In July 2014, northern Nigeria faced a spate of suicide bomber attacks. Although this tactic has been employed by Boko Haram since 2011, the new perpetrators of violence are often young females. Women have also increasingly become targets in kidnapping assaults, with the abduction of the 270 Chibok girls in April 2014 prompting an international uproar.

This paper argues that gender-based violence (GBV)⁽²⁾ amounts to a deliberate strategy of Boko Haram, employed partly in response to counter-terrorism measures taken by the Nigerian government, and fuelled by patriarchal norms. After exploring GBV in the wider context of a patriarchal society, the analysis focuses on the diversification of women’s roles in the insurgency. Finally, the paper investigates the rationale behind the employment of women as instruments of terror by the extremist group.

GBV in a patriarchal society

According to the 2012 British Council Gender Report, 49% of Nigeria’s population is female. One in three Nigerian women and girls aged 15-24 has been a victim of some form of violence, while at least one in five has experienced physical abuse.⁽³⁾ Violence against women is mostly perpetrated by husbands, fathers and other male relatives,⁽⁴⁾ sustained by the culture of silence and stigma surrounding sexual abuse in Nigeria.

Traditional systems of belief, rooted in patriarchy and unequal power relations, still hold great sway in society, marginalising and subordinating women to an inferior position vis-à-vis the men.⁽⁵⁾ Female genital mutilation (FGM), child marriage and widowhood rites ⁽⁶⁾ are socially sanctioned practices in Nigeria, and women who defy such widely accepted norms are often ostracised by their community.⁽⁷⁾ In 2002-2011, 39% of Nigerian girls were married before the age of 18, and 30% of female children were subjected to FGM, a practice endorsed by almost 22% of the population.⁽⁸⁾

Violence against women is endemic in some public institutions, such as schools, the police and the military, where a culture of impunity protects perpetrators of rape and other crimes. The police are not only less likely to investigate complaints of GBV due to institutional sexism and perceptions of such aggressions as a private family matter,⁽⁹⁾ but they themselves have been found to commit abuses against women. Amnesty International has received reports of women being raped or sexually abused by the police or the Joint Task Force soldiers in public locations or while in their custody.⁽¹⁰⁾ Likewise, sexual harassment, corporal punishment and intimidation are frequently perpetrated against female students by male students and staff, and partially account for the high drop-out rates for girls in Nigerian schools.⁽¹¹⁾

From targets to agents

Within the wider context of social and cultural norms condoning GBV, women have become targets and terror instruments in the conflict between Boko Haram, government forces and militias. Since mid-2010, Nigeria has experienced a resurgence of Islamist militancy in the northeast, as well as an increasing sophistication of attacks due to the group’s links with regional terrorist organisations.⁽¹²⁾ The government has responded with generally repressive counter-terrorist measures, relying heavily on military-led operations to kill and capture Boko Haram insurgents. Under the May 2013 state of emergency, 3,000 troops were deployed to supplement the 5,000 Joint Task Force soldiers already in operation, frequent raids on militants’ houses were conducted and multiple checkpoints were enforced.⁽¹³⁾ These measures restricted the movement of Boko Haram fighters and ammunition and made attacks against government assets more difficult, compelling the terrorist group to increasingly target civilians. They have also brought about an evolution of women’s roles within the Boko Haram militancy.

Since the intensification of their insurgency in 2011, militant forces have captured and exploited women as assets. Converted to Islam under death threat, the abductees usually cook and clean for guerrilla units and are employed as baits for soldiers to be trapped and killed by Boko Haram.⁽¹⁴⁾ A new development has emerged with the kidnapping of the Chibok girls. Subsequent to the responsibility claim by the Islamist leader Abubakar Shekau,⁽¹⁵⁾ “I abducted your girls; there is a market for selling humans. Allah…commands me to sell [them],”⁽¹⁶⁾ more than 200 kidnapped girls were reportedly sold into marriage and sexual slavery for US$ 12 each to militant fighters.⁽¹⁷⁾ Girls and young women are therefore being commodified for social capital gains among Boko Haram members.

As extremists have come under pressure due to increasing security screening for males, the group has resorted to using female operatives to smuggle weapons. During search operations in Maiduguri in August 2013, government forces arrested five female Boko Haram members carrying rifles and ammunition under their hijabs.⁽¹⁸⁾ Other female members have acted as Boko Haram informants.⁽¹⁹⁾ The terrorist group is increasingly capitalising on women’s heightened likelihood to evade suspicion at security checkpoints. As a result, four attacks were carried out by female suicide bombers in Kano at the end of July 2014.⁽²⁰⁾ Although one might presume a certain level of informed consent from the adult suicide bombers, the 10-year-old girl strapped with explosives ⁽²¹⁾ who was detained by police was undoubtedly employed as an instrument of terror.

Notwithstanding that many young women and girls are indoctrinated or coerced into compliance, there are indications that monetary compensation or the desire to avenge relatives killed by government forces could be incentives to join the insurgency. In contrast to the 69.1% of Nigerians in the northeast living on less than US$ 1 per day,⁽²²⁾ Boko Haram female weapons-carriers receive between US$ 30 and US$ 312 for their smuggling missions.⁽²³⁾ In July, three women, including the widow of a militant fighter, were arrested for recruiting female members for the Islamist group,⁽²⁴⁾ prompting concerns over a potential female wing of Boko Haram.

The rationale behind women’s instrumentalisation

Drawing on an extremist interpretation of Islam, the unprecedented employment of women as terror tools by Boko Haram was initiated in response to the government’s counter-terrorist measures, and has gradually developed into an effective war strategy.

Boko Haram guides itself according to an ultra-Salafi,⁽²⁵⁾ radicalist ideology, which calls for a return to the fundamentals of Islam. In the words of Shekau, “Democracy and the [Nigerian] constitution is paganism….Christianity is not the religion of God….We are trying to coerce you to embrace Islam.”⁽²⁶⁾ Likewise, their strict interpretation of sharia law ⁽²⁷⁾ legitimises men’s superiority over women and allows for “infidel” females to be taken as slaves.⁽²⁸⁾ Their religious narrative, which also advocates for the eradication of secular education, justifies the attacks against girls enrolled in non-Islamic schools and Muslim women who have been deemed impure.

However, the kidnapping of women and schoolgirls as a Boko Haram tactic has emerged only recently, in response to a similar pressure strategy deployed by the Nigerian government. Throughout 2012, the police detained the wives and children of high-ranking militant leaders, including family members of Shekau, without any formal charges.⁽²⁹⁾ In turn, the militants pledged revenge: “Since you are holding our women, just wait and see what will happen…to your own wives according to sharia law.”⁽³⁰⁾ Women thereby became a bargaining chip for both sides, with Boko Haram securing the release of its women in exchange for the security officers’ wives and children who had been kidnapped from the Bama police barracks in May 2013.

Beyond retaliatory intentions, attacks on women and girls amount to a tremendously efficient war strategy due to their devastating effects on entire communities. Within Nigerian culture, survivors of sexual crimes often bear the stigma of the assault, especially those who subsequently become pregnant or contract HIV/AIDS.⁽³¹⁾ Rejected by their families, these women become more vulnerable to radicalisation and other dangers. Additionally, assaults on school girls and the employing of young women as suicide bombers amount to spectacular attacks. These attract extensive media coverage and support from Boko Haram sympathisers, and increase resentment of the general population against a government incapable of protecting its populace.

Concluding remarks

In line with Boko Haram’s extremist ideology, GBV has become a solution to supporting guerrilla units forcefully withdrawn to the Sambisa forest, a vengeful response to the unlawful detention of Boko Haram family members, and an adaptive strategy to the government’s security measures.

Nigerian girls and women have found themselves at the intersection between the government’s inaction or inability to protect them, Boko Haram’s strategy to employ them as tools of terror, and a patriarchal society that condemns them for unwillingly becoming victims of rape and violence. From mere pawns, sold into marriage and sexual slavery, they sometimes join the operational tasks as weapons-carriers or suicide bombers. Such a rapid evolution is a stark reminder to the Nigerian government that radicalised young women can become a weapon of war just as dangerous as Boko Haram’s rifles. It is clear evidence that the protection of women in conflict should become a priority in Nigeria’s counter-terrorism strategy.

Written by Teodora Drăgulescu ⁽¹⁾

NOTES:

(1) Teodora Drăgulescu is a Research Associate with Consultancy Africa Intelligence (CAI). Her main research interests focus on human rights and transnational terrorism in Africa. Contact Teodora through CAI’s Rights in Focus unit ( rights.focus@consultancyafrica.com). Edited by Liezl Stretton. Research Manager: Mandy Noonan.
(2) According to the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, GBV refers to “any act that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life.” For further elaboration on the definition, consult http://www.un.org.
(3) ‘Gender in Nigeria: Improving the lives of girls and women in Nigeria’, British Council Gender Report 2nd edition, 2012, http://www.britishcouncil.org.ng.
(4) Osakue, G., ‘Violence against women and girls: Breaking the culture of silence’, 2006, http://www.kit.nl.
(5) Nwosu, I.E., 2012. Gender role perceptions and the changing role of women in Nigeria. International Journal of Agricultural and Rural Development, 15(3), pp. 1240-1246.
(6) Widows are sometimes subjected to degrading and dehumanising rituals such as having their hair scraped off with razors, drinking the water used to wash their husbands’ corpses, house confinement, not being allowed to bathe, forced remarriage to a husband’s relative or loss of inheritance rights. For elaboration on the topic, consult Idialu, E.E., 2012. The inhuman treatment of widows in African communities. Current Research Journal of Social Sciences, 4(1), pp. 6-11.
(7) Aluko, Y. and Aluko-Arowolo, O., ‘The silent crime: A sociological appraisal of gender-based violence experienced by women in Yoruba culture of Nigeria’, paper presented at the fifth African Population Conference, Arusha, Tanzania, 10-14 December 2007, http://uaps2007.princeton.edu.
(8) ‘The state of the world’s children 2013: Children with disabilities’, UNICEF, May 2013, http://www.unicef.org.
(9) ‘Gender in Nigeria: Improving the lives of girls and women in Nigeria’, British Council Gender Report 2nd edition, 2012, http://www.britishcouncil.org.ng.
(10) ‘Under embargo until May 13th: Stop torture. Country profile: Nigeria’, Amnesty International, 2014, http://www.amnesty.org; ‘Nigeria: Trapped in the cycle of violence’, Amnesty International, 2012, http://www.amnesty.org.
(11) Bahari, S. and Leach, F., 2009. “‘I invited her to my office’: Normalising sexual violence in a Nigerian college of education”, in Heyneman, S.P. (ed.). Buying your way into heaven: Education and corruption in international perspective. Sense Publishers: Rotterdam.
(12) For a detailed account of Boko Haram’s evolution of tactics and its international terrorist connections, consult Cordano, D., ‘The evolution of Boko Haram: A growing threat?’, Consultancy Africa Intelligence, 27 June 2014, http://www.consultancyafrica.com.
(13) Liman, B., ‘Boko Haram: Government silence does little to inspire confidence’, ThinkAfricaPress, 25 February 2014, http://thinkafricapress.com.
(14) Brock, J., ‘Insight: Boko Haram, taking to hills, seize slave brides’, Reuters, 17 November 2013, http://www.reuters.com.
(15) According to Nigerian security sources, the terrorist leader is presumed dead and the man who appears in the group’s recent videos may be an impersonator of Shekau, identified as Mohammed Bashir. For further information, consult: ‘Boko Haram militant is dead, Nigerian military says’, France 24, 25 September 2014, http://www.france24.com.
(16) Harris, R., ‘The kidnapped Nigerian girls are Christian. Why doesn’t our media say so?’, The Spectator, 8 May 2014, http://blogs.spectator.co.uk.
(17) ‘Nigeria’s kidnapped girls sold into marriage’, Al Jazeera, 1 May 2014, http://www.aljazeera.com.
(18) Marama, N., ‘JTF, vigilantes arrest female Boko Haram’, The Vanguard Nigeria, 17 August 2013, http://www.vanguardngr.com.
(19) Chima, C., ‘Concern mounts over B’Haram female operatives’, The Cable Nigeria, 3 July 2014, http://www.thecable.ng.
(20) Bloom, M., ‘Female suicide bombers are not a new phenomenon’, The Washington Post, 6 August 2014, http://www.washingtonpost.com.
(21) Pflanz, M., ‘10-year-old would-be suicide bomber arrested in Nigeria’, The Telegraph, 31 July 2014, http://www.telegraph.co.uk.
(22) ‘Nigeria poverty profile 2010 ’, National Bureau of Statistics, January 2012, http://www.nigerianstat.gov.ng.
(23) ‘Boko Haram: Coffers and coffins. A Pandora’s box – the vast financing options for Boko Haram’, Terrorism Research & Analysis Consortium, March 2014, http://www.trackingterrorism.org.
(24) ‘Boko Haram crisis: Nigeria arrests female recruiters’, BBC, 4 July 2014, http://www.bbc.com.
(25) Please refer to footnote 26 for an explanation of the term.
(26) Newcombe, J., ‘Motivation of Boko Haram is convert to Islam or die’, 22 May 2014, http://godfatherpolitics.com.
(27) Sharia represents the body of Islamic law, derived from the Quran, and the teachings and practices of Prophet Mohammed. It guides all aspects of Muslim life, including daily routines, familial and religious obligations, and financial dealings. There are many interpretations of sharia, among which is that of the Salafi movement, which abides by a literal, strict and puritanical approach to Islam. Ultra-Salafis, as with Boko Haram, combine respect for the sacred texts in their most literal form with commitment to jihad against Western values, and the goal of creating an Islamic state.
(28) Lichter, I., ‘Boko Haram’s ideology key to violence’, The Huffington Post, 16 May 2014, http://www.huffingtonpost.com.
(29) Pearson, E. and Zenn, J., ‘How Nigerian police also detained women and children as weapon of war’, The Guardian, 6 May 2014, http://www.theguardian.com.
(30) Kimberley, M., ‘How not to bring back our girls: No foreign military intervention in Nigeria’, The Nordic Africa Institute, 19 May 2014, http://naiforum.org.
(31) ‘Nigeria: Boko Haram abducts women, recruits children’, Human Rights Watch, 29 November 2014, http://www.hrw.org.