Paper Title
Female Terrorism: A Weakness Or Strenght?

Abstract
I simply do not agree a woman should be so involved in violence, the idea of a woman being behind a brutal killing is so much horrific and "unnatural" but we are now facing a body of women ready to perpetrate acts of terrorism in every way as violent as their male counterparts and their position and contribution in terrorist attacks have expanded. Just like me, societies view women as crime victims, not perpetrators, nurturers not destroyers, and there is collective shock over the fact that they are now proving to be as much agents of terrorism as men – encouraging those who cannot get to the battleground, to do as much damage as possible at home and to be brutal and sometimes violent. What could have driven these women into such despair that they have nothing else to live for? Are they cajoled or coerced into taking such drastic action? Are they under influence, mentally ill, for personal reasons, ideology or just to aid and abet? And most importantly, is this an indication of a weakness or strength? This paper examines the motivation behind women’s participation in warfare, violent extremism and acts of terrorism and discovers that the reasons women join up are multiple and complex and despite stereotypes about their domesticity and passivity, sometimes they are not innocent or passive participants. Also, terrorists want to be successful and women are often used because they have operational advantage and are effective, the fact that they are viewed as less threatening and receive different treatment by security personnel is a great benefit to a group’s operations. The paper concludes that we have to move past simplistic assumptions about gender and terror and get serious about helping women and girls who are on this deadly path, as well as their would-be victims, more attention must be paid to the specific factors that attract women to terrorist groups and the roles they play once there. Keywords - Gender, Strength, Terrorism, Weakness.