Volume 2, Issue 07: October 3, 2005

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Article Details

Scholar Discusses Female Terrorists

Professor Carlos Parodi and Minority Scholar in Residence Laura Balbuna-Gonzlez

Professor Carlos Parodi and
speaker Laura Balbuna-Gonzàlez

Laura Balbuna-Gonzàlez, Illinois State University Minority Scholar in Residence, recently presented three lectures on campus concerning female participation in terrorist organizations. Balbuna-Gonzàlez’s talks focused on women members of the Peruvian terrorist movement Sendero Luminoso, or “Shining Path,” active throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s. Balbuna-Gonzàlez stated that the Peruvian example is exceptional because women not only made up fifty percent of the organization’s membership but also consistently held leadership positions and combatant roles. She argued that while the women—many of whom were highly educated professors—participated in equal numbers and with equal status as the men, most were forced to give up their families, careers, and feminine characteristics in order to conform to the standards of the terrorist organization. Thus, she concluded that while on its face, Sendero Luminoso appeared to be a non-patriarchal organization; in fact, Sendero Luminoso was even more patriarchal than other terrorist organizations because it abolished the female condition. Balbuna-Gonzàlez is a faculty member at the New School for Social Research in New York. Her appointment as Minority Scholar in Residence was sponsored by the Department of Politics and Government, the Multi-Ethnic Cultural and Co-Curricular Programming Advisory Committee, and the Office of Student Affairs.

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