Waves of terrorism refuse to die, as if they are becoming a permanent feature to endure. These episodes of terrorism are pushing Pakistan back to mould itself to violence, assuming it an unavoidable way of life. The immediate effect is the prevalent feeling of insecurity in areas fraught with violence.The involvement of women in despicable practices such as terrorism should be a worrying sign for any normal society. In incidents of terrorism ravaging Balochistan recently, the media reported the participation of women, who acted either as a suicide bomber leading a group of outlaws to the premises of security forces or as a rifle-carrying insurgent moving along with fellow rebels firing shots at security forces. This is a new phenomenon to which the media has failed to pay sufficient attention.A refuge can be sought in the claim that young Baloch women are being brainwashed to indulge in terrorism. An added point peddled is that they join the ranks of insurgents under the influence of some drug which numbs their senses to comprehend what they have been doing. A few would-be suicide bombers have been presented before the media with the claim that they were recruited through social media and that now they renounce terrorism. With that, a caution is issued that females should shy away from using social media in case they fall victim to any anti-state propaganda prompting them to be used by male insurgents to serve their objectives. This kind of bearing is a narrative of the state which feels embarrassment at the involvement of women in pro-insurgent episodes inviting the attention of the international media.If the involvement of women in insurgency-filled phenomena were sporadic, it could be assumed that the unusual is also part of life. However, when an increased number of women are found getting involved in such a heinous act as terrorism, the acts catch attention and invite social scientists to look beyond the apparent and find out the underlying causes. Certainly, it could not be easy for a young Baloch girl, who mostly claims to be educated, to leave a settled regular life and career for seeking refuge in hills to get trained militarily to die for a cause which is condemned generally by the people at large.Multiple research studies done by this writer in Punjab reveal that women are considered part of the solution, ranging from the prevention of terrorism by persuading a terrorist not to get involved in acts of terrorism to the rehabilitation of a perpetrator by bringing a terrorist out of the fold of terrorism and making him join the normal national mainstream. Women are not considered part of the problem. The Punjab of the recent past was hit hard by Islamic radicalisation and associated violent religious extremism, which showed its tentacles somewhere, especially in South Punjab, as sectarianism and somewhere, especially in Central Punjab, as bigotry consuming the lives of even Christians. By being wounded, women were victims of terrorism. By becoming single parents after the death of a male family member in a terrorist incident, women were the worst sufferers carrying financial burdens for the rest of their lives. However, women were not offenders.Similarly, a study steered by this writer in Punjab in the past decade revealed that two main factors, societal dogmas and extremist ideologies, had been pushing the youth into the morass of terrorism. The study also discovered that people’s persuasion and the state’s coercion had been pulling the youth out of the quagmire of terrorism. It simply means that though there could be factors which throw the youth into the fold of terrorism, there would be factors which pull them out of the same fold.Punjab’s experience with terrorism divulges that terrorism is not an act which takes root automatically in society. All societies admire normalcy and orderliness and abhor deviance. If a society falls into the abyss of terrorism, it means that there must be underlying long-standing instigating factors which make the environment conducive for festering terrorism unhindered, though there could be factors which gain equal importance in counterbalancing the instigating factors. The loss of balance is an anomaly opening space for terrorism. Similarly, there must be factors not only to pull miscreants out of the crater of terrorism but also to sustain them in a normal mode. Hence, if terrorism keeps engulfing a society, it means that the instigating factors are stronger than the counter-balancing factors feeding terrorism. Moreover, it means that factors to pull miscreants out of terrorism and sustain them in normalcy are weaker than the factors indulging them in terrorism. The baseline is that no society approves terrorism nor supports it.Against this background, drawing conclusions from the Punjab experience, it can be said that in the case of Balochistan the factors active in pushing the youth, especially females, are stronger than the counter-balancing factors preventing the same phenomenon. Similarly, the factors pulling miscreants out of terrorism must be weaker than the temptation to join and sustain terrorism. Moreover, rehabilitation programmes must be feebler and failing to prevent relapse into terrorism. That is, relapse outclasses remission. Simply put, signs are galore indicating that in Balochistan factors to pull the youth out of terrorism and sustain them in normalcy as rehabilitated individuals are insufficient and inadequate.The contrast Balochistan offers is that, owing to its volatility, it is difficult to conduct a study to understand the reasons for women’s proclivity for joining the ranks of insurgency and resorting to terrorism. Certainly, in South Asia there are fewer precedents where women are found actively involved in terrorism. Balochistan is becoming an exception. Nevertheless, without losing heart, local universities must be encouraged and funded to dig out the reasons for Baloch women joining the surge in militancy depicted as insurgency.

Dr. Tehmina Aslam RanjhaThe writer is an analyst on National Security and Counter-Terrorism. She tweets @TA_Ranjha and can be reached at taranjha1@gmail.com

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