The Supervisor of the Prince Naif Chair for Intellectual Security Studies at King Saud University has said that a female team has been set up to research “signs of intellectual extremism in women”. Khaled Al-Durais told Al-Watan Arabic daily on Tuesday that the move would represent a “practical study of a sample of families who have among them ideological extremists” and that it came in response to “recent events revealing the role of women in Al-Qaeda”. The government announced earlier this month the arrest of Saudi woman Haila Al-Suqayyer in Buraidah on charges of funding and recruiting for Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The Prince Naif Chair team is to be led by Latifa Al-Sumairi, a professor of curriculum and teaching methodology, with other members being women professors of Social Studies, Psychology, Islamic Studies and Education. “The research will attempt to uncover general indicators of extremism and will focus on the characteristics of extremists,” Al-Durais said. Abdul Mun'im Al-Mushawwah, the supervisor of the “Al-Sakeena” – “Tranquility” – program to combat terrorism through the internet, meanwhile, has said that 80 percent of terrorist recruitment is conducted through the worldwide web and that the medium represents a “particular threat” to women. “Women are the most easily influenced by extremist websites, but at the same time they are the most likely to go back on deviant ideology, because of their high emotions,” Al-Mushawwah told Okaz. According to Al-Mushawwah, the percentage of women turning their back on the ideology is much higher than men “because of their emotionalism and easily-influenced nature compared to men”. “Fifty percent have rejected it through internet advice, which is double the rate for men,” he said. Al-Mushawwah said that 70 percent of persons who had been given advice by the Al-Sakeena program were women from “the families of extremists”. “The program has a team of female specialists, and the rate of women turning their back on extremism is very high,” he said. “A lot of families have voiced fears over extremism exhibited by their women relatives, which goes to show the families' appreciation of the importance of awareness and of protection from being dragged into this ideology.” The Al-Sakeena program, Al-Mushawwah said, was looking to enlist “anyone capable of carrying out its work” to “widen the circle of moderation and ostracize extremism”. “We are seeking to recruit male and female volunteers from various facets to transfer the issue of intellectual security from the elite to the ordinary people. We are extremely keen to enlist qualified women given the rise in female extremism on the internet,” he said. The Al-Sakeena internet program, which is part of the wider Al-Munasaha terrorist advisory and rehabilitation campaign, has a 13-member department of women qualified in Shariah and other academic subjects. Al-Mushawwah describes the team as “extremely successful”. “We hope to expand it if the need arises,” he said. Saudi Gazette reported last Saturday that courses run by the Al-Munasaha anti-terrorism advisory and rehabilitation program at colleges in six regions of the Kingdom had revealed a worrying extent of extremist influence on Saudi women. Al-Munasaha member Ibrahim Al-Maiman, said that committees had been met with questions concerning the legitimacy of “sheltering and hiding husbands who belong to those of deviant thought” and maintaining silence over “sons who frequent suspect internet sites”. “The current situation represents a significant development in the role of women in the ideology,” Al-Maiman said. “They are funding, recruiting, harboring, and hiding, and in some regions the role has turned into actual participation in carrying out acts of terrorism.” The situation, he said, required a strategy to “target female circles”.
