Worth many sins: Al-Shabaab’s shifting relationship with Kenyan women

ABSTRACT

What happens when the world’s ‘oldest profession’ interacts with history’s oldest form of war? In the Horn of Africa, a symbiotic relationship between prostitutes and terrorists has emerged, illuminating critical information about the group’s ideology and strategy. In this article, we argue that al-Shabaab’s differential treatment of Somali and other East African women reveals the group’s strategic focus on Somalia, despite its claims to be a globally focused Islamic extremist organization. Through original ethnographic fieldwork in Kenya, the authors explore al-Shabaab’s deliberate relationships with different groups of women and explain how this helps scholars better understand the group. This article suggests the next phase of scholarship on gender and terrorism, encouraging scholars not only to pay attention to the relationship between women and terrorist groups, but to also examine the nuanced relationships between different categories of women and terrorist groups.

KEYWORDS:

• Al-Shabaab
• terrorism
• prostitution
• gender
• Kenya

Acknowledgments

We are indebted to their interview participants who volunteered their time to share their insight and experiences. Additionally, we are deeply grateful for the time and expertise of our research partners in Nairobi and we would not have been able to conduct this research without them. Finally, we wish to express their deepest thanks to Ellen Chapin, Meg Guliford, Hilary Matfess, Robert Nagel, Sherry Zaks, and the two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and detailed comments on early drafts of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. We use the term ‘sex worker’ and ‘prostitute’ interchangeably throughout this article.

2. We discuss ethnicity and nationality when discussing being Somali because due to colonial boundaries, individuals considered ethnic Somalis are not necessarily nationals of Somalia, but instead live and are considered nationals of neighboring Ethiopia, Kenya, and Djibouti.

3. For ease of reference we will refer to the non-Somali women involved in this analysis as Kenyan women, but as noted in descriptions throughout the article, al-Shabaab also has relationships with Tanzanian and other sex workers from across East Africa. However, since they are all residents of Kenya, we use Kenyan as a short hand.

4. This distinguishes the group from other terrorist groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and the Syria which messages to both a domestic and international audience.

5. Donnelly, “Wedded to Warfare,” 89–123.

6. Petrich Interview. Pretoria via Skype. February 2018.

7. Petrich Interview. Nairobi. January 2018.

8. Abdi, “Convergence of Civil War and the Religious Right,” 183–207.

9. For details on feminist research methodology see Ackerly and True, Doing Feminist Research in Political and Social Science.

10. Cynthia Enloe promotes this idea of taking women’s lives seriously throughout her work, see e.g. Enloe, Does Khaki Become You?

11. See e.g., Sjoberg, Cooke, and Neal, “Introduction.”

12. Saltman and Smith, “’Til Martyrdom Do Us Part’ Gender and the ISIS Phenomenon.” See also recent news stories on young women from the United Kingdom and the United States joining ISIS, Adam, “Shamima Begum, teenager who joined ISIS, to lose UK citizenship, Callimachi and Porter, “2 American Wives of ISIS Militants Want to Return Home.”

13. Ahram, “Sexual Violence and the Making of ISIS.”

14. Tsebelis, Nested Games.

15. Tickner, “Gendering Security Studies and Peace Studies,” 22.

16. Wibben, Feminist Security Studies, 21.

17. Ibid., 21–22.

18. Thomas and Bond, “Women’s Participation in Violent Political Organizations.”

19. Ibid., 489.

20. Wood and Thomas, “Women on the Frontline,” 36.

21. Ibid.

22. Henshaw, Why Women Rebel, 117.

23. O’Rourke, “What’s Special about Female Suicide Terrorism?” 692.

24. Sjoberg, Cooke and Neal, “Introduction,” 282.

25. Felter, Masters, and Sergie, “‘Al-Shabab.’ Backgrounder.”

26. Sjoberg, et al., Gender and Terrorism, 14.

27. Ibid, 15.

28. See Yuval-Davis, “Intersectionality and Feminist Politics.”

29. In an effort to conduct this potentially disruptive work ethically and safely, we went through rigorous institutional review board (IRB) review processes at our institutions before arriving in Nairobi. We worked closely with local researchers to ensure the interview sites, general topics covered, and informed consent procedures protected interview participants.

30. Human Rights Watch, “Kenya: Killings, Disappearances by Anti-Terror Policy.”

31. Kapteijns, Clan Cleansing in Somalia.

32. Bohumil, “Shapeshifter of Somalia.”

33. Hansen, Al-Shabaab in Somalia.

34. Al Shabaab. “Mapping Militant Organizations.”

35. Ibid.

36. Bohumil, “Shapeshifter of Somalia.”

37. Ibid.

38. Bryden, The Decline and Fall of Al-Shabaab?

39. Ingiriis, “The Invention of Al-Shabaab in Somalia.”

40. Solomon, “Somalia’s Al Shabaab.”

41. ‘Al Shabaab.’ 2018. Mapping Militant Organizations.

42. See note 38 above.

43. Petrich Interview. Nairobi, Kenya. February 2018.

44. Ibid.

45. See note 40 above.

46. Hansen.

47. Ibid.

48. Menkahus, “Al-Shabaab and Social Media.”

49. Menkahaus 312–3.

50. National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). “Global Terrorism Database.”

51. Warner and Chapin, The Suicide Bombers of Al-Shabaab.

52. Davis, Women in Modern Terrorism.

53. Warner and Matfess, Exploding Stereotypes.

54. Ibid.

55. Petrich Interview. Pretoria via Skype. February 2018; Donnelly Interviews. Nairobi, Kenya. March 2017 and May 2017.

56. Donnelly Interview. Nairobi, Kenya. March 2017.

57. See e.g. Auer, Sutcliffe and Lee, “Framing the ‘White Widow,” for more info on Samantha Lewthwaite.

58. Donnelly, “Wedded to Warfare,” 174–92.

59. Ndungu, Irene and Uyo Salifu, The Role of Women in Violent Extremism.

60. Donnelly, “Wedded to Warfare,” 239.

61. Ibid., 89.

62. Ibid; Bader, Coursen-Neff and Hassan, No Place for Children.

63. Petrich Interview. Nairobi, Kenya, February 2018.

64. Ngungu and Salifu.

65. Frykberg, “Kenyan Women Evicted as Reports.”

66. Petrich Interview. Nairobi, Kenya. January 2018.

67. See note 43 above.

68. Petrich, “Al-Shabaab’s Mata Hari Network.”

69. Anzalone, “Kenya’s Muslim Youth Center and Al-Shabaab East African Recruitment,” 10. “Special Report: In Africa, a Militant Group’s Growing Appeal”. “Kenya Imam Denies His Mosque Is Center of Radicalization.”

70. Donnelly Interview. Nairobi, Kenya. May 2017.

71. Ibid.

72. Sperber, “Little Mogadishu, Under Siege.”

73. See note 66 above.

74. Izugbara, “Everyday Negotiations of State Regulation,” 115–30.

75. See note 66 above..

76. See note 68 above.

77. Petrich Interview, Nairobi, Kenya. January 2018.

78. Donnelly, “Wedded to Warfare,” 189–92.

79. See note 43 above.

80. See Wibben, Feminist Security Studies, 22 for discusssion related to the correlation between women and peace.

81. See note 68 above.

82. Charlotte Attwood, “The Sex Slaves of Al-Shabab.”

83. Attwood.

84. Badurdeen, “Women and Recruitment in the Al-Shabaab Network,” 19–48.

85. Ibid.

86. The Sex Slaves of Al-Shabaab.

87. Ibid.

88. Donnelly Interview. Skype. February 2018.

89. It is not the intention of the authors to create a hierarchy of the harms faced by different groups of women, but instead to draw attention to different forms of gender-based violence women experienced based on nationality. Additionally, while the authors describe a particular pattern in the camp, it is also possible that in different contexts Kenyan women were subjected to forced marriage by al-Shabaab members and Somali women were subjected to different forms of sexual violence by al-Shabaab members.

90. Enloe, Maneuvers, 109

91. Ibid., 111.

92. See note 88 above

93. Enloe, Maneuvers, 108.

94. Mao Tse-tung, On Guerrilla Warfare.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Northeastern University’s Department of Political Science under the Graduate Student Research and Experiential Learning Grant and The International Security Studies Program at The Fletcher School, Tufts University

Notes on contributors

Katharine Petrich

Katharine Petrich holds a PhD in Political Science from Northeastern University and is currently Visiting Researcher at the Center for Policy Research at the University of Albany. She works on issues of transnational organized crime, terrorism, and insurgency in the Horn of Africa and Northern Latin America.

Phoebe Donnelly

Phoebe Donnelly is the Stanley Kaplan Postdoctoral Fellow at Williams College. She received her PhD from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Her scholarship explores the gender dynamics of rebel groups and gendered patterns within internal conflicts.