Violence, Suicide Bombing, and the Quest For Nationalism

Female suicide bombers have been used in several organizations around the world. Contrary to popular belief, they are not just simply religious organizations full of religious fanatics. Rather, many of these organizations are secular and work with religious organizations in recruiting and using religions as a justification for larger motivations (Weinberg & Eubank, 2011). Many organizations, some hosting a religious exterior, have the secular goal of achieving nationhood. The best two examples are the Al-Aqsa Brigade, working with Hamas and Hezbollah, in Palestine and the completely secular Tamil Tigers of Sri lanka.  Other organizations using female suicide bombers include: Syrian Social Nationalist Party in Syria, Kurdistan’s Worker’s Party aka (PKK), and the Chechen Shahidkas of Chechnya. Nationalism is a huge motivating factor in each of these organizations, even the ones affiliated with a religious philosophy. In every one of the organizations mentioned above, their mission is to establish a nation while fighting in the name of nationalism (Weinberg & Eubank, 2011). There is a lot of debate as to whether or not women have different reasons than men for joining organizations utilizing suicide bombing. Gender specific motivations include: regaining family honor after events such as rape or infidelity, avenging the loss of a loved one, or being forced into the organizations through kidnapping (Bloom, 2005). While there are some situations where this is the case it is essential to understand that women are not inherently peaceful and have the same motivations as men including nationalism and patriotism.  According to Sjoberg and Gentry (2007), most “accounts emphasize women’s motivations for engaging in suicide terrorism as different to men’s, as associated with their femaleness rather than humanity, and as personal rather than political” (p. 136). Furthermore, “academic studies of the motivation for female suicide terrorists […] either ignore gender altogether or take account of gender without seeing genderings” and that “Instead of seeing women as agents making choices in relation to their socio-cultural situation, each produces a stylized, gender-marginalizing narrative of women’s participation in these movements that denies agency” (p.137).  According to Ness (2008), even though “women terrorist are neither misfits nor rare […] most people react with an extra level of shock and horror” (p. 217). This has several implications when women are not considered political or violent beings. The first is that because they are not considered violent, repeated acts of terror by women occur under that radar of security forces and second, to further their struggle these organizations have used women as cheap, effective, and excellent sources of political and media attention and as sources of fear and astonishment (Eager, 2008, p.172). Internationally the failure to realize the ability of women in these organizations after abuses suffered at the hands of an enemy has only served to fuel their involvement and as a source to further nationalist sentiments (Bloom, 2011).

“I am going to fight [emphasis added] instead of the sleeping Arab armies who are watching Palestinian girls fighting alone” –Ayat Akras (Al-Aqsa Brigade)

References

Bloom, M. (2005). Dying to kill: the allure of suicide terror. New York: Columbia University Press.
Bloom, M. (2011). Bombshell: women and terrorism. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 

Eager, P. W. (2008). From freedom fighters to terrorists women and political violence. Aldershot, England: Ashgate.
Ness, C. D. (2008). Female terrorism and militancy agency, utility, and organization. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Sjoberg, L., & Gentry, C. E. (2007). Mothers, monsters, whores: women's violence in global politics. London: Zed Books.
Weinberg, L., & Eubank, W. (2011). Women's Involvement in Terrorism. Springer Science+Business Media, 28(Gender Issues), 22-49.