Bangladesh sees huge radicalization of women in 2016

Bangladesh sees huge radicalization of women in ۲۰۱۶

Bangladesh this year saw terror suspects with diverse identities and those who until recently would have escaped suspicion.

Hawzah News Agency (Bangladesh)-Former defense personnel, educated youth and women perpetrators of terror have shocked people about the avenues of terrorist recruitment. The diversity of profiles that have now become more apparent is a result of an ideological environment that has extended a moral license to radicalization.

While security forces are on an all-out effort to crackdown on militants in the country, Bangladesh is experiencing newer levels of extremism.

There are youths from educated and affluent backgrounds joining terrorist outfits and at least three of the attackers came from top universities and schools. The latest revelation for Bangladesh is how women have joined militant outfits to become suicide bombers.

The latest raid at Ashkona in Dhaka on December 24, revealed how terrorists have motivated women into becoming suicide bombers. While two suspected female militants surrendered to the police during the raid, one of them blew herself up. This is the first time Bangladesh has seen radicalized women go to such an extreme.

Security forces say that most of the Bangladeshi female radicals are influenced by their husbands and that they did not voluntarily become radicals. That is still a considerable threat.

Contrary to the belief that the female terrorists became radicalized under pressure from their husbands, there are also those such as Jebunnahar Shila, wife of deceased militant, Jahidul Islam, who is defensive about her extremist values.

“We need to recognize that the threat as we knew it has evolved quite substantially. The type of people who were attracted to militancy and the radical path in the past, the profiles of those individuals have changed a lot,” said Shafqat Munir, research fellow, Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies. “When we look at 2017, we have to acknowledge that the threat is substantial and various new kinds of people are getting attracted to radical ideology. So our countering violent extremism and counter radicalization strategy have to be geared towards that,” he said.