Female suicide bombers

Pregnancy prosthetic devices, said by the Department of Homeland Security to be used by female suicide bombers to conceal explosives.

Though the majority of suicide bombers have been male, female suicide bombers have carried out a number of attacks.

History

Female suicide bombers have been employed in several conflicts, by a variety of organizations, against both military and civilian targets.

• In Lebanon on April 9, 1985, Sana'a Mehaidli, a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), detonated an explosive-laden vehicle, which killed two Israeli soldiers and injured two more. During the Lebanese Civil War, female SSNP members bombed Israeli troops and the Israeli proxy militia the South Lebanon Army.
• Women of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), or Tamil Tigers, carried out 30–40% of the organization's suicide bombings, which number more than 200.
• Former Indian Prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on 21 May 1991, last public meeting was at Sriperumbudur,a village approximately 30 miles from Chennai, Tamil Nadu.He was assassinated while campaigning for the Sriperumbudur Lok Sabha Congress candidate.The assassination was carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) female suicide bomber Thenmozhi Rajaratnam also known as Gayatri and Dhanu.
• The Chechen shahidkas have attacked Russian troops in Chechnya and Russian civilians elsewhere, e.g. in the Moscow theater hostage crisis.
• In the Al-Aqsa Intifada, women of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hamas have bombed Israeli civilians and soldiers.
• Female members of the Iraqi insurgency have set off suicide bombs.
• Women of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have carried out suicide bombings primarily against Turkish Armed Forces, in some cases strapping explosives to their abdomen in order to simulate pregnancy.
• On March 29, 2010 two female Chechen terrorists bombed two Moscow subway stations killing at least 38 people and injuring over 60.* The Taliban has used at least one female suicide bomber in Afghanistan.
• On December 25th, 2010, the first female suicide bomber in Pakistan detonated her explosives-laden vest, killing at least 43 people at an aid distribution center in northwestern Pakistan.

According to a report issued by intelligence analysts in the U.S. army in 2011, "Although women make up roughly 15% of the suicide bombers within groups which utilize females, they were responsible for 65% of assassinations; 20% of women who committed a suicide attack did so with the purpose of assassinating a specific individual, compared with 04% of male attackers." The report further stated that female suicide bombers often were "grieving the loss of family members [and] seeking revenge against those they feel are responsible for the loss, unable to produce children, [and/or] dishonored through sexual indiscretion."

Palestinian bombers

Some militant organizations have used women to carry out suicide bombings because they draw less suspicion than men and go through less rigorous security checks. For example: while a man can be checked to see if he is carrying an explosive belt by simply lifting his shirt, ordering a woman is much less acceptable, particularly in the Islamic world. Israeli security procedures stipulate that a suspected woman is to be checked by a female soldier in a screened off area.

On the same day Darine Abu Aisha committed a suicide bombing, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the religious leader of Islamist militant group Hamas, issued a fatwa, or religious rule, that gave permission to women to participate in suicide attacks as well as listing the rewards in "Paradise" that these female martyrs would receive upon their deaths. He also promised Hamas will send many female suicide bombers in order to strike Israelis.

Reactions to this in the Islamic world were mixed. While many hailed the female suicide bomber and urged full involvement of all in Jihad, some criticized the cruelty of tearing mothers from their children and sending them to explode themselves.

Notable female Palestinian suicide bombers include

• Wafa Idris - first suicide bomber (bombing date: January 27, 2002)
• Ayat al-Akhras - third suicide bomber (bombing date: March 29, 2002)
• Andalib Suleiman - fourth suicide bomber (bombing date: April 12, 2002)
• Hanadi Jaradat - sixth suicide bomber (bombing date: October 4, 2003)

Tactical gain

Women are less likely to be searched for suicide vests than men, whether due to perceived indecency, fear of accusations of sexual harassment, or fear of breaking laws that require women to remain clothed in public.

See also

• Child suicide bombers in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• The Battle of Algiers

External links

• Women Armed for Terror - list of female suicide-bombers.
• Messengers of Death: Female Suicide Bombers (February 12, 2003) and An Update (March 7, 2004) by Clara Beyler at ICT
• Mia Bloom, "Mother. Daughter. Sister. Bomber." Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, November/December 2005.
• Cult of the Suicide Bomber II - Women - a television history by ex-CIA agent Robert Baer
• Female suicide bombers 'eagerly await' IDF soldiers (VIDEO) Islamic Jihad warns Israel of 'surprises' should IDF invade Gaza Strip; dozens of female suicide bombers eager to blow themselves up, take soldiers with them
• Study: Female suicide bombers seek atonement Main motivation for women to carry out suicide attacks is to repent for past sins, new study reveals; women bombers are beneficial to terror groups - they receive greater media coverage, cause more deaths
• Double-female suicide bombers, one 8 months pregnant
• Video of suicide attack in Colombo, targeting Minister Douglas Devananda. Ministry of Defence (Sri Lanka)
• Discussion including leading experts (Horowitz, Bloom, O'Rourke, Schweitzer, Ali)

Further reading

• Rosemarie Skaine, Female Suicide Bombers. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2006.
• Barbara Victor, Army of Roses: Inside the World of Palestinian Women Suicide Bombers. Rodale, 2003.
• Zedalis, Debra, Female Suicide Bombers, U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute (Free Download)
• Yoram Schweitzer (Ed.): Female Suicide Bombers: Dying for Equality?, The Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies (JCSS), Tel Aviv University, August 2006
• Jan Goodwin, When the Suicide Bomber is a Woman 2007.
• Lennon, Amanda, http://mediaresearchhub.ssrc.org/fourth-generation-valkyries-a-strategic-analysis-of-female-suicide-attacks-in-unconventional-warfare/attachment