[ARTICLE] FINDING LOVE AND JIHAD
BY: ANA P.SANTOS
Many women are radicalized on Facebook, and an expert says they are now a permanent part of the jihadi structure.
CENTRAL JAVA/JAKARTA, Indonesia – Putri* giggled as she watched the trio fuss over her 11-month-old son. Her two young brothers-in-law made fun with their faces. Her mother-in-law did gurgling sounds. All of them were trying to make her baby open his mouth wide enough to sneak in a spoonful of cough syrup. Her husband Arfan* would come home soon from tilling the field with his father. The simmering pot of vegetables and fish would be ready and the family would gather for supper.
Putri’s life would have been very different if she had married Young Farmer, a smooth-talking Indonesian radical she had met online while she was working as a domestic worker in Singapore. She would have been among the several Indonesian migrant women indoctrinated by men they met and married online and together, planned suicide bomb attacks with. Young Farmer, who also went by the alias Abu Nakir Shaab, was arrested by Indonesian authorities for plotting terrorist activities.
“He was so smart. He knew so many things about Islam, but I never suspected him of being a bomber – a terrorist,” said Putri.
Migrant women: Target for radicalization?
Last month, CNN reported that 3 Indonesian women working in Singapore were arrested in September on suspicion of taking part in terror-financing activities. The women were reportedly promoting ISIS online and donating money to overseas militants. One was reportedly prepared to become a suicide bomber.
Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country and the most populous Muslim-majority nation, has about 9 million citizens working abroad, the majority of whom are women employed in domestic work. The most popular destination countries for Indonesian foreign workers are Hong Kong, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and Taiwan.
Indonesian labour migrants sent back about $9 billion in remittances in 2016.
Their steady income – reported to be 3 times more than what they would make in Indonesia – coupled with the alienation of migrant life make female migrants ideal for extremists looking for women who will join the cause either by funding their trips to Syria, bankrolling their ambition to be a mujahideen, or partnering to carry out a suicide bomb attack.
In a 2017 report, the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), a Jakarta-based think tank, raised the alarm on Indonesian migrant workers falling prey to ISIS extremists. (READ: Indonesian domestic workers radicalized in Hong Kong – report and Indonesian women seeking to become ISIS suicide bombers – study)
According to the IPAC report, there were close to 50 Indonesian migrant workers in Hong Kong who had been radicalized. It is a considerably small number considering the estimated 150,000 Indonesians working in Hong Kong, but the number could be higher. Date Aliah, a migrants rights activist, said that there are likely many more radicalized female foreign workers. “But it is difficult to find them and track them because they are hidden.”
Source: Rappler.com– 28 Disember 2019
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