:23:52,720 So it's biased because of the people who go out and get it will notice certain things. 1315 01:23:53,160 --> 01:23:56,084 It's biased because we only have positive data, right? 1316 01:23:56,324 --> 01:23:57,065 Not negative data. 1317 01:23:57,105 --> 01:24:01,170 So dependent variable for the scientists in the room or those who might want to be 1318 01:24:01,437 --> 01:24:07,795 If you're selecting your cases based on the bombers, then you're missing all 1319 01:24:07,820 --> 01:24:11,117 those people who could have been bombers who had the same influences but didn't. 1320 01:24:11,396 --> 01:24:15,664 So you have to actually look at both populations, and nobody to date has done that. 1321 01:24:15,684 --> 01:24:18,028 We'll talk more about that again. 1322 01:24:18,329 --> 01:24:21,256 But also, you can't just say, look at women, they're all 1323 01:24:21,281 --> 01:24:23,295 shamed and they have all these things happen to them. 1324 01:24:23,355 --> 01:24:24,576 I guess they're different than men. 1325 01:24:24,596 --> 01:24:29,748 They're either zombies or they're these people, which 1326 01:24:29,773 --> 01:24:32,085 you're not saying, by the way, that's not what I was saying. 1327 01:24:32,366 --> 01:24:35,209 You actually have to compare men and women across all the variables. 1328 01:24:35,229 --> 01:24:38,261 You have to compare the male or the female terrorists with 1329 01:24:38,285 --> 01:24:41,316 the female non-terrorists, which I've yet to see that study. 1330 01:24:41,633 --> 01:24:43,875 Much less, you know, the male was just not, et cetera. 1331 01:24:44,016 --> 01:24:45,177 There's a lot that isn't going on. 1332 01:24:45,197 --> 01:24:50,503 So every time you hear statistics on this subject, you have to question it. 1333 01:24:50,523 --> 01:24:52,104 You have to know where the data came from. 1334 01:24:52,144 --> 01:24:54,127 Scott of Toronto Marks Hageman did a study. 1335 01:24:54,147 --> 01:25:00,323 62% of the open source data we use for individual attributes of 1336 01:25:00,348 --> 01:25:05,579 terrorists was valid in a test of a homeland security database. 1337 01:25:05,599 --> 01:25:06,460 62%. 1338 01:25:06,878 --> 01:25:09,325 So that means 32% of it was wrong. 1339 01:25:10,709 --> 01:25:12,274 So just always be thinking about that. 1340 01:25:12,354 --> 01:25:14,099 Lastly, people don't know their motivations. 1341 01:25:14,300 --> 01:25:17,026 So you go to the prisons, which is what I did, and you go 1342 01:25:17,051 --> 01:25:18,993 to the families, and you say, well, what was driving this? 1343 01:25:19,033 --> 01:25:20,618 How did they feel? 1344 01:25:20,969 --> 01:25:24,983 In a room right now, we could do a study where I could ask you these questions and 1345 01:25:25,007 --> 01:25:29,020 show scientifically in 20 minutes how you actually didn't know how you were feeling. 1346 01:25:29,540 --> 01:25:32,337 People don't know why they acquire a certain belief at a 1347 01:25:32,362 --> 01:25:35,348 certain time or what it means that this happened in their lives. 1348 01:25:35,388 --> 01:25:37,891 They narrate their actions later on. 1349 01:25:38,632 --> 01:25:41,883 So all of this is to say, it's very difficult to study motivations. 1350 01:25:43,858 --> 01:25:47,943 And it also says that whatever I'm arguing here is tentative. 1351 01:25:49,100 --> 01:25:51,263 So are females motivated differently? 1352 01:25:51,304 --> 01:25:54,756 There's a few hypotheses that are either implicit or explicit, which is 1353 01:25:54,781 --> 01:25:58,342 to avenge the death of a husband, brother, or male close to them, that 1354 01:25:58,367 --> 01:26:03,057 they are lured, pressured, or coerced into participating by husband, lover, 1355 01:26:03,081 --> 01:26:07,516 personal relationships, or to overcome a dishonor in the community. 1356 01:26:09,232 --> 01:26:12,536 And I've heard these, especially while I was in Israel, I heard them all the time. 1357 01:26:12,557 --> 01:26:17,543 I went to some of the homes of these bombers and heard very different stories. 1358 01:26:18,184 --> 01:26:21,749 Again, it's difficult to say which stories are more true than the others. 1359 01:26:23,131 --> 01:26:26,361 But I started looking at some of the explanations given in the 1360 01:26:26,385 --> 01:26:30,040 beginning of male bombers as well, and you see the similar stories. 1361 01:26:30,060 --> 01:26:32,083 So you have to say, OK, how do we really prove this? 1362 01:26:34,865 --> 01:26:40,775 So there's three women who are going to come up briefly in the next couple of slides. 1363 01:26:40,795 --> 01:26:44,263 One is Wafa Idris, 28 years old, the first female bomber in 1364 01:26:44,287 --> 01:26:48,168 the Palestinian Intifada in 2002, a nurse with the Red Crescent. 1365 01:26:50,493 --> 01:26:52,176 And she was a secular woman. 1366 01:26:52,236 --> 01:26:54,094 She lives in Amari refugee camp. 1367 01:26:54,119 --> 01:26:58,944 which is pretty destitute, however, her family has the most money of any there. 1368 01:26:59,265 --> 01:27:00,446 I'll talk more about her in a second. 1369 01:27:01,066 --> 01:27:04,730 The next one is Dareen Abu Aisheh in Nablus, 21 years old. 1370 01:27:05,651 --> 01:27:10,797 And the third, Zeinab Abu Salem, 18 years old, also in Nablus. 1371 01:27:13,530 --> 01:27:19,266 So Wafa, the interesting story about Wafa before I visited since then, if you read Barbara, 1372 01:27:20,714 --> 01:27:21,695 Yes, her book. 1373 01:27:22,976 --> 01:27:27,419 Wafa is this person, a woman who was unable to have children and 1374 01:27:27,443 --> 01:27:32,773 whose husband therefore left her, who felt desperate and horrible, 1375 01:27:32,798 --> 01:27:36,212 couldn't be wanted anymore because she couldn't have children in such 1376 01:27:36,237 --> 01:27:41,423 a value in Palestinian society and ultimately decided to do a mission. 1377 01:27:42,115 --> 01:27:46,669 So when I was there, what I learned from her older brother, who is now 1378 01:27:46,694 --> 01:27:49,962 out of prison, who she was closest to and from her grandmother is that 1379 01:27:50,178 --> 01:27:53,362 It's true she couldn't have children, but she chose a divorce. 1380 01:27:53,397 --> 01:27:55,179 Her husband did not want to lose her. 1381 01:27:55,204 --> 01:27:56,185 He loved her. 1382 01:27:56,210 --> 01:28:00,369 In fact, they showed me letters that he wrote every week, and 1383 01:28:00,394 --> 01:28:02,392 he would come by and visit, and she would refuse to see him. 1384 01:28:02,553 --> 01:28:06,357 And his mom actually wanted him to marry another in order to have children. 1385 01:28:06,738 --> 01:28:08,239 He also said he wasn't going to do that. 1386 01:28:08,340 --> 01:28:10,262 And Wafa said, no, I want you to have a family. 1387 01:28:10,282 --> 01:28:11,523 And I think this is it. 1388 01:28:11,543 --> 01:28:13,478 You're the love of my life, but let's live our lives. 1389 01:28:13,786 --> 01:28:17,118 She then, because she didn't need to work for herself, 1390 01:28:17,142 --> 01:28:20,473 their family had enough money, she chose to volunteer. 1391 01:28:21,254 --> 01:28:24,017 And she's talked about as a strong leader. 1392 01:28:24,250 --> 01:28:26,392 She did well in school. 1393 01:28:27,802 --> 01:28:30,385 She was just very active on the front lines with the Red Crescent. 1394 01:28:32,487 --> 01:28:35,736 So there's something there, which you have to ask. 1395 01:28:36,345 --> 01:28:38,667 What's wrong in terms of the data? 1396 01:28:39,134 --> 01:28:42,358 And I'm not sure that we can always really know. 1397 01:28:43,353 --> 01:28:51,667 The second, Zeinab Abu Salem, was supposedly disappointed with her Tawjihi score. 1398 01:28:51,739 --> 01:28:56,227 Tawjihi is when you finish secondary education and you're trying to get into college. 1399 01:28:56,267 --> 01:29:00,254 If you do well in Palestine, you have all options open to you. 1400 01:29:00,294 --> 01:29:02,037 If you don't, everything is closed down. 1401 01:29:03,045 --> 01:29:05,389 She actually got a medium score. 1402 01:29:05,643 --> 01:29:07,969 I think her family thought she would be fine. 1403 01:29:08,029 --> 01:29:09,574 I think she was disappointed by it. 1404 01:29:10,516 --> 01:29:13,265 But in the press, this was a major life event 1405 01:29:13,290 --> 01:29:16,733 that made her choose to do something like this. 1406 01:29:17,270 --> 01:29:19,324 But what I tried to do in my interviews is I asked 1407 01:29:19,348 --> 01:29:21,656 every family to draw a picture of their neighborhood. 1408 01:29:21,736 --> 01:29:22,597 Some are better than others. 1409 01:29:22,617 --> 01:29:25,621 I think her mother didn't do a very great job. 1410 01:29:26,562 --> 01:29:29,186 But I just, I want to know all the people who live around them. 1411 01:29:29,466 --> 01:29:33,201 And I asked them to label the houses where they have had shuhada, 1412 01:29:33,226 --> 01:29:35,815 so martyrs, people who were not fighting, but who were killed. 1413 01:29:36,773 --> 01:29:40,278 Sometimes children or older people, people who itshad, so people who have 1414 01:29:40,321 --> 01:29:45,357 Done acts against Israel people in prison etc and one of the best things is that you get 1415 01:29:45,381 --> 01:29:51,808 to see when they walk out there, out of their house on a daily basis. Kind of all the things that 1416 01:29:51,833 --> 01:29:57,519 confront you just leaving your home. What that reality is like as opposed to ours because when 1417 01:29:57,544 --> 01:30:01,534 I go in for an interview with this family I'm thinking how is Tawjihi, did you have brothers? 1418 01:30:01,934 --> 01:30:03,637 You know, are you a happy person in general? 1419 01:30:03,819 --> 01:30:05,005 Was there a man in your life? 1420 01:30:05,600 --> 01:30:11,225 But actually, I can do my entire interview and never realize as I'm walking by these houses that 1421 01:30:11,249 --> 01:30:16,874 on a daily basis, that friend was killed on this year and is remembered, et cetera, et cetera. 1422 01:30:16,974 --> 01:30:19,757 And all of these things are part of a reality. 1423 01:30:19,777 --> 01:30:25,785 And I would argue that the West in general has not collected data at all like this. 1424 01:30:25,905 --> 01:30:27,507 And if circumstances matter, 1425 01:30:28,583 --> 01:30:31,087 then we've missed a huge omitted variable bias. 1426 01:30:32,268 --> 01:30:35,473 So here's a timeline, and then I'm just going to quickly go see who's good. 1427 01:30:35,533 --> 01:30:37,015 I spent so much time on the first slide. 1428 01:30:38,457 --> 01:30:41,502 So her timeline was really interesting because she was injured. 1429 01:30:43,044 --> 01:30:44,406 There's a few people who were shot. 1430 01:30:45,406 --> 01:30:48,721 Her house actually was attacked and damaged, not because 1431 01:30:48,746 --> 01:30:50,850 they were looking for someone in it, but oftentimes 1432 01:30:50,875 --> 01:30:54,079 forces go through these big buildings. 1433 01:30:54,119 --> 01:30:57,083 They just burst holes into the wall and run to the next room. 1434 01:30:57,123 --> 01:30:59,987 And it's a smart military tactic, but there's damage, whatever. 1435 01:31:00,047 --> 01:31:05,074 But you get to see the occupation was part of her life, not just in terms of checkpoints or whatnot. 1436 01:31:05,875 --> 01:31:06,996 Findings in general. 1437 01:31:07,677 --> 01:31:09,720 The women had similar experiences from the men. 1438 01:31:10,641 --> 01:31:13,774 These women that I would showcase don't have different 1439 01:31:13,799 --> 01:31:18,231 experiences than the non-bombing families in these same areas. 1440 01:31:18,311 --> 01:31:19,853 These are surveys that I've been carrying out. 1441 01:31:20,474 --> 01:31:27,803 And if we want to talk about radicalization, then I think what we need to 1442 01:31:27,828 --> 01:31:33,208 do is focus on how it is people start to construe that they have an enemy. 1443 01:31:33,488 --> 01:31:36,321 And once they have an enemy, if they feel they're doing 1444 01:31:36,346 --> 01:31:41,702 enough to help their cause, because shame and self-esteem 1445 01:31:41,727 --> 01:31:44,934 at watching people you love get hurt and not doing 1446 01:31:44,958 --> 01:31:48,625 anything about it is the greatest motivator for action. 1447 01:31:49,263 --> 01:31:50,164 And that's what we're seeing. 1448 01:31:50,204 --> 01:31:54,755 In the questions and answer, I'm happy to talk about the radicalization 1449 01:31:54,779 --> 01:31:58,569 process that we're looking at here, which is bringing a lot from 1450 01:31:58,594 --> 01:32:02,293 social neuroscience about how we acquire beliefs and the role of emotion 1451 01:32:02,318 --> 01:32:08,349 in determining blame, blame for bad things that would come upon you. 1452 01:32:09,350 --> 01:32:13,450 But whatever it is about belief acquisition that we talked about in the beginning, 1453 01:32:16,381 --> 01:32:18,817 Whatever it is that causes you to think you face an 1454 01:32:18,842 --> 01:32:21,301 enemy and that maybe your view of the world was different 1455 01:32:21,326 --> 01:32:23,544 and you should step up to the plate and do more radical 1456 01:32:23,569 --> 01:32:26,103 things than ever before, what we do know is you don't 1457 01:32:26,128 --> 01:32:29,558 actually act on it until you're in a group dynamic, which 1458 01:32:29,582 --> 01:32:32,751 where emotions of norms of reciprocity are if you do 1459 01:32:32,776 --> 01:32:36,648 this, I do this, take over your risk calculations and then 1460 01:32:36,673 --> 01:32:39,981 you'll find people who are willing to both kill and die. 1461 01:32:40,021 --> 01:32:44,725 It just appears that women come into those social networks the same way that men do. 1462 01:32:45,169 --> 01:32:45,966 Thanks. 1463 01:32:52,966 --> 01:32:55,389 In the interest of time, we're going to go straight to question and answers. 1464 01:32:55,409 --> 01:32:57,171 And I'll defer to our concert mistress. 1465 01:32:57,191 --> 01:32:59,914 How much time? About 15 minutes. 1466 01:32:59,995 --> 01:33:01,576 OK. So we'll open the floor. 1467 01:33:01,657 --> 01:33:03,739 We have Rocky and Colleen with microphones. 1468 01:33:03,819 --> 01:33:09,366 Just raise your hand and please be respectful of our guests. 1469 01:33:10,806 --> 01:33:11,690 Alejandra. 1470 01:33:14,712 --> 01:33:17,195 [Audience Member] Thank you so much for such a wonderful presentation. 1471 01:33:17,856 --> 01:33:21,100 I want to challenge a bit what we are talking about right now. 1472 01:33:21,637 --> 01:33:23,740 with some of the data that you gave us. 1473 01:33:24,541 --> 01:33:28,662 I want to ask you if it is the case that because we are 1474 01:33:28,687 --> 01:33:33,792 differentiating women and men, we're asking maybe the wrong questions. 1475 01:33:35,474 --> 01:33:39,246 And it is based a bit in what you were saying in the last 1476 01:33:39,271 --> 01:33:41,441 presentation, saying that you don't see much difference. 1477 01:33:41,866 --> 01:33:43,708 I also do some of this research. 1478 01:33:43,924 --> 01:33:48,490 And I don't see a lot of difference when it comes to the Muslim-or the jihadis. 1479 01:33:48,530 --> 01:33:51,053 And I only do research among jihadis in the sense that 1480 01:33:51,421 --> 01:33:57,468 I don't see them saying, look at our sisters that are doing this very often. 1481 01:33:57,508 --> 01:34:03,094 In fact, they don't talk too much about them, the male jihadis within their own circles. 1482 01:34:03,735 --> 01:34:07,716 However, I was wondering if you looked at something 1483 01:34:07,740 --> 01:34:11,642 that said in the strategic literature that said, 1484 01:34:11,666 --> 01:34:15,118 we want to use women for tactical and strategical 1485 01:34:15,143 --> 01:34:19,572 or operational improvement of our war, number one. 1486 01:34:19,990 --> 01:34:24,887 And number two, if they perceive the outcome to be 1487 01:34:24,912 --> 01:34:28,762 this propaganda enhancer, as opposed to how we in the 1488 01:34:28,787 --> 01:34:32,737 West, we can perceive that as being a propaganda enhancer 1489 01:34:32,762 --> 01:34:35,032 because we make a difference between male and women. 1490 01:34:35,132 --> 01:34:38,424 And finally, I do perceive, possibly, that there 1491 01:34:38,449 --> 01:34:42,016 is a huge difference on how women can contribute 1492 01:34:42,041 --> 01:34:45,032 into counter-terrorism, as opposed to having a 1493 01:34:45,057 --> 01:34:47,770 difference in terms of making a terrorism attack. 1494 01:34:48,458 --> 01:34:50,890 They can contribute in terms of counter-terrorism 1495 01:34:50,914 --> 01:34:53,805 based on the roles that they play in their communities. 1496 01:34:54,145 --> 01:34:56,106 So I don't know if I was a bit confusing, but I'm 1497 01:34:56,130 --> 01:34:58,090 really interested in hearing what you have to say. 1498 01:34:59,712 --> 01:35:03,217 [Announcer] Do you want to address this question to someone specifically or any of the panelists? 1499 01:35:05,963 --> 01:35:06,742 Sure. 1500 01:35:12,549 --> 01:35:16,474 In terms of differentiating between the genders, I would say 1501 01:35:17,112 --> 01:35:19,948 Absolutely the groups I looked at did, and that's one of the 1502 01:35:19,973 --> 01:35:22,538 reasons that women were not included into these struggles sooner. 1503 01:35:22,578 --> 01:35:30,227 The IRA, the LTTE, many of the Palestinian groups, whether religious or secular, 1504 01:35:30,252 --> 01:35:36,477 were also very conscious of the value that in putting women out front in the media, 1505 01:35:36,502 --> 01:35:42,163 because they recognized that even within the group, if they would make a policy 1506 01:35:42,188 --> 01:35:45,685 decision that we're an egalitarian group, we're the vanguard of the revolution, 1507 01:35:45,935 --> 01:35:48,988 were changing and breaking old gender stereotypes, 1508 01:35:49,012 --> 01:35:52,065 even if they thought that one, they never did it. 1509 01:35:52,485 --> 01:35:55,243 But two, they were very conscious that, again, 1510 01:35:55,267 --> 01:35:58,455 their intended audience, we make that distinction. 1511 01:35:58,976 --> 01:36:03,343 And that we treat an attack by a woman differently than we treat an attack by a man. 1512 01:36:03,783 --> 01:36:07,369 We treat the death of men differently than we treat the death of women. 1513 01:36:07,703 --> 01:36:11,352 And I did find explicit arguments to that effect. 1514 01:36:11,974 --> 01:36:15,683 Within the jihadis, I defer to maybe some of you guys. 1515 01:36:15,743 --> 01:36:18,931 I didn't find it as much, but again, I didn't look for it as deeply. 1516 01:36:19,251 --> 01:36:21,083 But in the groups I looked at, I found them very 1517 01:36:21,108 --> 01:36:23,786 conscious of differences between men and women. 1518 01:36:28,356 --> 01:36:33,371 You raise a very interesting issue about the difference between men and women. 1519 01:36:33,952 --> 01:36:37,958 And one thing that I couldn't examine in detail, given 1520 01:36:37,983 --> 01:36:41,528 the time limitation, was the debate and the divergent 1521 01:36:41,553 --> 01:36:47,678 views among the Salafi Jihadi clerics, because according to them, there are differences of opinions. 1522 01:36:47,798 --> 01:36:51,935 You take Osama bin Laden, for example, who's only made statements 1523 01:36:51,960 --> 01:36:55,575 that indicate that women should emulate Khadija, who was a proper 1524 01:36:55,600 --> 01:36:58,354 prophet's first wife, in other words, that women have the role 1525 01:36:58,378 --> 01:37:01,131 primary as mothers and prospective wives and child-bearers. 1526 01:37:02,011 --> 01:37:05,883 You contrast that with Sheikh Al-Qaradawi, who is, you know, former 1527 01:37:05,908 --> 01:37:09,196 Muslim brotherhood now based in Doha, who's made explicit statements about 1528 01:37:09,220 --> 01:37:12,144 the role of women in participating in jihad, which would also mirror the 1529 01:37:12,169 --> 01:37:16,223 statements that Dr. Abdullah Azam had made years ago in his articles. 1530 01:37:16,385 --> 01:37:20,387 Contrast that with Sheikh Ibn Jabrin of Saudi Arabia, another 1531 01:37:20,433 --> 01:37:23,854 cleric who's made statements supporting a woman's role. 1532 01:37:24,234 --> 01:37:27,353 So you have divergent views and I think that there needs to be a 1533 01:37:27,439 --> 01:37:31,789 great deal of study in this area because these clerics in issuing 1534 01:37:31,814 --> 01:37:34,838 their fatwas or their legal pronouncements actually have a lot of 1535 01:37:34,863 --> 01:37:39,051 influence and weight on the role and the permissibility of women 1536 01:37:39,408 --> 01:37:43,801 in these tactical, operational, in that role. 1537 01:37:44,122 --> 01:37:46,527 In fact, one place you can look at is Fatwa Bank. 1538 01:37:47,269 --> 01:37:48,901 You have a series of questions on the Fatwa 1539 01:37:48,925 --> 01:37:50,556 Bank asked to these scholars of their views. 1540 01:37:51,358 --> 01:37:53,336 I like the last point that you raised, which was how 1541 01:37:53,361 --> 01:37:56,250 can women contribute to the counterterrorism strategies? 1542 01:37:56,428 --> 01:37:59,968 which is something I was personally involved in as a 1543 01:37:59,993 --> 01:38:03,111 counterterrorism analyst working with Director of Operations 1544 01:38:03,136 --> 01:38:07,512 and all I can say about that is that there, women have 1545 01:38:07,536 --> 01:38:11,913 a very important role in contributing to this effort. 1546 01:38:12,253 --> 01:38:16,682 In fact, using female assets or female case officers 1547 01:38:16,707 --> 01:38:19,979 is one way in terms of, you know, on the intel 1548 01:38:20,004 --> 01:38:22,509 side would be important because after all, you 1549 01:38:22,533 --> 01:38:25,244 know, the more women that become involved in these 1550 01:38:25,353 --> 01:38:27,075 dominated-male jihadi groups. 1551 01:38:27,115 --> 01:38:29,459 The difficult will be to penetrate these organizations. 1552 01:38:29,479 --> 01:38:33,983 So in order to penetrate them, you know, that causes, of course, challenges for law enforcement 1553 01:38:34,008 --> 01:38:36,366 and security agencies who will now have to start 1554 01:38:36,391 --> 01:38:40,233 employing more women to do this kind of work. 1555 01:38:40,253 --> 01:38:43,185 And I think that in that case, in terms of 1556 01:38:43,209 --> 01:38:46,141 gender, that's where this becomes important. 1557 01:38:48,114 --> 01:38:49,065 [Announcer] Next question. 1558 01:38:55,087 --> 01:38:56,209 Everybody needs some coffee. 1559 01:38:57,751 --> 01:39:00,474 Are there any issues that some of the panelists-you had to skip a few slides? 1560 01:39:00,494 --> 01:39:03,298 So maybe there's a few things you want to go back and revisit. 1561 01:39:03,774 --> 01:39:05,371 If I can take some time on the counterterrorism piece too. 1562 01:39:08,866 --> 01:39:14,714 I wanted to come coattail on what Farhana said about women in counterterrorism. 1563 01:39:14,734 --> 01:39:17,117 It's one of the things I looked at when again when I asked the so what. 1564 01:39:17,798 --> 01:39:19,761 In all the cases I looked at, 1565 01:39:20,078 --> 01:39:24,091 One of the first reactions of the governments involved, with the 1566 01:39:24,115 --> 01:39:28,128 exception of Russia, was to hire women into the security services. 1567 01:39:28,589 --> 01:39:30,856 Because in most of the cultures that I looked 1568 01:39:30,881 --> 01:39:34,394 at, it would have caused more trauma and greater 1569 01:39:34,458 --> 01:39:40,303 violence for a male to search a female than it would to allow a female suicide bomber through. 1570 01:39:42,105 --> 01:39:44,709 So one of the first things they did was add special means. 1571 01:39:45,169 --> 01:39:47,352 The Israelis, in addition to adding women 1572 01:39:47,669 --> 01:39:53,464 added technical means so that they can push back the security barrier 1573 01:39:53,489 --> 01:39:58,502 further to detect anyone who might be bringing in a bomb or bomb components. 1574 01:39:59,283 --> 01:40:00,444 So that was one of the first elements. 1575 01:40:00,464 --> 01:40:04,092 In fact, the LTTE, in one of their statements, took credit and said 1576 01:40:04,116 --> 01:40:07,743 that the Senhala, the Sri Lankan women, should be supporting the LTTE 1577 01:40:07,767 --> 01:40:12,294 because the LTTE, through its use of women, had forced the Sri Lankan 1578 01:40:12,319 --> 01:40:15,482 government to bring more women into government, more women into police. 1579 01:40:15,766 --> 01:40:19,351 Therefore, the LTT was actually promoting greater equality throughout Sri Lanka. 1580 01:40:19,750 --> 01:40:24,009 And it's a good piece of propaganda, but because 1581 01:40:24,034 --> 01:40:27,580 there's a piece of truth behind it, a lot of the 1582 01:40:27,605 --> 01:40:30,269 Sri Lankan security forces would probably not have 1583 01:40:30,293 --> 01:40:32,848 included women if they had not been forced to. 1584 01:40:35,490 --> 01:40:37,234 [Announcer] Do we have a question with Tara down front? 1585 01:40:44,875 --> 01:40:47,599 [Audience Member] I was wondering, you all spoke to sort of the differences about, you 1586 01:40:47,623 --> 01:40:50,347 know, why organizations might recruit women or why women might join. 1587 01:40:50,748 --> 01:40:52,379 And looking at that, I was wondering if there are any 1588 01:40:52,404 --> 01:40:55,768 studies or any research that looks at if it's, it may 1589 01:40:55,793 --> 01:40:57,497 be the case that different groups and different 1590 01:40:57,521 --> 01:40:59,709 organizations employ women for different types of attacks. 1591 01:40:59,969 --> 01:41:01,453 Not every suicide bombing is the same. 1592 01:41:01,493 --> 01:41:03,357 There can be military targets, civilian targets. 1593 01:41:03,742 --> 01:41:06,362 attacks that take place under high security dynamic 1594 01:41:06,386 --> 01:41:08,795 situations, such as that military search now, 1595 01:41:08,819 --> 01:41:13,819 for example, in Baghdad, that might prompt groups to use women differently than they use men. 1596 01:41:13,879 --> 01:41:17,915 I was just wondering if there's been a comparison across sort of the targets that women are 1597 01:41:17,940 --> 01:41:20,651 being used against as opposed to men, either 1598 01:41:20,675 --> 01:41:23,956 across country or within country, analysis of that. 1599 01:41:24,296 --> 01:41:26,460 I mean, it could be that they're employed for specific reasons. 1600 01:41:26,480 --> 01:41:29,445 And I was just wondering if you have any thoughts or comments on that. 1601 01:41:30,202 --> 01:41:31,304 I can say something. 1602 01:41:31,324 --> 01:41:39,096 I think it's usually a function of what the emphasis of the organization is in the first place. 1603 01:41:39,236 --> 01:41:44,177 So when you're looking at an organization like the LTTE, the LTTE has almost, 1604 01:41:44,202 --> 01:41:48,130 well, more attacks against military installations than against civilians. 1605 01:41:48,691 --> 01:41:52,746 So also it's going to use, in the case of the LTTE, more women are going to 1606 01:41:52,771 --> 01:41:56,028 be used against attacks against military installations than against civilians. 1607 01:41:57,599 --> 01:42:02,495 Al Qaeda is usually an organization or movement that is who 1608 01:42:02,520 --> 01:42:06,777 attacks mostly civilian targets, not exclusively of course. 1609 01:42:07,478 --> 01:42:12,485 So I think that many women are going to be involved in attacks against civilians. 1610 01:42:12,505 --> 01:42:16,111 So I think it has a lot to do with what is the kind 1611 01:42:16,136 --> 01:42:18,916 of the overall outlook of the organization in general. 1612 01:42:25,585 --> 01:42:29,490 Given that you're a doctoral student, I know you'd love to have a citation. 1613 01:42:29,530 --> 01:42:31,913 So I can give you a half of one. 1614 01:42:31,933 --> 01:42:37,259 The recent Jamestown report, there's a whole booklet on suicide bombing. 1615 01:42:37,379 --> 01:42:43,307 And one of the chapters was as tactical determinants and looked at some of this. 1616 01:42:44,248 --> 01:42:45,209 So somebody has done it. 1617 01:42:45,229 --> 01:42:48,193 I'm not quite sure what their cases were, how far across it went. 1618 01:42:48,713 --> 01:42:51,677 But I would just have to also agree with Assaf 1619 01:42:51,826 --> 01:42:58,470 It seems that this is determined by structure and a lot of the questions on culture, so structure meaning 1620 01:42:58,494 --> 01:43:02,363 what is difficult for you to do with your existing cadre 1621 01:43:02,731 --> 01:43:05,522 and how can you find manpower that can do it better. 1622 01:43:05,603 --> 01:43:09,771 And so if all the men got wiped out in Algerian villages during the insurgency, it 1623 01:43:09,795 --> 01:43:14,273 was the women who ran to the hills and carried that insurgency in the beginning days. 1624 01:43:14,810 --> 01:43:19,316 I actually just learned this because my roommate's father's sister was the head of the cell. 1625 01:43:21,239 --> 01:43:27,828 But this is a great example of a similar Muslim culture where you have a structure of a specific conflict. 1626 01:43:28,569 --> 01:43:34,017 People step up to the plate when their existing scripts don't fit reality. 1627 01:43:35,684 --> 01:43:37,506 I just have one quote I want to share with you. 1628 01:43:37,526 --> 01:43:39,408 I don't know if you saw it because I had to go very quickly. 1629 01:43:39,468 --> 01:43:44,932 But Aafia Siddiqui, when she came to MIT and she joined the MSA, and she was 1630 01:43:44,957 --> 01:43:49,879 really infuriated because she would say to the audience, where are the Muslim men? 1631 01:43:49,918 --> 01:43:55,116 And so piggybacking on what Nicole just said about, you know, in the absence of Muslim 1632 01:43:55,141 --> 01:44:01,235 men, then women feel sort of the need and the urgency to step up and fulfill their duty. 1633 01:44:13,653 --> 01:44:17,993 [Audience Member] Miss Ali in one of your slides There's a 1634 01:44:18,017 --> 01:44:22,294 small cognitive dissonance that I'd like to ask you to address 1635 01:44:22,319 --> 01:44:25,607 and that was when you spoke about in jihad You said that 1636 01:44:25,632 --> 01:44:31,695 there was equality in the genders I'm sorry in the sexes. 1637 01:44:32,336 --> 01:44:39,745 I'm always correcting myself on that point But further on you said that that there was this sense of 1638 01:44:40,096 --> 01:44:45,524 that suicide among women rendered- that they were rendering a greater sacrifice. 1639 01:44:47,206 --> 01:44:52,592 That cognitive dissonance is something that I think plays into 1640 01:44:52,616 --> 01:44:58,001 this culturalization of the differences between men and women. 1641 01:44:58,102 --> 01:44:59,083 Can you speak to that? 1642 01:44:59,435 --> 01:45:00,977 Sure, thank you for raising that. 1643 01:45:01,017 --> 01:45:06,262 When I talked about the equality in jihad, that's according to Islamic jurisprudence. 1644 01:45:06,883 --> 01:45:10,914 And you can find that in verses in the Quran about the equality between 1645 01:45:10,938 --> 01:45:14,911 men and women in jihad and martyrdom, and the rewards of martyrdom. 1646 01:45:14,931 --> 01:45:19,887 But my own personal view is that I think by taking 1647 01:45:19,912 --> 01:45:22,679 part of these operations, women make greater sacrifice. 1648 01:45:23,019 --> 01:45:24,864 Because once you lose the women, of course, you lose 1649 01:45:24,889 --> 01:45:28,665 the nurturer of society, and you lose the bearer of family, 1650 01:45:28,690 --> 01:45:32,556 So she actually, to me, is the support network. 1651 01:45:32,931 --> 01:45:35,295 And so her loss, to me, is a greater sacrifice. 1652 01:45:37,594 --> 01:45:39,556 [Announcer] Well, we're going to take a break, but I'd like to 1653 01:45:39,605 --> 01:45:42,285 thank our panelists for their expertise and contributions today. 1654 01:45:46,659 --> 01:45:50,316 And please feel free to approach them during our break with more of your questions.