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Female Suicide Bombers: A Political Perspective

Early in July 2003, two young Chechen women carried out suicide bombings at an outdoor rock concert in Russia killing 14 people and injuring 53. Suicide bombings by women have tended to shock and often produce gendered opinions rather than cause reflection. Since several such incidents have in the recent past, been carried out by Muslim women, they have also led to criticisms of the ?cultural barbarism? of Islam. But women terrorists have come from all parts of the globe; they have been part of Italy's Red Brigades, Germany?s Baader-Meinhof faction, Lebanon?s Hizbollah, the Kurdistan Worker's Party, Sri Lanka?s LTTE and the Japanese Red Army, and often as leaders in their own right.

Dalal Mughrabi, a young Palestinian woman in a refugee camp in Lebanon was the first female to participate in a PLO mission that could be considered a suicide mission. She led the group that hijacked a civilian bus near Tel Aviv in 1978, in which 36 Israelis lost their lives, and was killed after Israeli troops stormed the bus. The Hezbollah, however, pioneered the use of suicide bombings during Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war and the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. It used women suicide bombers also, though the practice was later stopped. In the current spate of suicide bombings carried out by Palestinians, four have been by women. The first, carried out last year, by Wafa Idris from the al-Amari refugee camp near Ramallah, is considered to be accidental, but the second by Darin Abu Aisheh from Nablus leaves no room for doubt. After failing to obtain explosives for her task from the Hamas, she obtained them from the Fatah's al-Aqsa Brigade. At least 20 women have attempted to blow themselves up in the present intifada, some of whom are in Israeli custody.

Some would try to pin the blame on the structure of Muslim societies and thus onto Islam itself rather than focus on a bomber's personal situation or the political context. Young Palestinian women, have become increasingly radicalized over the years and especially during the current intifada ? particularly those who have lost relatives in the violence. What must be understood is the desperation and anger that motivates anybody, whether male or female, to carry out a suicide mission. And, in the case of the Palestinians, they do so knowing full well that the Israeli Army will demolish the homes of their families once their identities are established.

While Hiba Daraghmeh, who killed herself and three Israelis at a mall in the Israeli town of Afula, in May 2003, was the first female bomber dispatched by the Islamic Jihad, the reasons need not necessarily be religious. Black September member, Leila Khaled, involved in the hijacking of two planes in 1969 and in 1970, has said that the struggle is in the cause of the nation and Islam?s only role has been in determining the choice of how the struggle is to be waged.  At least one Palestinian female bomber, Ayat al-Akhras, was a bright student, not noticeably religious or alienated from either her family or friends, nor openly linked to any extremist group.

Indeed, for the ?Black Widows? ? Chechen Muslim women terrorists and suicide bombers ? the reasons are often personal rather than religious or political: avenging their loved ones killed in Chechnya's decade-long war with Russia. Most of them are the wives or relatives of Chechen rebels and have caused as much if not more destruction than their Palestinian counterparts. Some like Khava Barayeva, the first Chechen woman suicide bomber, continue to inspire Chechen guerillas. And now US-occupied Iraq seems set to follow suit with at least one report of women suicide bombers being used.

Those who condemn suicide bombing as uncivilized and use it to foist labels on a particular religion or culture miss the point that the reasons are often political and personal. Suicide bombings are often part of an orchestrated political strategy, but they are also a response to the constant atmosphere of fear and oppression that afflicts young men and women in various parts of the world.