Wives, Widows, and Mothers: The New Faces of Violent Extremism in the Philippines
Format
On the last Sunday morning in January 2019, a homemade bomb pierced through the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cathedral in Jolo, the capital of Sulu province in the southern Philippines. As parishioners scrambled toward the door for safety, a second bomb exploded near the church s entrance.
The twin suicide bombings left more than 20 people dead and more than 100 injured.
Philippine authorities later identified an Indonesian couple, Rullie Rian Zeke and Ulfah Handayani Saleh, as the suicide bombers. They were believed to have been members of the Islamic State-linked Jamaah Ansharut Daulah, an extremist organization banned in Indonesia, and recruited by a male militant known as Yoga. Authorities in Indonesia arrested Yoga several months later, in June, at which point he confessed to recruiting the couple for the bombings at the Roman Catholic cathedral.