ISIS Just Started Using Female Suicide Bombers, But Boko Haram Has Been Doing It for Years—And Shows No Sign of Stopping

“ISIS and Al-Qaeda, like other Salafi jihadi movements, operate according to clearly demarcated roles for men and for women,” says Pearson, who has written a piece on the topic for a forthcoming CTC volume on Boko Haram. “Men are really admired as warriors—male violence is revered—[while] female violence is not permitted and is mostly transgressive.”