Vancouver native researches female radicalization

Alexandra Bradford was not surprised when a Muslim woman, Tashfeen Malik, was one of two shooters who killed 14 people and wounded 22 others in a terrorist attack last month in San Bernardino, Calif.

Bradford, 28, is a terrorism researcher and analyst who has been based in London for five years. The Vancouver native holds a master of arts degree in terrorism, security and society from Kings College London and a bachelor of arts degree in political science and history from Goldsmiths, University of London. Her main area of study focuses on homegrown Islamist extremism and female radicalization. She graduated from Evergreen High School in 2006.

Her research had predicted that as some Muslim women become radicalized, they take up arms just as their male counterparts do. However, female terrorists are often discussed in different terms than male terrorists, Bradford said. She has encountered writings stating that female terrorists have different motives than male terrorists — that they are getting involved with terrorism to impress a man. But from everything she’s researched, she disagrees with that opinion.

“In women’s own narrative, they were becoming suicide bombers for exactly the same reason men were,” Bradford said. “They are religiously motivated. They believe their salvation is dependent upon it.”

In the aftermath of the San Bernardino attack, Bradford said she heard and read opinions that scrutinized the husband-and-wife terrorists with different yardsticks.

“When the news came out that Malik had left a 6-month-old baby behind, people asked, ‘how could a mother do this and leave her baby behind?’ ” Bradford said.

No one asked how her husband and co-conspirator, Syed Rizwan Farook, could leave a baby behind, she added.

“Why is it that women aren’t considered violent?” Bradford asked. “There’s this idea that women aren’t as violent as men.”

Bradford was in Vancouver visiting family over the holidays. She’d just moved from a tiny, expensive flat in London to a tiny, expensive flat in New York. She will split her time between New York and Europe.

“London feels like home, but New York is easier from a visa perspective,” she said.

She met with The Columbian over coffee at the Java House to talk about her unusual career path. Her quotes have been edited for brevity.

How and when did you become interested in studying terrorism?

I was always interested in terrorism. When 9/11 happened, I was in my last year of middle school. I grew up in a family where we discussed politics. I became obsessed with researching (Osama) bin Laden, the Taliban. I had a middle school teacher who fostered my passion. My end-of-the-year middle school project was focused on the Taliban’s mistreatment of women. From then on, I was completely obsessed with researching various jihadi groups. A high school Advanced Placement course about the politics of the Middle East gave me a foundation.

How would you describe your work?

I work as a researcher of terrorism with a particular focus on understanding and responding to homegrown terrorism and radicalization. I do freelance external work for various think tanks, including the Jamestown Foundation in Washington, D.C.

Why did you choose to attend college in London?

I knew exactly what I wanted. Some fantastic terrorism research is coming out of the UK. Kings College is the best place in the world to pursue war studies. I was learning from the very best people. When I was working on my master’s degree and prepping for my dissertation, I decided I wanted to write about jihadis in Chechnya. I became obsessed with women in Chechnya becoming terrorists. I was reading first-person accounts, in women’s own narratives.

What was your life like in London?

I’d never been to London before I moved there. I was living in a tiny studio in Dulwich. The al-Qaeda network was pinned on my wall. My bookshelves were jam packed with bin Laden’s writings, “The Al Qaeda Reader.”

Is there a profile of these women you’re researching?

They are highly educated and grew up in the West. They have chosen to emigrate to Syria to train to become terrorists. Some are in their late teens, some in their early 20s.

How do you make contact with Muslim women who have decided to become terrorists? Do you meet them face to face?

No. We connect on social media. While I was doing the Chechnya research, I was working for a think tank in Scotland. A Muslim woman living in Scotland, Umm Ubaydah, was writing about her terrorism experience on Tumblr (a social media platform). She felt like she didn’t fit in with her peer group in Scotland. She was introduced to radicalism. Now she’s one of the main recruiters of women terrorists. She’s moved to Syria. I was reading her posts on Tumblr and Twitter, but now she has gone dark. Her accounts have been shut down.

What is life like for Muslim women raised in the West who choose to immigrate to Syria and become a terrorist?

Their community — in Syria and online — is so tight-knit. When a Western woman crosses over, she is put in a women’s dormitory. They are taught to fire a weapon. There is religious education. There’s a match-making service. Women must marry a jihadi very quickly. Once married, they are given a house, money, spoils of war. Some women can become teachers or nurses.

When women emigrate from the West to Syria, must they give up their Western freedoms?

A women’s morality group enforces Sharia law and reports you if your clothing — your burqa — is too tight, if any skin is showing, if you are caught listening to music, searching the Internet or watching TV. It’s brutal. My job is to tell the story. Why are women going over to Syria? What’s happening there?

About ‘Mulan’

Bradford is a co-author of “Becoming Mulan? Female Western Migrants to Isis, Threat and Response” a report by the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue. She spent 18 months conducting research before she started writing the report, which was published last February.

The report quotes Umm Ubaydah as saying: “I wonder if I can pull a Mulan and enter the battlefield?”

Although most people know “Mulan,” the 1998 animated Disney movie, it is based on an ancient Chinese poem, “The Ballad of Mulan,” which was first written down in the 6th century. The poem recounts the bravery of Hua Mulan, a young Chinese woman who supposedly was a warrior during the Wei dynasty.

Bradford has been published in The Huffington Post and The Jamestown Foundation. Her work has been cited in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Christian Science Monitor, The London Review of Books and by the BBC.

She holds a position on the London board of Walking With the Wounded and is a contributor to Women for Women International.