The prevalent use of the internet and social media by extremist groups has enabled women to be more active not only as propagators and financiers, but also as combatants and even suicide bombers. The initiative has come both from terrorist leaders who saw the tactical benefits of using female operatives and from the women themselves. In her talk, NavaNuraniyah, an analyst at the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), will explore the evolution of the role of women extremists since the 1990s and the crucial role of the internet in that evolution.

Nava Nuraniyah has been an analyst with IPAC since 2015, and she has also worked as a researcher on terrorism and radicalisation in Indonesia at the Centre of Excellence for National Security, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Singapore.