Fathima Azmiya Badurdeen – The Conversation

Kenyan women fetch water the morning after it rained for the first time in over a year in Turkana. Lynsey Addario/Getty Images

April 27, 2026

Climate change is worsening violent extremism in Kenya – what can be done

Dylan O'Driscoll, Coventry University; Fathima Azmiya Badurdeen, Technical University of Mombasa; Joel Busher, Coventry University; Sheila Ronoh, Coventry University, and Wilson Ndenyele, Technical University of Mombasa

Climate change increases vulnerability to extremist recruitment, while al-Shabaab activity blocks adaptation, reinforcing a cycle of fragility.

Worshippers gather at the New Life Prayer Centre and Church. The head of the Church was recently arrested. Photo by SIMON MAINA/AFP via Getty Images

May 9, 2023

Kenya cult deaths: a new era in the battle against religious extremism

Fathima Azmiya Badurdeen, Technical University of Mombasa

Both cults and violent extremist movements have similar push and pull factors at the individual level.

Lamu in coastal Kenya is an area where women and girls have been recuited by Al-Shabaab. Eric Lafforgue/Alamy Stock Photo

August 12, 2021

Al‑Shabaab: why women join the Islamist militant group – podcast

Daniel Merino, The Conversation and Gemma Ware, The Conversation

From the archive: a researcher on the complex dynamics surrounding Kenyan women’s involvement in Al-Shabaab. Listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.

Education for children growing up in northern Nigeria is fraught with danger. bmszealand/Shutterstock

April 30, 2021

Why insurgent groups in northern Nigeria continue to kidnap school children

Gemma Ware, The Conversation and Wale Fatade, The Conversation

This is a transcript of episode 12 of The Conversation Weekly podcast, including a story on the reasons why Kenyan women who join Al-Shabaab.

A group of boys abducted by Boko Haram in Katsina State, northern Nigeria, after their release in December 2020. EPA

April 22, 2021

Nigeria: why do children keep getting kidnapped? – podcast

Gemma Ware, The Conversation and Wale Fatade, The Conversation

Plus, why women join Al-Shabaab in Kenya. Listen to episode 12 of The Conversation Weekly podcast.

Muslim women and children in Lamu in north east Kenya. Al-Shabaab’s recruitment of female members is most evident in coastal and north eastern counties. Photo by Eric Lafforgue/Art in All of Us/Corbis via Getty Images

February 21, 2021

Why we did it: the Kenyan women and girls who joined Al‑Shabaab

Fathima Azmiya Badurdeen, Technical University of Mombasa

Women’s motivations for joining terrorist networks belie Kenyan media accounts of naive girls manipulated through romantic notions of Jihadi brides or wives.

Contact Fathima for