Citation

Turshen M. J. Asian Afr. Stud. 2004; 39(1-2): 119-132.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0021909604048254

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article focuses on the combined consequences for women of militarization and pan-Islamism—a particular manifestation of Islam that has spread using some of the mechanisms of globalization, especially global trade and global communications. The empirical data are drawn from the civil conflict of the 1990s in Algeria, where an Islamist movement led by the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) and several armed Islamist groups (notably the GIA, the Armed Islamic Group) terrorized the population and killed tens of thousands of people in an attempt to seize control of the state. External support from pan-Islamists accounts, in part, for the ability of the FIS and the GIA to gain a foothold in Algeria. The pan-Islamist movement has cells in Europe and the Middle East, some of which were in contact with Algerian Islamists. Armed Islamist groups from Algeria received training from Al Qaeda, combat experience in Afghanistan and Bosnia, and financial support from Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Iran.