PODCAST: Who Are the Women Who Take Up Arms?

Welcome to Women, War & Peace's podcast series with our host, Amy Costello. Each week, Amy will be talking to people who have responded creatively to the plight of women living in conflict zones.

Why would a woman join an armed group? Why would a woman become a suicide bomber?

When we think of terrorist groups, we think of fervent believers who are motivated to join a rebel group by ideology or as a response to abject poverty. But Dyan Mazurana, the Director of Gender, Youth and Community at Tufts University's Feinstein International Famine Center, says that the cycle of violence is much more to blame for women's participation in armed conflict groups.

Mazurana explains why women form the backbone of rebel groups and how their roles in a rebel group are often more liberating that what their society has offered.

Listen to the podcast by clicking here