Changing the Way We Counter Terrorism
By: Hussain Ali, Political Analyst Specializing on the Middle East
In the modern world, the word “terrorism” has gained immense popularity right after the 9/11 attacks, especially when a global superpower like the United States declared its commitment to extracting the roots of terrorism. The majority of the world stood in solidarity with the U.S. and fighting terrorism jumped to the top of the world’s security priorities.
Though “the war on terror” is considered a success to a certain extent since 9/11, especially when many of the most wanted terrorist ringleaders from Al-Qaeda were either captured or killed, it did not fully eradicate terrorism and rather reframed it. When the world thought the near ending of Al-Qaeda meant the end of terrorism, ISIS unexpectedly arose from the void left in Iraq.
Recently, political leaders have been racing to advertise their achievement in defeating ISIS. In a live TV broadcast, the Iranian president Hassan Rouhani announced the end of ISIS. Similarly, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, has also declared that ISIS has been defeated.
Assuming the perception of reality in defeating ISIS was not exaggerated, the bigger question remains: would ISIS be the last terrorist group known by humanity? The answer is “NO”. The use of force as the main strategy for counterterrorism has proven to be insufficient by itself to make our world safer and free from terrorism.
People join terrorist groups depending on various circumstances. ISIS successfully recruited women by taking advantage of their statuses in patriarchal societies. The social, political and economic marginalization of women in non-democratic societies, especially in the Middle East (M.E.), played a key role in joining terrorist groups. ISIS planners acknowledged the importance of recruiting women and gave them major roles within the organization. Therefore, many of those women who have joined ISIS received the recognition that their society has not offered.
And women can promote more recruiting. For example, when considering the status of mothers in Islam, a person should never say “No” to her request unless it opposes the command of Allah. If a terrorist group manages to recruit her, she can easily persuade her sons and daughters to join.
Women can also help attract more young men to join the group. Women can carry out secret missions without being discovered by governments’ intelligence agents due to the nature of the male-female segregation in many conservative societies in the M.E. To prevent the spread of terrorist ideology and emergence of new terrorist organizations, governments in the most volatile region in the world, the M.E, must take immediate action to improve the situation of women in their countries.
Layla, a 32-year-old Yemeni woman expatriate who was born, raised, and lives in the Gulf region, lost three of her brothers who fought for ISIS in Syria. She was close to her youngest brother, who she weeps for day and night. She blames her mother for the cause of his tragic death.
Layla’s father moved to the Gulf from Yemen at a young age and married a young Syrian woman. Layla’s mother was discontent with her life. She was married to an old man, couldn’t enjoy the privileges of the Gulf’s citizens, feared deportation if they lost their “Kafalah” (sponsorship), and obtaining citizenship was difficult. On the other hand, Layla’s father worked very hard to secure the family, and he never complained about his life in the Gulf as an expat.
One day, Layla’s father heard that his eldest sons had escaped to Turkey with their mother. Three months after their escape, he received a call informing him that his youngest son, who was supposed to be in Yemen studying dentistry, was killed in Syria while fighting with the Mujahideen. This was the straw that broke his back. Later, his other sons were killed and the fate of his ex-wife, who was the mastermind of the whole plan, remains unknown today. There may be various reasons as to why Layla’s mother joined ISIS.
Taking a more holistic approach, we can provide more effective counterterrorism strategies than solely focusing on the use of force. There is no doubt that military intervention to fight terrorism is sometimes necessary. When ISIS’s threat to global security reached an unprecedented level, the international community had to act immediately and militarily to end this serious threat.
The war against ISIS cost the United States $14.3 Billion from Aug 2014 to June 2017 alone. Even though the military campaign was a success to deter the effectiveness of ISIS, it may not prevent similar terrorist groups from emerging in the near future. The political and cultural constraints seem to be the leading factors. The political system of the host country restricts careers and educational opportunities for cheap labor expats. Women’s participation in the Gulf region’s labor force is one of the lowest in the world. Women expats have trouble finding jobs because most cheap labor work is designed for men due to cultural constraints. A woman’s only option would be to attend and perhaps teach in local religious communities to receive a nominal amount of money.
Poor political integration is a prominent cause for radicalization. The results of the study show that Muslims in Europe feel underrepresented in the political system. Even though Layla’s mother was living in a Muslim country, her case may have been similar to those Muslims who live in Europe and feel isolated from society and can potentially be radicalized. As a matter of fact, Layla’s mother might have expected special treatment in the Gulf because she’s also Muslim. But instead, she was discriminated against because of her gender, nationality, and marriage to a cheap labor expat. This situation put her in a position of helplessness and prevented her from achieving her dreams, especially with her ambition to continue her education and build a career. These reasons might have lead to her radicalization.
If we read between the lines of Layla’s story, the main cause of radicalization and violent extremism is the absence of gender equality and produce the most terrorist fighters. When ambitious women’s dreams are never completed in their society, joining a terrorist group may be appealing. Despite the slow progress of gender equality worldwide, the M.E. remains among the worst. Consequently, changing women’s statuses in the M.E. to be treated fairly and humanely is not an easy task because it goes very deep even in the language that has been inherited for so many years. In reality, reforming women’s status is a reform of the society. If Middle Eastern governments acknowledge this fact and work upon fixing the status of women genuinely by focusing intensively on allocating funds to promote women’s rights culturally and politically, this would result in thriving communities and consequently dry out the source of radicalization.
