Islamic Middle East Blog

•Kaki Elgin; September 30, 2008.

•Families Shattered by Suicide Attacks: Female Suicide Bombers are Latest War Tactic

•Source of Article – Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/16/AR2008091603697.html?sid=ST2008091603731&s_pos=

•Article Summary

Time
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Place
Iraq

Key People
Women, al-Qaeda, Abu Abdul Aziz al-Mohammadi, Col. Scott Maw, Gen. Abdul Karim Rubaie

Vocabulary
Naseeba al-Ansariya Martyrdom Battalion, Islamic State of Iraq, martyrdom, National Institute for Handicapped and Special Needs

Main Ideas
Women, greatly pressured by Al-Qaeda operations that are losing supporters, have showed themselves to be a new and emerging terrorist weapon.  Offered protection of family, martyrdom, and other rewards, women are increasingly offering themselves up as suicide bombers.  These women have taken advantage of Muslim modesty, hiding explosives under their clothing with the knowledge that there are few female checkers.  Additionally, however, Al-Qaeda heads are tricking children (the youngest known 13), mentally disabled women, and downtrodden, desperate women into committing such a suicide.  To combat this, officials in Baghdad have created the National Institute for Handicapped and Special Needs, where they teach children to “say no” to men who offer candy, toys, and other goodies in exchange for the children wearing a belt holding bombs.  The U.S.-backed Daughters of Iraq has also been created in an attempt to prevent female suicide bombings.  This program pays Iraqi women to search other women at checkpoints.

•Your Response to Article
In a way, this article doesn’t surprise me, though I feel as if it should.  As I first began to read the article, I believed that the women were simply doing this because they are used to being submissive to men, and the men were ordering them to die in such a fashion.  Though the article touched on this notion, it seemed to focus on another driving force behind the surge of women suicide bombers: revenge.  Increasingly, women whose husbands and sons have been killed by U.S. soldiers want to find a way to find revenge.  With Al-Qaeda leaders reassuring them that their families will be taken care of, women go off to join their husbands—and to bring honor back to their cause.
As a result, as the article mentioned, men are becoming ashamed that women are the ones committing such acts.  And thus, Al-Qaeda hopes to increase their number of recruits.
But what shocked me in this article was the trickery that Al-Qaeda employed on children and disabled women.  The article told a story of a pair of women with Down syndrome who were tricked into committing suicide in a crowded Baghdad market, and of a 14-year old girl who was blown up by remote control.  These acts seem horribly unethical to me.  It’s one thing if people who really want to die for the sake of their cause attack others.  But using people who don’t know what their getting into is simply wrong.  Perhaps, you can argue, it’s better for them not to know.  But fundamentally, these acts are immoral.  If you are going to fight for a cause, you need to do it justly or it will never gain support or credibility.  In my opinion, Al-Qaeda is just hurting itself.