Are female suicide bombers rational actors - Research Paper Example

Are female suicide bombers rational actors? Although men are conventionally viewed as the leaders of armed insurrection, women have increasingly become key strategic assets within the realm of suicide terrorism. The number of female suicide attackers has risen from eight during the 1980s to well over one hundred since 2000; women have struck in Afghanistan, India, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Pakistan, Russia, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and Uzbekistan (O’rourke, p.681-682). Suicide bombing attacks seem to be the most effective means of attack adopted by the militant groups in the modern era. The major advantage of suicide bombing attack is the accuracy and precision in conducting secret missions. Under normal circumstances, nobody would like to sacrifice their lives for any kind of missions; however the influence of fundamentalism and patriotism is getting increased day by day and because of that many people come forward to sacrifice their lives for safeguarding their traditions, culture and beliefs. Even though all types of suicide bomber attacks are difficult to resist, female suicide bombing attacks seem to be the most difficult type of attacks as far as preventive measures are concerned. Genetically and historically, it was believed that males were more aggressive in nature whereas females were more of peace loving nature. However, the above belief or theory seems to be less popular now because of the readiness of current females in taking part in risky missions and activities. As per some of the recent reports available from states like Iraq, Palestine, Sri Lanka etc, the number of female suicide bombers is increasing day by day. “While arguing about why women fight, many believe that these women are yet other victims in the hands of ruthless men while others emphasize the seriousness of a particular conflict in which even women are driven towards taking up arms, seen as a last resort in the eyes of many” (Kemoklidze, p.182). In short, there are different viewpoints about the reasons why females are increasingly participating in suicide bombing attacks. The aim of this paper is to learn more about the motivating factors of female suicide bombers in taking part in terrorist activities and to sacrifice their lives for the for safeguarding the interests of their nation or religion. Some people argue that suicide bombing attacks in general and female suicide bombing attacks in particular are motivated by irrational motives. However, many others believe that strong rational motives are behind every female suicide bombing attacks. This paper argues that female suicide bombers are rational actors and they engage in terrorist activities not because of the influence of any external agents alone, but because of their own instincts and judgements. Religious extremism is cited as the major reason for increasing female suicide attacks by many of the sociologists and politicians. It is because of the fact that most of the female suicide bombers are from Muslim community. In countries like Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc Muslim female suicide bombers are causing big problems and headaches to Israelis and Americans. Jihad or sacred war against nonbelievers is accepted as a tradition by many of the Muslim militant groups. At the same time it should be noted that jihad is mostly taking place in countries under some kind of foreign occupation. The occupation of Israelis in Palestine and Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan can be cited as the best examples for the above belief. In other words, foreign occupation seems to be one of the major reasons for increased number of suicide attacks. Since women participation in modern social and political activities are increasing day by day, it is difficult for them to stay away from helping male community in their efforts to fight against all kind of foreign occupations. Female suicide bombers are thus utilized for pressurizing foreign occupiers to withdraw their troops from their land by the militant groups- in that respect; it is not an irrational activity, but a rational activity. Female Suicide terrorism (FST) is propelled by strategic considerations. Cultural factors play a subordinate role, re?ected in the rhetoric and recruitment tactics of terrorist organizations as well as in the individual motives of female attackers (O’rourke, p.683). Terrorist groups increasingly enlist women as suicide attackers because their organizational aim is strategic success (O’rourke, p.684) Unlike male suicide attackers, female suicide attackers can conduct their mission more accurately or precisely because of their abilities in gathering less attention from the security personnel. Traditionally and genetically, women enjoy more privacy than men because of their biological features and social norms. For example, women wore long clothes which can cover their entire body, in order to cover their private parts. On the other hand, men have less number of private parts and it is easy for the security personnel to examine male body more easily than the female body. In other words, women can carry more explosives than men and conduct their missions easily. A female suicide bomber can pretend as a pregnant woman and mislead the security personnel easily. They can carry more volumes of explosives than men and cause more damages to human life and other properties. Female suicide terrorists have been used in societies where wearing loose, full-body coverings is common among women, maximizing their potential for carrying explosives attached to their bodies. According to a British report, a woman in traditional clothing could conceal over twelve pounds of explosives on her body. In addition, female suicide terrorists frequently disguise themselves as pregnant in order to smuggle a larger explosive device (O’rourke, p.690) Thus, female suicide bombers have strategic importance in conducting suicide bombing attacks which forced militant groups to concentrate more on this type of attacks in the present era. Women can enter any location more easily than men. The opinions of Bobby Ghosh (2009) are relevant here: “In a culture that forbids male policemen or checkpoint guards from frisking women — many have easy passage to high-value targets like police stations and markets. They can go unchecked where no man would dream of passing” (Ghosh) It is illogical to label all kinds of female suicide bombing attacks are religiously or culturally motivated. There are many cases in which women suicide bombers explode themselves for other reasons as well. The most prominent example which can be cited in this regard is the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi. When communal riots between Tamils and Sinhalese were intensified, former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi decided to send a peace keeping force to Sri Lanka because of the requests from Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan Tamils have cultural connections with India since India consists of a state of Tamils called Tamil Nadu. Rajiv Gandhi thought that it is the duty of the Indians to assist their immediate neighbours when they were in trouble. Moreover, the strategic importance of keeping a peaceful Sri Lanka was more important for the Indians than assisting the people in Sri Lanka. Indians did succeed in keeping peace in Sri Lanka at least for a temporary period. However, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE), a militant group fighting in Sri Lanka to establish a separate Tamil state, took the intervention of India in Sri Lanka as an offense to their dignity. They thought that India’s intervention was aimed to destroy the freedom struggle of Tamils. “Female suicide bombers are relatively new. Their first known attack came in 1985 when a 16-yearold girl, Khyadali Sana, drove a truck into an Israeli Defense Force convoy and killed two soldiers” (Zedalis, p.2). LTTE is famous for implementing some of the most modern war strategies in militant wars. Suicide bombing attacks were developed in its present form by LTTE. It should be noted that LTTE is the only organization in the world which was successful killing two heads of states; Rajiv Gandhi of India and Premadase of Sri Lanka. In fact they were the first militant groups which recognized the potentials of using women as suicide bombers. “Former Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi was killed in May 1991 by a female suicide bomber and Sri Lanka President Prendesa was killed in 1993 by a male suicide bomber” (Suicide Bombing in the COE, p.I-4). “Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE), has an elite suicide bombing group called Black Tigers which consists of 199 male and 74 female martyrs as of July 2006” (Cragin & Daly p.4) Tamil women, have long been subject to oppression of a dual nature. On the one hand, women comprising a little more than 50% of the Tamil people have borne the brunt of the national oppression stemming from chauvinist Sinhala policies. On the other hand, women have been subject to an internal form of social oppression rising out of male chauvinism (O’rourke, p.695) As in the case of women in Islamic world, Tamil women are also facing lot of discriminations in their societies. In other words, many people believe that social exclusions or oppressions are the major reasons for the increasing readiness of current women in participating in terrorist activities like suicide bombing attacks. In their opinion, women in these fundamental societies lost their appetite for continuing their life because of the severity of social injustices against them. The above arguments seems to be partly right since many of the women suicide bombers select terrorist activity as an option to escape from their present miserable life. Moreover, Islam teaches that those who accept death for safeguarding the interests of their religion will get salvation after their death. The above teachings have lot of influences over the decision of the women communities in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine to take part in suicide bombing attacks. The case of suicide female bombers from Chechnya is also not much different. Chechen women take part in suicide bombing attack because of their frustrations against the massacres of Russian military. Russians represent them as victims of Chechen terrorists, brainwashed, drugged and/or physically abused. On the contrary, Chechens expose them as rape-victims in the hands of the Russian soldiers, whose husbands have been tortured and brutally killed by the same Russians. The stereotypical gender assumptions that women are intrinsically “gentle, submissive and nonviolent” are so strong, and also produced and reproduced on a daily basis, that even when ready to blow themselves up, women are continued to be viewed as “innocent” and their actions as “utter despair…rather than mere cold-blooded murder of civilians (Kemoklidze, p.185-186) O’rourke (2009) also pointed out the same opinion as that of Kemoklidze. “Chechen terrorist leaders emphasize the fact that many of the female suicide attackers acted following the death of a family member— usually their husbands—in the context of the con?ict” (O’rourke, p.696). In many of the suicide bombing attack cases, women come forward to accept death because of the loss of some their beloved ones in a battle. In other words, women were forced to take weapons or burn themselves off because of the bitter experiencers they might have faced from enemies. A woman who lost his husband in the battle field may think that it is her duty to contribute as much as possible to her society by killing as much enemies as possible. In other words, such women are motivated by the rationale not only of taking revenge, but also to save her society from massacres of enemies. It should be noted that Islam never allows a woman to participate in a battle. In fact, Islamic terrorist groups such as Al-Qaida, Hezbollah, Hamas etc have different opinions about using women as suicide bombers in their attacks against enemies of Islam, especially against America. Al-Qaida and Hamas have no hesitation in using women as suicide bombers whereas Hezbollah has not used women as suicide bombers yet. Hezbollah, which remained silent on the question of the secular Lebanese female suicide terrorists during the 1980s, has yet to use a female suicide attacker. Still, the group’s spiritual leader, Mohammad Fadlallah, issued a statement approving female attackers in 2002. Subsequently, six additional fatwas from prominent religious leaders in the Middle East and Europe reinforce this claim. Even Al-Qaeda appears to be following this trend beginning with two female suicide terrorists who attempted to commit joint attacks with their husbands (O’rourke, p.698) It should be noted that a religion which so far tried to limit the freedoms of women in social life, is now trying to use them as weapons for safeguarding the interests of the same religion. If women have same role as men have in protecting the interests of the religion, then they should have same rights in all of their social and political life. It should be noted that in countries like Saudi Arabia, women are prohibited even from driving their vehicles. Moreover, Muslim women in these traditional societies have lot of constraints in their social and political life. The story of an Afghan Muslim girl, Ayesha Bibi, who lost her ear and nose because of the brutalities of her husband, shook the world recently. It should be noted that in such fundamental societies women forced to play the role of suicide bombers because of the compulsion of the dominant male community. Many of the Muslim girls in these societies are ready to act as suicide bombers in order to escape from the tortures from the male dominant society. Dr. Maria Holt in her article “The Kitchen or the Battlefield? Women's Experiences of Violence and 'Suicide Terrorism' in the Palestinian Territories”, written on Middle East Monitor have criticized the attitude of the Muslim fundamentalists in utilizing women for terrorist activities at one side and denying them the luxury of freedom on the other side. Interestingly, in the modern era, some radical Muslims 'have been attempting to legitimize women's participation in jihad'. Is this because they recognize that women have as much right as men to participate in the liberation of the nation or because there are not enough men? A woman's right to join men on the battlefield 'can only be seen as a radical change in Islam and, as such, has been treated with suspicion by Muslim conservatives' (Dr. Holt) Another objective behind using female suicide bombers more frequently than male suicide bombers is to spread the message across the world that the fundamental societies are unique in safeguarding their political and cultural interests. Americans usually spread the propaganda that only a few people in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine are causing terrorism and majorities in these countries are against terrorism. Terrorists wanted to discard this argument and for that purpose, it is better for them to present female suicide bombers to the external world. Schweitzer (2006) has pointed out that “women’s participation in suicide bombings has been used as a propaganda tool by their organizations and served the dispatchers’ drive to project an image of participation by all segments of their respective societies in the ethno-national and/or religious struggles” (Schweitzer, p.11) “Several terrorist leaders argue that women make poor attackers because they lack the psychological and physical prowess of men” (O’rourke, p.696). The above argument seems to be illogical. The capabilities of women in conducting risky operations are well documented at present. It should be noted that the suicide bomber who assassinated former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was a female rather than a male. She approached Rajiv Gandhi as if she was going to present him with some flowers and conducted her mission with 100% accuracy. In fact the explosion was conducted in a highly precise manner so that the body of Rajiv Gandhi was difficult even to identify. Dhanu, the female suicide bomber who killed Rajiv Gandhi, had not shown any discomfort or fear while approaching him with the bombs. Compared to males, females face many miserable experiences in this world which makes them mentally tougher than some of their male counterparts. It should be noted that current women are capable of even climbing Mount Everest or visiting outer space. Under such circumstances, there is no point in arguing that females have less physical or mental power in conducting dangerous or risky terrorist activities. To conclude, female suicide bombers are not acting irrationally while they burn themselves off in their attempt to kill as much as enemies as possible. Many of the suicide women bombers who took part in the past terrorist activities were women who lost some of their beloved ones in the battlefield. Patriotism and religious fundamentalism are other motives which force some women to participate in suicide bombing attacks. It is difficult to blame only the women in a particular community alone for participating terrorist activities. Apart from Muslim women in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan, women from Sri Lanka and Chechnya are also participating in suicide bombing attacks which clearly shows that there are some common themes or rationales behind every female suicide attacks. Works Cited Cragin Kim R & Daly Sara A. “Women as Terrorists: Mothers, Recruiters, and Martyrs”. 2009. Publisher: Praeger (June 8, 2009) Dr. Holt Maria. “The Kitchen or the Battlefield? Women's Experiences of Violence and 'Suicide Terrorism' in the Palestinian Territories”. 2011. Web. 09 August 2011. Ghosh, Bobby. “The Mind of a Female Suicide Bomber”. 2008. Web. 09 August 2011. Kemoklidze Nino. “Victimisation of Female Suicide Bombers: The Case of Chechnya”. 2009. Caucasian review of international affairs. VOL. 3 (2) – SPRING 2009. Web. 09 August 2011. O’rourke Lindsey A. “What’s Special about Female Suicide Terrorism?”. 2009. Security Studies, 18:681–718, 2009 DOI: 10.1080/09636410903369084. Routledge. Schweitzer Yoram. “Female Suicide Bombers: Dying for Equality?”. 2006 The Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies (JCSS). Web. 09 August 2011. “Suicide Bombing in the COE”. 2006. DCSINT Handbook No. 1.03. 10 August 2006. Web. 09 August 2011. Zedalis Debra D. “Female Suicide Bombers”. 2004. Web. 09 August 2011 Read More