Symbiosis Between Feminism and the Threat of Global Terrorism
Indonesia was startled by the bombings at 3 (three) Churches by terrorist groups identified as part of the Jamaah Ansarut Daula (JAD) Surabaya, 13 May 2018 ago. The shock of several Indonesians are difficult to avoid as the attacks launched in three different locations were successfully executed in less than two hours, Tempo (2018). Furthermore, the public was led to another interesting fact that the attack was carried out by a family, as followings father, mother and four children. The role of a woman - in this case the mother - can be said to be a unique phenomenon in Indonesia when we look at the previous records which are difficult to find the involvement of female actors that directly involved, as happened in the Bali Bombing case (2002 and 2005), JW Marriot (2003), Kuningan (2004), Ritz Carlton (2009) and Thamrin (2016).
Women in the midst of terrorism
The involvement of women in terrorist groups is in fact not a new thing when we are willing to pause and see how terrorism was waged in the past. We can find terrorist group like Black Widow. Briefly, the Black Widow group began after a bad experience with the Russians who massacred Chechnya men as a result of their separatist actions against the Russian government from 1994 to the early 2000s. Amanda Alcott (2012: 26-32) sees Black Widow's activity turning into a new scourge for Russian authorities after a successive run of their acts such as hostage-taking in Beslan-Moscow Theater (2002), hostage in North Osetia (2004) and Metro bombing Moscow (2010). The organization manned by the Chechens – the ethnic Indians who occupy Chechnya – can then be a picture of how thin the ‘wall’ between men and women in term of its dangerous level and deadly of a terrorist group. In other words, women and men can be equally dangerous when one is joining a terrorist group.
The subjectivity of women as captured in their interpretation as victims of the manipulation by terrorist groups have subsequently shifted into actors who independently take the decision to become terrorists themselves. Mendelboim and Schweitzer (2018: 1) inserted the motion of women's involvement by showing an increment number of suicide attacks by 2017 involved 137 women out of a total of 348 attacks by terrorists. The number of serial attacks also confirms as the highest number of women's involvement since women first became involved as suicide attack actors. On the other hand, women's involvement in terrorism can be traced not only to the suicide bombing phenomenon, but nowadays women have managed to play a broader spectrum of roles. The role can at least be reflected from the image below where women are able to become the largest member recruitment agency for the Islamic State terrorist organization.
Feminism
Feminism instills a conceptual foundation in regards to the gender context in the discourses that are expressed. Instead of the simplification of gender-related with biological factors (male and female), feminism sees gender in the socio-cultural realm constructed and dynamically characterized, Baylis (2011: 265). The characteristics mentioned are dynamically associated with power relations, rationality, masculinity and so on. The feminist argues that the patriarchal system (emphasis on male superiority) has been incarnated in the form of liberalism, Tervooren (2016: 4). Liberalism that dictates the world in public spaces and private spaces has implications for the domestication of women. The domiestication of women leads to responsibilities that women carry around in child-rearing and is gentle and vulnerable (feminine). On the other hand men are in charge with respect to public spaces so that men need to be firmer (masculine).
Women who failed to meet the feminine characteristics are then labeled as 'the other' or 'not women entirely’. In the operational order, such as the involvement of women in acts of terrorism is often understood as a rare phenomenon because it is more like aberrations or anomalies of feminine nature. With regard to this view, it further raises the problem of the lack of ability to identify the involvement of women as important actors of the terrorist organization itself. In other cases, the male and female role dicototomes have the potential to lead to radical movements and even terrorist acts by feminist groups such as the case in Germany in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Feminism and terrorism: Rote Zora
To understand terrorism is conceptually relative not an easy task. The complexity and subjectivity of the actors are a major factor in the absence of a standard definition of terrorism itself. On the other hand, terrorism can only be interpreted by generalizing the main elements and simultaneously present throughout the act of terrorism waged. Departing from that motion, terrorism then understood as an act of terror through violence by an organization with political motives, James Lutz and Brenda Lutz (2011: 2). Furthermore, the political motives in question can be specifically aimed at changing a policy or at a higher stage, aiming at changing and replacing a sovereign government. In the same space and time, some groups tried to mobilize acts of terrorism based on feminism as their political motives, such as the Rote Zora group during the Second Wave of Feminism campaign.
Rote Zora or Red Zora is a group categorized as terrorist, radical-feminist-ideological ideology and aims to articulate the equality of women's rights in anarchist ways. Furthermore, Rote Zora was formed in Germany in the 1970s and lasted until 1995, Hansen and Belmas (2009: 3-4). This primarily terrorist organization based on the values of feminism operates to attack patrarchy institutions, corporations and people who build and represent sexist men in society. This action is based on the understanding that the biggest mistake of the peace movement is too focused on political goals through peaceful means rather than discussing imperialism through armed means. For the same reason, since its formation in the early 1970s, Rote Zora has executed more than 200 attacks on infrastructure reflecting patrarchy culture, Hansen and Belmas (2009: 4).
The threat of repetition
Departing from the involvement of women in increasing organizations, as well as the broader spectrum of roles, it is important to underline this phenomenon as a form of threat to be taken into consideration in taking preventive steps, with regard to the threat of global terrorism. The discussions have at least two threats. First, reflecting on the acts of terrorism launched by Rote Zora as a form of campaign for the second wave of feminism in the early 1970s it is necessary to watch out for the third wave of feminism which can be a ‘gasoline’ for the formation of terrorist organizations similar to Rote Zora. It then becomes more risky to see the third wave of feminism with its wider scope, even considered as a certain political option, Dorey-Stein (2018).
The second threat to global terrorism is the poorly understanding of the roles of women. Social association pinned to women as feminine and gentle beings became an extra value that facilitated terrorism to launch its attacks, such as suicide bombings. The operational benefits of women who more easily to avoid the suspicion of detection then implicate directly on the number of bomb attacks from women to increase, Obonova (2017: 29).
References
Alcott, Amanda. 2012. Gendered Narraitives of “Black Widow” Terrorism in Russia’s Northern Caucasus Region. Budapest: Central European University
Baylis, John., Smith, Steve., & Owens, Patricia. 2011. The Globalization of World Politics An Introduction To International Relations. Oxford: Oxford Press
Dorey-Stein, Caroline. 2018. A Brief History: The Three Waves of Feminism. Progressive Women’s Leadership: https://www.progressivewomensleadership.com/a-brief-history-the-three-waves-of-feminism/, 9 July 2018
Hadi, Nur. (2018). Begini Kronologi Ledakan Bom di Surabaya. Tempo: https://nasional.tempo.co/read/1088386/begini-kronologi-ledakan-bom-di-surabaya, 9 July 2018
Lutz, James & Lutz, Brenda. 2011. Terrorism: The Basics. New York: Routledge
Mendelboim, Aviad & Schweitzer, Yoram. 2018. Report on Suicide Attacks in 2017: Fewer Attacks, More Women Bombers. INSS Insight No. 1008
Obonova, Adriana. 2017. The Changing Subjectivity of Female Terrorists: The Case of the Islamic State’s Recruitment. Prague: Charles University
Tervooren, Kayleigh. 2016. Representing Women and Terrorist Violence: A Feminist Interogation of Female Agency in the Gendered Discourse of the Public. Utrecht: Universiteit Utrecht
Waddell-Harris, Mackenzie. 2017. (Wo)men in Terrorism: From Chechnya’s Black Widow to the Women in the Islamic State. Ottawa: University of Ottawa
![endif]--