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The Multi-faceted Roles of Women Inside Al-Qaeda
said: “Our prudent Muslim women are also expected to play their role” (Al-
Jazeera, 2003).
A document entitled “The Role of Women in the Jihad against Enemies” (al-
Ayyiri, 2006) found on a Jihadist message board encourages women to take an
active role in Jihad. Interestingly, the document was written by Yussuf al-Ayyiri,
who was one of the ideological leaders of the Saudi Arabian branch of al-Qaeda. 1
This role does not involve actual fighting, but calls for women to encourage and
support men in their quest to join the Jihad. While explicitly stating that women
should not actively engage in physical combat, the document emphasizes the power
that women hold over men, reminding them that their role in Jihad is a vital
necessity for the entire Muslim ummah (see Rand, 2005). “The reason we address
women (…) is our observation that when a woman is convinced of something, no
one will spur a man to fulfill it like she will (…) The saying behind every great
man stands a [woman] was true for Muslim women at these times, behind every
great Mujahid stood a [woman] (…)”. 2 David Cook contends that al-Ayyiri’s
statements have laid the intellectual groundwork for the full participation of
women in Jihad among radical Muslims (Cook, 2005).
Radical Women on the Web
Nowadays, the essential platform for al-Qaeda and its affiliates to propagate their
war against the West is the World Wide Web. In recent years, radical Islamist
websites have increased notably in number, technical sophistication, content, and
media richness. Terrorist use of the web has expanded beyond routine
communication and propaganda dissemination operations to training, the
organization of logistics for their campaign, and the development of strategic
intelligence and virtual communities. Gabriel Weimann (2006) highlights the
innovative ways in which terrorist groups are using the Internet to drive every
aspect of their business: psychological warfare 3 , data mining 4 , fund-raising 5 ,
recruitment and mobilization 6 , and planning and coordination. 7 Finally, the
Internet’s integral role in the group’s indoctrination and operations has been proven
in recent history. The 17 terrorism suspects in Canada mostly communicated with
and radicalized themselves via the Internet, similar to the Islamist perpetrators of
the London 2005 attack and the group allegedly responsible for the London 2006
attempt. Authorities believe the Internet-savvy suspects conducted much of their
communications online, where they also developed and stoked the flames of their
radical ideology. “The Internet plays a highly important role in the collective
radicalization process: first with web diffuse of the radical Islamist message over
the web, second by allow the user anonymity and thirdly the internet has the
capability to create a virtual community. Users visiting the over 4500 radical
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