The women and girls associated with Boko Haram: How has the Nigerian government responded?

Botha, Sven

doi:10.1080/10220461.2021.1927167

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…It is not surprising, then, that the role of women in Boko Haram has become more sharply focused since 2014, when the jihadist group intensified its recruitment of women, girls, and widows of fallen fighters (Al-Amin 2017). Although these women were neither assigned to leadership roles nor part of Boko Haram's highest decision-making body, the Shura council, they assumed everyday roles as spies, messengers, managers, informants, recruiters, smugglers, IED (improvised explosive device) experts, domestic workers, frontline fighters, symbols of revenge, reproductive agents, and suicide bombers (see Botha 2021; ICG 2016; Nagarajan 2017). The opportunity to marry a wife at little to no cost drew droves of unmarried young men into Boko Haram, helped incentivize male insurgents to remain in the group, shamed young men into joining Boko Haram, and induced sympathy for Boko Haram's message.…”

Section: Boko Haram's Women Insurgentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Out of the Shadows: The Women Countering Insurgency in Nigeria

Agbiboa

2021

Pol & Gen

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Moving beyond the focus on violence against women and violence committed by women, this article interrogates violence countered by women. The article sheds new light on the gendered practices of counterinsurgency in northeast Nigeria, with critical attention to why women joined the civilian resistance to the Boko Haram insurgency and their complex role and agency as local security providers. Using the voices and lifeworlds of women who joined the Civilian Joint Task Force (yan gora) in Borno State as well as the Vigilante Group Nigeria and Hunters Association (kungiya marhaba) in Adamawa State, the article underscores the layered and gender-bending role of women as frontline fighters, knowledge brokers, state informants, and producers of vigilante technologies. The article finds that women counterinsurgents mobilized after Boko Haram shifted its strategy toward using female insurgents, especially as suicide bombers. Women joined the war against Boko Haram for complex reasons, including personal loss, revenge, family ties, community attachment, patriotism, and a collective yearning for normalcy.

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Section: Boko Haram's Women Insurgentsmentioning

confidence: 99%