http://www.adirondackdailyenterprise.com/news/articles.asp?articleID=5614
Terrorism, Part 5 of 6: The feminization of suicide bombing
By GEORGE J. BRYJAK, Special to the Enterprise
Terrorism
A series by George J. Bryjak
¯Part 1: Defining terrorism, in its many varieties
¯Part 2: Ideology, desperation motivate terrorists
¯Part 3: Biological, chemical and nuclear threats
¯Part 4: Killing in the name of God
¯Part 5: Feminization of suicide bombing
¯Part 6: Anti-terrorist strategies, present and future
Picture a young woman walking down a busy street, her shoulders sagging
under the weight of a heavy backpack. She turns into a cafe crowded with
lunch hour shoppers and sits at the lone unoccupied table. As the smiling
waiter approaches, she pulls a device the size of a mini flashlight from her
pocket, says a silent prayer and detonates the backpack bomb. The explosion
kills 17 people and wounds 32 others.
In recent years female terrorists have taken thousands of lives in India,
Sri Lanka, Russia, Chechnya, Turkey, Pakistan, Israel, Uzbekistan and Iraq.
Eighteen of the 50 terrorists who held more than 700 people hostage
(eventually killing 129) in a Moscow theater in 2002 were females. In 2005,
terrorists murdered 336 individuals mostly children at a school in
Beslan, Russia. Some of the killers were women. An estimated 30 to 40
percent of the more than 220 suicide bombers dispatched by the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in their revolutionary struggle against the
government of Sri Lanka have been women.
In The Age of Terrorism, Walter Laqueur notes that female extremists
tended to be tougher, more loyal and fanatical than many of their male
counterparts. A German government official believes that female terrorists
have better nerves than men, and they can be both passive and active at the
same time.
According to one estimate, since the early 1990s, approximately 40 percent
of suicide bombers worldwide have been women, and Al Qaeda is actively
recruiting female members. What is responsible for this sudden rise of
female killers in the ranks of a heretofore male-dominated activity? Experts
point to a number of changes in terrorist philosophy, logistics and
international events for the answer.
Psychologist Clara Beyler analyzed press coverage and public reaction to
suicide bombings and discovered that female kamikazes are often depicted
as symbols of utter despair ... rather than the cold-blooded murderers of
civilians. If a suicide bombing is attributed to a female, the media is
more likely to focus on what made her do it as opposed to the death and
destruction she has created. The stereotypical weaker sex female bomber is
much more likely than her male counterparts to be portrayed as another
victim of terrorism and, as such, may lend a measure of credibility to the
terrorist agenda. In other words, if nurturing, typically nonviolent females
are sacrificing their lives for a cause, perhaps the grievances of the
terrorist organization are legitimate.
Beylers findings and interpretation are important because terrorism, as
most experts agree, is a synthesis of war and theater. Women provide their
organizations with heightened visibility as female terrorists always garner
more media coverage than male extremists. This is especially important
insomuch as terrorist groups are not only competing with other events for
media coverage but, in a world wherein terrorism is the hallmark of dozens
of groups, vying with each other for international attention.
American defense analyst Alex Delaney and Peter Neumann, a terrorist expert
at Kings College London, argue that in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001,
security measures have been heightened throughout the world, making it more
difficult for male terrorists to move about freely. The female Islamic
attire of loose-fitting garments can easily conceal a belt laden with
explosives and/or automatic weapons. This terrorism-facilitating garb,
coupled with the reluctance of male security personnel to carry out thorough
body searches of Muslim women, make females a perfect demographic for
suicide bombings.
Finally, much terrorist activity requires a high degree of sophistication
and planning. Significant outlays of time, training and money are required
to support extended stays in the field, especially in foreign countries. In
Middle Eastern societies where women are subordinate to men, male terrorists
have not considered females worthy of this expenditure. However, female
suicide bombers, as one observer noted, are single-use cheap weapons, and
there is no need for an escape plan.
In the years following the demise of the Soviet Union (1991), Chechnya
declared its independence from the Russian Republic and has been involved in
a bloody civil war to attain statehood. More than 100,000 Chechnyan
civilians have been killed and 600,000 people displaced in the ongoing
hostilities. The decade of carnage has left an untold number of grieving
widows as entire villages have been destroyed, individuals often murdered
execution-style in their front yards. Psychologist Kitav-Smyk believes that
thousands of adolescent girls and women are suffering from Chechen
depression a state of mind characterized by feelings of extreme
desperation and hopelessness.
Raped by Russian soldiers at checkpoints and detention centers, Chechen
females are prime targets for terrorist recruiters who prey on their hunger
for revenge. So many women have become involved in military operations (a
battalion of female fighters was organized in 2002) and terrorist activity
that the Russian media dubbed them black widows.
The television network Al Jazeera aired a prerecorded videotape of five
Chechen women who expressed their willingness to die as suicide bombers.
These would-be killers justified terrorism as a legitimate way of avenging
their losses. Test results of a failed bomber revealed traces of drugs in
her system, indicating that some women may be chemically coerced, or
ingest mind-altering substances voluntarily to facilitate their missions.
While Saudi Arabia originally declined to sanction female suicide bombings
as martyrdom, in 2001 that nations High Islamic Council issued a fatwa
encouraging Palestinian women to sacrifice their lives in the act of killing
others. In 2002, Hamas condoned the use of female suicide bombers, and in
2003, Palestinian Islamic Jihad announced that it would begin accepting
women for similar roles.
In the Islamic world, female suicide bombing may be viewed as a perverse
form of upward mobility or status elevation, that is, an attempt to gain
equality with men via martyrdom. Psychologist Clara Beyler notes that women
have channeled the frustration stemming from their role in society (low
status) into ruthless behavior. ... The female Palestinian bomber chooses to
become a human bomb, possibly in order to express that women too can
demonstrate overwhelming patriotism, just like their male counterparts.
Girls who lose their virginity prior to marriage may become suicide bombers,
believing this method of self-destruction is the best solution to a horrible
predicament. Should their sexual transgressions be discovered, they risk an
ignominious death at the hands of male relatives (often fathers or brothers)
acting in accord with age-old traditions of honor.
One of the most disturbing aspects of suicide bombing is that youthful
martyrdom has become an integral component of popular culture. Beyler
notes that in Palestine, a whole industry has developed around such killing,
with videotapes and posters of male and female martyrs freely distributed
and proudly displayed. On the streets of Gaza, children play a game
called shuhada, which includes a mock funeral for a suicide bomber.
Teenage rock groups praise martyrs in their songs. Asked to name their
heroes, young Palestinians are likely to include suicide bombers. School
children trade martyr medallions of suicide bombers much the way children
in the U.S. trade baseball and football cards.
The glorification of female suicide bombers means that a generation of young
Palestinian girls will come to view these killers as role models. Besides
the human tragedy for all concerned, this trend is particularly ominous for
the future of Middle Eastern and, possibly, global security.
SOURCES:
Beyler, C. (2003, Feb. 12), Messengers of Death, International Institute
for Counter Terrorism,http://www.ici.org
Beyler, C. (2004, March), Female Suicide Bombers: An Update, International
Institute for Counter Terrorism, http://www.ici.org
Davis, D. (1983), The Female Terrorist: A Socio-Psychological Perspective,
Behavioral Science and the Law, Vol. 1, pp. 19-82
Delaney, A. and P. Neumann (2004, Sept, 6), The Spectacular Rise of the
Female Terrorist, The International Herald Tribune, http://iht.com
Handwerk, B. (2004, Dec. 13), Female Suicide Bombers: Dying to Kill,
National Geographic News, http://news.nationalgeographic.com
Hoffman, B. (2003, June), The Logic of Suicide Terrorism, The Atlantic
Monthly, pp. 40-47
Hudson, R. (1999), The Sociology and Psychology of Terrorism: Who Becomes a
Terrorist and Why? Federal Research Division, Library of Congress,
Washington D.C.
Laquer, W. (1987), The Age of Terrorism, Little and Brown: Boston
Madsen, J. (2004), Suicide Terrorism: Rationalizing the Irrational,
Strategic Insights, Vol. III, Issue 8, Center for Contemporary Conflict,
Naval Post Graduate School, www.ccc.nps.navy.mil
Rasner, M. (2005, Feb. 6), Black Widows Fears Surround a Russian
Verdict, Womens News, http://www.womensnews.org
Stern, J. (2003, Dec. 18), When Bombers Are Women, The Washington Post
The New Kamikazes, (2005), The Washington Profile,
http://www.washprofile.org
Zedalis, D. (2004), Female Suicide Bombers, Strategic Studies Institute,
U.S. Army War College, http://www.carlisle.army.mil/si
George J. Bryjak was a sociology professor for 24 years at the University of
San Diego. Now retired, he lives in Bloomingdale.
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