JAKARTA: Indonesian women are taking on a more active role in violent extremism, with some seeking to become Daesh 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 Daesh 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 (IPAC).
Many from Indonesia — which has long struggled with militancy — have flocked to join Daesh in the Middle East, while radicals in the country have pledged allegiance to the group and attacks and plots have been linked to the terrorists.
But the increasing eagerness of Indonesian women to get involved in radicalism themselves rather than merely support their extremist husbands poses new risks, said the report from IPAC, which is headed by veteran Indonesian security analyst Sidney Jones.
“Indonesian women in extremist organizations are now catching up with the lethal practices of their sisters in other parts of the world,” according to the study.
Increasing female involvement is linked to the appeal of Daesh but also to the growing sophistication of social media, which allows more women to read the terrorists’ propaganda and take part in radical chat forums, said the report, which was released late Tuesday.
The most high-profile cases were the arrest of two former domestic workers, Dian Yulia Novi and Ika Puspitasari, who had allegedly volunteered to become suicide bombers in Jakarta and Bali.
Leading Indonesian Daesh radical Bahrun Naim, who has been accused of directing a series of mostly botched terror plots in his homeland from Syria, had given them instructions and financial support, the report said.
Authorities detained Novi and her husband the night before a planned attack on the presidential palace in Jakarta and later picked up Puspitasari, who was part of the same network and had been planning to carry out a bombing on the holiday island of Bali, the report said.
Other women have been arrested for offenses including setting up a pro-Daesh 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 Daesh.
“The need to know more about Indonesian extremist women suddenly has become urgent,” it said.
Indonesia’s national counter-terror agency declined to comment.
Indonesian women seeking to become Daesh suicide bombers: Think tank
Indonesian women seeking to become Daesh suicide bombers: Think tank
‘Unofficial’ talks on plastic pollution treaty to begin in Japan
- “Plastic pollution is a planetary problem that affects everyone: every country, every community and every individual,” Cordano warned after being elected
TOKYO: Delegates from around 20 countries will hold three days of “informal” talks in Japan from Sunday aimed at salvaging efforts toward a landmark global treaty on plastic pollution.
Supposedly final talks in South Korea in 2024 toward an agreement failed, and a renewed effort in Geneva last August likewise collapsed in overtime.
A Japanese Environment Ministry official said that the “informal” closed-door meeting among “working-level officials” through Tuesday was not expected to result in any official announcement.
If we don’t take concerted action, it will get much worse in the coming decades. A treaty is urgently needed.
Julio Cordano, Chile’s chief climate negotiator
“Japan is in a position of pushing for progress on the issue, and so is hosting the meeting,” the official told AFP without wishing to be named.
She added that “little progress” has been made since August, other than the election in early February of Chile’s chief climate negotiator Julio Cordano as chairman.
“Plastic pollution is a planetary problem that affects everyone: every country, every community and every individual,” Cordano warned after being elected.
“If we don’t take concerted action, it will get much worse in the coming decades. A treaty is urgently needed,” he said.
More than 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced globally each year, with half for single-use items.
A large bloc of states wants bold action such as curbing plastic production, while a smaller clutch of oil-producing states wants to focus more narrowly on waste management.
Countries expected to be present in Tokyo include big oil producers like Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United States as well as islands states Antigua and Barbuda and Palau, plus China, India and the European Union.
The UN’s environment chief told AFP in an interview in October that a global treaty remains “totally doable.”
“No one has walked away and said, ‘this is just too hopeless, we’re giving up’,” United Nations Environment Programme executive director Inger Andersen said.
