This study aims to understand Bangladeshi female jihadists’ evolving socio-demographic backgrounds, organizational roles, and the driving factors that radicalize them. It is found that besides homemakers and students, female jihadists, who are mainly young, come from various professions, including education, health, business, law, and private jobs. The results indicate that women in higher socioeconomic status, who endorse violent tactics and militant objectives, may be more inclined to participate in jihadism actively. During the COVID-19 pandemic, instead of carrying out violent attacks, they use social media to spread their extremist ideologies, recruit new members, and raise funds. The results show that the Internet played a significant role in the radicalization of women during the pandemic, while family and friends played the leading role in the past.

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This paper explores the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in leadership and decision making in social movements. To do so, this study examines the 2013 Shahbag protests in Bangladesh through the lens of new social movement theories. The study employs a multi-level and multi-method approach in analyzing the protests. It finds that, along with traditional communication tools, ICT played an important role in the leadership and decision-making process in the first three days of the protests that made it an example of new social movement. However, when the political party members captured the protests, it became a hybrid. I argue that the new network society formed by using ICT changes the communication pattern among activists, the nature of leadership, and the process of decision making of a movement and that this differentiates it from other conventional social movements.

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