Dr Bloom, who interviewed female jihadists and former IRA members for her book Bombshell: Women and Terrorism, published in 2011, says: “The change we have seen over the past 10 years is that women are starting to be used in these very instrumental ways. Because the leaders of these organisations understand their communities very well, they use women to manipulate men to say: 'If you are not fighting then you are hiding behind women.’ These women are becoming celebrities in their communities. I’ve seen posters and trading cards in Palestine. Even the IRA had trading cards. It is the idea of the next generation being groomed to think this is the next best thing they can do.”