Explained: How women differ from men in jihadi terrorism

Data suggests that terrorist organisations may be increasingly recruiting women.

Only 2% of the women had a criminal background before radicalisation, compared to 19% of the men.

A large-scale research project has sought to evaluate the characteristics of women involved in jihadism-inspired terrorism. Coincidentally, one of the suicide bombers in the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka was a woman. The researchers, led by a PhD student at North Carolina State University, drew on data from the Western Jihadism Project, based at Brandeis University, which collects data on terrorists associated with al-Qaeda-inspired organisations. They conducted comparative analyses of 272 women and 266 men, who were matched to control for variables such as ethnicity, nation of residence and age at radicalisation.