Women and Violent Extremism in Europe and Central Asia

This chapter explores the roles of women in supporting, joining, intervening in, and preventing violent extremism in Kyrgyzstan. Counter-terrorism police in Kyrgyzstan report 863 total foreign fighters between 2010 and June 2016, with 188 of them being women. ISIS in Syria and Iraq and its local affiliates are the primary groups operating and radicalizing people from Kyrgyzstan into violent extremism. Kyrgyz extremist national groups also exist and have become more powerful in recent years. However, this report is limited to studying the primary dynamics of radicalization and mobilization with reference to ISIS and its ilk in Syria and Iraq, or on the ground in Kyrgyzstan.