A Psychology lecturer from Huddersfield is helping to increase vigilance on terrorism.
Dr Helen Gavin, a worldwide expert on female aggression from the University, is warning of increasing amounts of women turning to suicide bomb attacks.
The academic plans to interview women jailed for violent crimes, including failed female bombers, around the world.
Her work will help her create a psychological profile of female suicide bombers to help forces crack down on the threat.
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In her recent book, Female Aggression, the psychologist writes that suicide bombers’ motives can differ between genders, with women’s attacks more likely motivated by personal reasons, such as revenge of the death of a loved one.
She also believes women are more likely to go unnoticed by surveillance as they “draw less suspicion”.
Dr Gavin said: “Although women are just as susceptible to ideological motivation, men seem to be drawn into suicide terrorism for ‘avenge’ purposes, to avenge the Prophet for example, whereas women tend to need ‘revenge’ because they have lost a loved one, often a husband.”
Knowledge gained from Dr Gavin’s study could also help British security discriminate reasons for young girls fleeing to Syria.
Alongside colleagues Dr Maria Ioannou and Dr Laura Hammond, Dr Gavin will now seek funding for the project.
The wife of Huddersfield suicide bomber Germaine Lindsay, Samantha Lewthwaite, has previously thought to have been training female suicide bombers in Syria.
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Lindsay, raised in Dalton, killed 26 people on the London Underground in the 2005 7/7 bombings.
Last year, Dewsbury youngsters Talha Asmal and Hassan Munshi fled to Turkey. Talha was later revealed to have committed a suicide attack, making him Britain’s youngest suicide bomber.
In March, Huddersfield was left reeling after former Honley High School pupil Mohammed Rizwan Awan was named as the bomber who killed 30 people in Iraq, an attack which was claimed by ISIS.
