Counterterrorism

Women in national security: how Feriha Peracha de-radicalised nearly 200 potential terrorism

When clinical psychologist Feriha Peracha was asked by the Pakistan Army in 2009 to drive up to the Swat Valley and profile 12 young Islamist radicals, she was terrified.

Based out of the old fort where Winston Churchill once wrote part of his war memoirs, she was wondering "which of them may kill us tomorrow?"

She wore a headscarf and face veil but it wasn't long before these coverings came off as her fear gave way to sympathy.

The boys, aged between eight and 16, were brainwashed. They had barely any ability to think for themselves. They had been rote-taught the Koran in Arabic, a language they otherwise didn't understand. One had attended a Madrassa – or religious school – run by his own father where child suicide bombers were being recruited.