Lecture held on ‘Women and violent extremism’

Manama : The IISS Middle East hosted a lecture by award winning journalist and Al Hayat Foreign Editor, Baria Alamuddin. The lecture on ‘Women and Violent Extremism’, focussed on accounts of more than a thousand Saudi women at home and abroad.

The lecture, was chaired by IISS Consulting Senior Fellow for Middle East Policies Dr Elisabeth Marteu, and introduced by IISS Senior Fellow for Political Islamism Dr Nelly Lahoud. She denounced extremism and violence while supporting social rights movement in an acceptable way.

Women surveyed showed an understanding of terrorist groups’ methods of demeaning women through sex trafficking, whether Muslim women, or abducted non-Muslim minority women and highlighted the travails of kidnapped Yazidi girl Nadia Murad, an ISIS survivor.

Alamuddin also shed light on the militant attitudes of some Muslim women who are based in the West or are Western converts.

Measured by the numbers and nationalities of the so-called ISIS jihadi brides, conservative lifestyles clearly do not mark the motive behind radicalised thinking.

The lecture was attended by Simon Martin British ambassador to Bahrain, U.S. Ambassador William Roebuck and other dignitaries.