The Symbols and Swords: Women in the Militarized Patriarchy

The abduction of 276 schoolgirls from a woman’s school in Chibok, Nigeria in 2014 served as a watershed moment of international attention to the gendered dynamics of modern terrorism. The actions of Boko Haram, officially known as Jama’atu Ahl as-Sunnah li-Da’awati wal-Jihad, extend far beyond this singular horror of abduction which may have appeared as in a vacuum to outsiders of Sahelian affairs. Emerging from the poverty-stricken and politically marginalized landscape of northeastern Nigeria, Boko Haram has systematically weaponized women, transforming them into instruments of insurgency, propaganda tools, and disposable weapons of war. The exploitation is not merely a tactical innovation of a singular group; rather, it is a symptomatic prolongation of a broad, historical pathology of militarism and patriarchy that has plagued Africa from the pre-colonial, to colonial, to neocolonial era. To understand the crisis that Nigeria has been facing, one must analyze Boko Haram (BH)’s reduction of women to “symbols and swords” to situate this violence within the grander, pervasive narrative of the inversion of Pan-African liberty to the subjugative “Man-Africanism”. Man-Africanism became a militarized and despotic perversion of the post-colonial optimism which seemed poised to allow men and women to be coequal. However, women continue to be subjugated through the logic of the gun, and the pervasiveness of this exploitation is often underestimated.

Comprehending the specific gendered violence perpetrated by Boko Haram relies on an understanding of the socio-political environment which produced the group. Founded in 2002, by Mohammed Yusuf in Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria, Boko Haram coalesced around a Salafist (Islamic fundamentalist) ideology that rejected Western education (Boko) as being forbidden (Haram) (Wang, 34). The group capitalized on the deep economic insecurity of the Lake Chad Basin, a region defined by Franco-Anglophone colonial borders which arbitrarily split ethnic groups, and poor post-colonial statesmanship which failed to provide basic services to the Muslim populations of Borno. In this landscape, the fledgling group offered an alternative to the life-sentence of Borno poverty; a moral and financial anchor for the wayward young men of Borno and a stake in a holy way against a “corrupt” secular state (Lens, 232). Within this context, Boko Haram operates as a hyper-patriarchal system, predicated on a rigid interpretation of Sharia law that demands the total control of women’s liberty, enforcing domesticity, and rejecting participation in official and public spheres. (Bloom, Matfess; 106). However, the group is paradoxically dependent and critical of women. On the one hand, the organization utilizes women’s labour capital, social capital, and propagandistic capacity. On the other hand, they must be faced with the boot of ideological purity, and at times, weapons of war (Bloom, Matfess; 104).

Returning to the 2014 Chibok kidnapping, BH has long used mass kidnappings to serve as a catalyst for media attention. This was not an isolated incident, but a strategic escalation which was designed to humiliate the Nigerian state and demonstrate the group’s capacity to attack the Nigerian state’s participation in education, particularly for women under western standards. By attacking schoolgirls, the group targeted the very symbol of Western influence it sought to eradicate. This leads to a key image; that of a black “girl child” student (Okoli). In the group’s propaganda, these abducted women serve as pawns in a geopolitical game. Abubakar Shekau, the group’s leader, frequently utilized video footage of the girls to demand prisoner exchanges, threatening that if the government did not release the wives and children of insurgents, the Chibok girls would never return (Bloom, Matfess; 109). 

Beyond their value as bargaining chips, abducted women are essential for the biological and ideological reproduction of the insurgency. Reports indicate that Boko Haram leaders made conscious efforts to impregnate captives, viewing the resulting children as a new generation that would inherit their ideology (Bloom and Matfess 109). This practice of forced marriage and sexual slavery turns women’s bodies into battlegrounds. The women are distributed as “prizes” to infantrymen, a tactic that fosters group cohesion among male fighters by rewarding them with “wives”, thereby incentivizing combat and securing loyalty (Bloom, Matfess; 107). This systematic sexual violence is designed to destroy the social fabric of the communities the women are taken from, instilling a fear that paralyzes civilian resistance (Okoli).

As the insurgency evolved and the Nigerian military exerted pressure on male combatants and locals at large, Boko Haram shifted tactics, operationalizing women as swords. From mid-2014 onwards, the group began to rely disproportionately on female suicide bombers, utilizing more female bombers than any other terrorist group in history, surpassing even the Tamil Tigers (Wang, 53). The strategic logic behind this is the “shock value” that is associated with female violence. In a society with deeply entrenched gender roles, women are typically viewed as non-violent and nurturing. Boko Haram exploits these gendered stereotypes to bypass security checkpoints; women, often concealing explosive garments or carrying infants, arouse less suspicion than men (Wang, 56-57).

The tactic relies on the total objectification of the female body, where women are reduced to fungible assets. While some women may be motivated by religious ideology or revenge for the death of family members, evidence suggests that the majority act from a position of “sheer vulnerability and victimhood” (Wang, 53). Many are coerced, drugged, or, in the case of young girls, completely unaware that they are carrying explosives (Wang, 58). This represents a profound negation of autonomy, where the female body is reduced to a delivery mechanism for terror.

However, it is crucial to avoid a monolithic narrative of victimhood. Women’s engagement with the insurgency exists on a complex spectrum. Some women joined voluntarily to escape the stifling poverty and restrictive social norms of their home communities, or to flee formed marriages arranged by their own families (Nagarajan et al. 9-10). Inside the insurgency, some women attained positions of relative power as recruiters, spies, and “managers” of their captives. Figures like Hafsat Bako, the widow of a BH commander, led an organized female wing that recruited spies and facilitated attacks (Ajansi). This nuance is critical, as even though the system is exploitative, some women navigate it with a “tactic agency”, making calculated choices for survival and status within the constraints of such a brutal environment (Mama and Okazawa-Rey 113; Nagarajan et al. 11).

The exploitation of women in the Boko Haram conflict is not perpetrated solely by the insurgents; it is mirrored by the state. Feminist scholars describe a phenomenon of “khaki in the family”, where the militarization of the state security forces permeates into daily life. This often results in state violence against the very populations they claim to protect (Mama, 1). In the counter-insurgency against BH, Nigerian security forces have repeatedly been accused of widespread human rights violations, including the sexual exploitation of women in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps (Peace Science Digest). Further, the rescue of these women often leads to a second victimization. Women who escape or are released face profound stigmatization upon reintegration into society. They are frequently viewed with suspicion by their communities, labeled as “Boko Haram wives” or “Sambisa women” (International Crisis Group). This stigma is particularly acute for those who return with children fathered by insurgents, who are viewed as carrying “bad blood" (International Crisis Group). This rejection by the community drives some women to return to BH, creating a cycle of exclusion that fuels the insurgency (Nagarajan et al. 28). The state’s failures to provide adequate gendered reintegration support leaves women economically and socially vulnerable as male defectors receive more access to rehab programs (Nagarajan et al. 21).

The tragedy of women in the BH insurgency is not an isolated Nigerian phenomenon; it is simply a manifestation of a broader Pan-African crisis of militarism. Across the continent, the post-colonial state has often retained the patriarchal and authoritarian structures of its colonial predecessors. As Toni Haastrup argues, the liberatory potential of Pan-Africanism has been “kidnapped” by patriarchy, evolving into “Man-Africanism”, a system that places male power and martial politics over human welfare (Haastrup, 3). This militarized patriarchy creates an environment where violence against women is not just a byproduct of war, but a central strategy of it. The instrumentalization of women seen in Nigeria echoes across the continent’s conflict zones. In Rwanda, the 1994 genocide was characterized by the brutal weaponization of sexuality.Tutsi women were targeted not just as ethnic enemies, but as “sexualized” objects to be destroyed. The propaganda of Hutu Power depicted Tutsi women as “ibizungerezi” (those who make men dizzy), simultaneously desirable and dangerous spies, justifying widespread rape as a means of shattering the Tutsi ethnic group (Gallimore 13-14). Just as Boko Haram uses rape to build a new generation of insurgents, genocidaires in Rwanda used it to destroy the reproductive future of their enemies. Similarly, in the conflicts of Sierra Leone and Liberia, women were abducted to serve as “bush wives”, porters, and sex slaves for factions such as the RUF and LURD (Mama and Okazawa-Rey 107; Clarke 60). In these “new wars”, the distinction between civilian and combatant is effectively erased, and the female body becomes a site of resource extraction, just like how rebels fought for diamonds in Sierra Leone. There also exists a “coping economy” of war, which draws all the way back to the first World Wars, in which women were used both in labor and for companionship in the battlefield. This was particularly prevalent in the Japanese Empire’s exploitation of Korean, Chinese, and Filipino women,in which sexual slavery sought to serve Japanese men’s sexual needs across the Chinese and Indian theaters. 

The dynamics of warfare in the Horn of Africa further illustrate this continuum. Al-Shabaab of Somalia, just like BH, utilizes women for intelligence gathering, logistics, and recruitment. While Al-Shabaab rarely uses female suicide bombers, they still exploit the gendered assumption that women are non-threatening to smuggle weapons and gather intelligence on government targets (International Crisis Group). Further, Al-Shabaab instrumentalizes rigid Islamic family law to offer women “predictable patriarchy", which is justice in divorce or inheritance proceedings that the Somali state cannot provide. This wins a degree of passive support for the organization as they usually step in as a government apparatus in Somalia (International Crisis Group). This mirrors BH’s ability to attract women as they offer an escape from the uncertainties and weak government in the secular state. In Sudan, Omar al-Bashir and his subsequent janjaweed militias (now the Rapid Support Forces) utilized rape as a systematic weapon of war in Darfur to continue their agenda of ethnic cleansing and persecuting the darker-skinned, non-Muslim populations. The legal architecture of the Sudanese state protects these perpetrators through immunities, while public order laws dictate women’s movement and dress, illustrating how rival powers operate as two sides of the same patriarchal coin (Al-Nagar and Tonnessen, 115).

Despite the overwhelming weight of this militarized violence, the Pan-African narrative is also one of profound resistance. WOmen across the continent have refused to be reduced to victims; particularly in Nigeria, the #BringBackOurGirls movement transformed the local tragedies into a global campaign for accountability. Beyond hashtag activism, the movement evolved into "memory activism”, using slogans like “Hope Endures” and “Never to be Forgotten” to ensure that the state could not erase the identities of the missing girls (Datiri 196). This rhetorical shift challenged the state’s narrative of silence and impunity. In Liberia, women’s peace movements, such as the Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET), utilized radical tactics, including the threat of public nakedness to force warlords to the negotiating table in Liberia. These talks would go on to end the civil war (Clarke, 63). In Sudan, women were at the forefront of the 2019 revolution which ousted Al-Bashir, chanting for “Freedom, Peace, and Justice” (Al-Nagar and Tonnessen, 103). Even within the state of displacement, women in the Sahel build resistance, engaging in commerce and negotiating survival for their families (Nagarajan et al. 28).

In conclusion, the exploitation of women by Boko Haram is a brutal chapter in the story of African militarism. It exposes the fragility of a security apparatus built on patriarchal dominance, where the safety of the state in Abuja is prioritized over the safety of civilians and women in Borno state. By treating women as both symbols of dominance and swords in their Jihad, BH takes “man-Africanism” to its terrifying extreme. However, the response to terror cannot be more terror. Security should be defined by the wellbeing of the people before the number of boots on the ground. This means moving beyond the “add women and stir” (Clarke, 56) approach of merely enlisting women and token political offices. Instead, there must be a redefinition of security that prioritizes justice, bodily autonomy, and reversing the man-Africanist narrative which continues to subjugate women in Africa. From Khartoum to Monrovia, women have the capacity to be the architects of the alternative; reconciling the optimism of a sovereign Africa.

Eliyahu Feivel Brook

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