The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor.
We have been taught, in so many different ways, to think of women as the more nurturing, the more caring and the gentler of the two genders – the group most likely to oppose violence and certainly the brutal murder of people by beheadings or through other equally grotesque methods.
We would, as a generalisation, expect women to stand against bombings, shootings and war which kill indiscriminately, leaving the bodies of infants, children, fathers and mothers strewn on the streets, but this too seems to be a fallacy. Our understanding of human nature appears to be badly flawed.
The increased evidence of the radicalisation of people, including women, and their induction into Daesh is something we need to study further. It could have a dramatic impact on our future, as a nation, as a society and as a people. In the last few weeks alone we have heard some terrifying accounts of the growing grip of Daesh on our country and the terrifying ability of the world’s most feared terrorist group to reach right into the midst of households and pull female members into their net.
From Karachi we were told that wives and other relatives of the four highly educated men who shot down some 43 members of the Ismaili community at Safoora Chowk in May last year were involved in spreading pro-Daesh literature and preaching its cause, sometimes at gatherings in their homes.
From Lahore we have heard the surreal tale of three women, one the principal of a religious institution – and the holder of an MPhil degree – who suddenly left home with their children, some merely toddlers or infants, to make their way to Syria possibly via Quetta and then Iran, as part of a group of 20. They were assisted by others based in Karachi.
There is some doubt about how far they actually got, with the latest, somewhat hazy media reports saying the women, dressed from head to toe in black – the colour of Daesh both literally and metaphorically – were arrested before crossing the border. We need official confirmation of this, but what does not change is the fact that Daesh or IS is present in our country. Arrests of persons thought to be linked to the group have also been reported from Sialkot, and it seems almost a certainty that other rings may be active elsewhere.
The official approach given these reports is terrifying. We appear to be in a state of denial with the government insisting there is no Daesh presence in the country and that the force has not been allowed to move in. This is clearly untrue. This ostrich-like approach helps no one. In fact, it helps the outfit spread its net quietly and without check. We need to be brave enough to face up to the truth rather than simply deny it. Attempting to hide facts from the public will help no one. It will simply add to the darkness we are in danger of becoming enwrapped in.
What is important is to try and comprehend precisely how Daesh is establishing itself in our country. Of course, the perfect groundwork for this existed already in a nation where extremist groups were able to flourish for years and plant dangerous ideas in the minds of the tens of thousands of people influenced either by radical clerics or graduates of the seminaries that have sprung up everywhere in the country.
But it seems the networks, such as the one operating in Lahore, are scientifically managed and run with precision. It is thought that Bushra, the woman thought to be at the centre of the ring had contacted Daesh through Skype to ‘clarify’ some concepts regarding Islam in her role as head of a religious institution. There is some speculation that she may even have Skyped with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of the organisation, or at least broadcast sermons over Skype into her living room where women gathered to hear them. Other social media applications, including WhatsApp, where used to disseminate this further.
When women are recruited to a cause, it also means they are in many cases in an excellent position to draw in their children as well. Mothers, after all, have a huge influence on the lives of even teenage children, whether sons or daughters. One of the boys who travelled with his mother to Quetta is understood to have WhatsApped his father saying they had already reached Syria. The father appeared to have no idea of his families travel plans and the conversation was cut off when he demanded pictures of the place where they were apparently based at.
These are simply flimsy details. We need to understand the entire phenomenon much better. There is still a question mark over quite how these women were radicalised to this extent; this question applies to the case of Tashfeen Malik, the California killer, as well. What is it that draws ordinary women towards groups that preach open violence and death? In some ways, it seems the foundation may be laid by other organisations which are less extremist in views but place in minds the initial seeds of what grows into a bigger force.
Both Bushra and her husband in Lahore are thought to have been associated for many years with the Jamaat-ud-Da’awa, the group led by Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, previously known as the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which many argue is essentially involved in charitable work. This is indeed the case. It does do enormous amounts of social service even for minority groups in the country. But at the same time, it spreads the idea of jihad and other violent means to achieve an end, often with extreme subtlety, moving ahead one step at a time.
The JuD was banned in 2008 after the UN placed it on a list of terrorist organisations following the Mumbai attacks. But in reality, it continues to operate freely and has a vast number of supporters. A 2015 ban on television coverage of the group, which came in after its members were seen assisting authorities following a fire in Lahore, has not changed the fact that the outfit – and others like it – continue to run their operations without any real check.
Ending this is one place to start fighting extremism. But the menace has spread so far and so rapidly that more action will be required. We need our intelligence agencies to activate themselves and tell us to what extent and how the Daesh has infiltrated our country. We need to ask questions too about how the senior Afghan Taliban leader who Imran Khan boasts was treated at the Shaukat Khanum Hospital, managed to cross the border and enter the country.
Somewhere, there are serious security lapses and perhaps lapses in will and commitment. Somewhere, we have gone very wrong in terms of educating our people about religion and warding off intolerance when it first began to creep in and alter the shape of our society. Pushing them back into form is now a difficult task.
The tactic of reaching out to women was used also by the Taliban, notably in Swat, as a means to pull in entire families. It worked well, and it seems the IS may – to some extent – be attempting to replicate this means as a method to expand its influence in the country and draw more people into its devious net of evil.
Email: kamilahyathotmail.com