Indonesian women are taking on a more active role in terror attacks, with some seeking to become IS suicide bombers, a leading security think tank has warned.
The growing problem was highlighted after the arrest in December of two women with links to IS allegedly planning suicide attacks in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, according to a report from the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, Thejournal.ie reported.
Many from Indonesia have flocked to join IS in the Middle East, while radicals in the country have pledged allegiance to the group and attacks and plots have been linked to the self-styled Islamic State terrorist group.
But the increasing eagerness of Indonesian women to get involved in terror attacks themselves, rather than merely support their husbands, poses new risks, said the report from IPAC, which is headed by veteran Indonesian security analyst, Sidney Jones.
Increasing female involvement is linked to the appeal of IS but also to the growing sophistication of social media, which allows more women to read the terrorist group’s propaganda and take part in radical chat forums, said the report, which was released late Tuesday.
Women have been arrested for offences, including setting up a pro-IS charity, helping to make a bomb and being fighters with a militant group on Sulawesi Island.
IPAC called for the Indonesian government to try to find out more about female radical networks, including interviewing the many women who have been deported from Turkey after allegedly trying to cross into Syria to join IS.
Indonesia’s national counter-terror agency declined to comment.
