Throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), recent media reports have highlighted
an apparent rise in women’s active participation in violent extremist organizations.
This includes their deployment in combat operations, and roles as suicide bombers, propagandists,
recruiters, and mobilizers. Despite the novelty and sensationalism with which the
media has treated the topic in recent years, women have participated in violent extremist
organizations (VEOs) in the MENA region and beyond for decades. To date, however,
women’s roles have been largely overlooked in both research and policy responses.
Although attention to date has focused on Western women traveling to Syria and Iraq to
join or fight with Daesh, women from the MENA region have also taken up the cause in
large numbers, albeit more quietly