REBECCA BROCKER

[Spring 2008, Volume IX, Issue I]

Female suicide terrorism is on the rise worldwide. There were six suicide attacks known to have been perpetrated by women during the 1980s. Then, between 1990 and 2000, female suicide bombers committed 30 suicide attacks, and between 2000 and 2006, they committed over 40 suicide attacks. Female suicide bombers have detonated in Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Russia, Somalia, Sri Lanka, and Turkey, and represent 15% of all suicide bombers.  In the past, the majority of scholarly attention has been given to suicide terrorism as a general phenomenon.  Suicide terrorism has been largely attributed to extremist religious or nationalist beliefs on an individual level, combined with the strategic advantages offered by suicide bombers on the group level in reaction to the external circumstances caused by a foreign occupation or a war. Conversely, the specific phenomenon of female suicide terrorism has not until recently received special attention. Within the past few years, though, the available information regarding female suicide bombers has advanced substantially.

By taking a closer look at female suicide terrorism, we have come to realize that over seven hundred people have died and two thousand have been injured by eighty-two female suicide bombers. These attackers have represented insurgent groups in Iraq; the Syrian Socialist National Party (SSNP) in Lebanon; the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka; the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Turkey; Chechen separatists in Russia; reportedly, al-Qaeda in Somalia; and Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade in Palestine.3 While many point to Islamic fundamentalism as a main cause for suicide terrorism, 85.4% of female suicide bombers acted on behalf of secular organizations rather than on behalf of religious ones, a point that will be addressed further below.

The fact that the number of female suicide bombers is steadily rising draws our attention to this topic. Unfortunately,  we currently lack the operational understanding of female suicide terrorism that would be necessary to curb female suicide terrorism. This article therefore addresses the question: “Under what conditions do terrorist organizations that launch suicide bombers use women for such attacks?” Since female suicide bombers are often believed to have significantly different motivations than male suicide bombers, this article also addresses the following sub-question: “why do individual women decide to become suicide bombers?” These two questions will allow us to place female suicide bombers in a context that not only considers the women’s personal motivations, but also the external factors (such as a foreign occupation or a war) that ultimately contribute to their decision to become ‘martyrs’.

It is vital to explore these issues because it is in the best interest of governments and individuals around the world (particularly those that are the targets of terrorist actions) to minimize the number of people who commit acts of suicide terrorism. We cannot hope to prevent these attacks until we know why they happen in the first place; consequently, it is necessary to understand both the individual and group motivations that lead to female involvement in suicide terror campaigns.

For example, if the main reason that female suicide bombings occur revolves around the individual motivations, while we likely would not be able to eradicate the root causes of such acts, we could at least begin to recognize signals and perhaps predict when or where these attacks would be likely. Conversely, if the main issues seem to lie at the group level rather than that of the individual, we could redirect our attention and efforts to concentrate on understanding the situation at that level. Overall, only with knowledge of all of the conditions that come together to cause female suicide terrorism can we begin to comprehend the issue on a global level and develop strategies to prevent such attacks. It is argued that two of the most important counterterrorism goals are to defeat the “current terrorists” and to prevent a “new generation” of terrorists from rising up. Since the use of female suicide bombers is a relatively new phenomenon, they could be considered to be this “next generation” of suicide bombers. To achieve the goal of preventing a new generation from rising up, a focus must be placed on female suicide terrorists in order to gain an understanding of the specific logic of that particular group’s involvement in campaigns of suicide terrorism. Further, if we understand the strategic and tactical reasons why women are being accepted into terrorist groups, we might be able to prevent women from successfully completing their suicide missions or predict which demographics may be likely candidates for the “new generation” of suicide bombers.

This article is organized as follows:

Scholarly work on this topic revolves around one main debate: whether female suicide terrorism is motivated primarily by internal or external factors. One school of thought argues that internal factors, such as the personal motivations listed below, are the main reason that women choose to become suicide bombers. However, it is also argued that the motivations for female suicide bombers are primarily external and that it is vital to place the stories of female suicide bombers into the appropriate context of war or foreign occupation. Following this logic, then, a woman who commits an act of suicide terrorism often has personal motivations, but would not have become a suicide bomber if her environment had not been one of conflict. In other words, it is not enough to have internal factors; there must also be external factors in place in order to yield female suicide terrorism.

Therefore, the first section explores the existing explanations of the internal factors that explain why individual women become suicide bombers. Reflecting common wisdom, Mia Bloom argues that female suicide bombers are typically motivated by personal reasons, while male suicide bombers are motivated by religious or nationalist fanaticism.

Some commonly cited personal motivations for female suicide bombers include:
• Societal pressure
• Inability or lack of desire to marry or bear
children
• Aspirations to achieve gender equality
• Desire to seek revenge for the loss of a loved one
• Harassment or embarrassment by opposition
forces
• Financial problems
• Any combination of these factors

For individual women, these personal motivations can be further sorted into the categories of “escapism” or “redemption.” Two women can be motivated by the same factor, such as the inability or lack of desire to marry or bear children, so it is essential to differentiate them based on their actual motivation (that is, to either escape their situation or to redeem themselves by committing an act of suicide terrorism). However, it is not always possible to sort the actual motivations into these two categories, since some women share the same problem or factor yet commit the act of suicide terrorism for different reasons.

Though many writers have focused on one particular group or the individual story of one suicide bomber, there is no single characteristic that unites all of the female suicide bombers. Additionally, these personal motivations cannot fully explain why women become suicide bombers, because although many women throughout the world face the same difficulties and challenges, they do not all become suicide bombers (e.g., many women are divorced or infertile, but very few become suicide bombers).

Thus, the second section of the article takes this issue to a higher level of aggregation and examines the external reasons for female suicide terrorism. This section considers the reasons why terrorist organizations utilize female suicide bombers. These group-level motivations can be split into two main categories: strategic advantages and tactical advantages.

Strategic advantages include women’s ability to:

• Capitalize on the glorification and admiration of
female suicide bombers
• Mobilize other potential suicide bombers into
action
Tactical advantages include the women’s ability to:
• Pass more easily through security checkpoints
• Feign pregnancy in order to avoid scrutiny
• Serve as accomplices to male suicide bombers
• Get closer to soft targets (for example, public figures whose deaths would have a strong impact
and receive a great deal of publicity)8

The strategic and tactical motivations listed above, if accurate, can be beneficial to terrorist organizations whose goals are to incite a societal reaction large enough to generate a following for their group or to scare as many people as possible. As such, these organizations must constantly develop new ways of attack to ensure that their target population never feels safe. Thus, the inclusion of female suicide bombers opens up another group of potential suicide bombers and makes it harder for security officials to screen for possible terrorists.

“[In Palestine], all four who died, plus the others who had tried and failed to die a martyr’s death, had personal problems that made their lives untenable within their own culture and society.” Some scholars consider female suicide bombers to be fundamentally different than male suicide bombers. In order to understand why this is the case, it is necessary to examine the factors that lead women to become martyrs and to determine whether (and, if so, how) these motivations differ from those of male suicide bombers. Some female suicide bombers may also harbor religious or political motives, but oftentimes those motives are downplayed in the media while personal reasons, which will be discussed below, are given center stage.

Regardless of each woman’s reasons for committing acts of suicide terrorism, it is important to note that the tendency of many authors has been to paint a picture of a woman witha plethora of problems who turns to suicide bombing to give meaning to her life. While men are portrayed as brave warriors fighting for a cause they passionately believe in, their personal problems that may have led them to become a suicide bomber are ignored or downplayed as reasons for their actions.

The actions of female suicide bombers tend to be interpreted as a way to either: 1) escape the factors that make them unhappy, or 2) to empower or redeem themselves in response to their problems. Overall, female suicide bombers are perceived to take their lives literally into their own hands in the face of societal pressure or personal problems.  However, it is important to note that there are varying degrees of societal pressure placed upon countless numbers of women in virtually every country. Therefore, while societal pressures including the inability to marry or have children or gender inequality may be strong factors that lead certain women to consider ‘martyrdom’, it is impossible to link any one of these conditions directly to martyrdom. Even when it is possible to connect the conditions to the outcomes, these conditions are necessary but not sufficient. In other words, women typically must have problems to become suicide bombers but not all women with problems do become suicide bombers; clearly there are also external factors that must be addressed in order to construct an accurate argument. This section will examine all of the personal factors that are cited as reasons why women choose to become suicide bombers.

Societal pressure in a general sense is often cited as a reason why women become suicide bombers. In Palestinian society, for example, women are generally expected to get married and have children, and when that expectation is not fulfilled, suicide bombing becomes an acceptable replacement as a contribution to society.

One Palestinian female suicide bomber, Wafa Idris, was a paramedic for the Red Crescent and cared for Palestinians injured by the Israelis. She is an example of a female suicide bomber who faced societal pressure, as one expert, Dr.Mira Tzoreff, explains:

“If we take Wafa Idris…the ultimate shahida [martyr], who is she after all? She is a talented young woman, married and divorced because she was sterile, desperate because she knew perfectly well there was no future for her in any aspect of the Palestinian society. She knew better than anyone else that the only way for her to come out against this miserable situation was to kill herself [emphasis added]…She knew her own society and the limitations they put on her and on women like her and she understood better than anyone else that she had nothing left, no hope, no future.

It seems, then, that Wafa saw suicide bombing as the only way out, because living in her society meant a life of unhappiness and unfulfilled potential, while the prospect of becoming a martyr held the promise of a better existence in the afterlife.

In fact, the cousin of Darine Abu Aisha, the second Palestinian female suicide bomber, believes that some women owe it to Palestine to become suicide bombers. Perhaps more importantly, she also believes that as mothers, Palestinian women must encourage their children to become suicide bombers. She explains, “I adore my children, but if I help them achieve martyrdom, it only means that Allah has chosen them because he loves them more than I do.”11 Thus, she believes that it is not only socially acceptable but encouraged for women to become martyrs or to raise their children to become martyrs. Divorce or the inability to bear children is frequently cited as a reason why women decide to become suicide bombers. For example, Wafa Idris, the Palestinian suicide bomber discussed above, was married at a young age to her first cousin, but could not conceive. Eventually, she did get pregnant, but gave birth to a stillborn infant. After that, Wafa became depressed and refused to do anything (such as cooking, cleaning, and other household tasks) and her husband, angry and frustrated, divorced her.12 After the divorce, her mother explains, “Wafa knew she could never marry again because a divorced woman is tainted…She was young, intelligent, and beautiful and had nothing to live for.” This story reflects an escapist motivation for ‘martyrdom’ and is representative of women who, unable to tolerate the idea of a future without a husband or children, choose to martyr themselves.

On the other hand, the second Palestinian female suicide bomber, Darine Abu Aisha, allegedly chose to become a martyr not because she could not marry, but because she did not want to marry. She had several prospects for marriage, all of which she turned down in order to concentrate on her studies, saying that “she had no intention of ever marrying because she had no intention of becoming a slave.”14 Darine’s cousin explains that Darine was teased and her family suffered because she did not want to marry. However, after her death her family was happy to find out that she had finally come to serve “a higher purpose.” They believe that Darine knew she would become “the bride of Allah in paradise.”15 The decision to become a martyr empowered Darine to perform a task viewed as more important than any earthly role she could have ever hoped to fill. Thus, the same factor (marriage) led to two very different outcomes. Wafa, who could not marry again, became a martyr to escape her life on earth. Conversely, Darine did not want to marry, so she became a martyr in an attempt to empower herself to be a part of something bigger than the role carved out for her by her society.

In many of the societies in which suicide bombings take place, women struggle for rights and recognition. Mia Bloom, author of the book Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror, explains that according to a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report, African and Middle Eastern women suffer the most from gender inequality.16 As a result, the desire to achieve gender equality is sometimes cited as a reason why women commit acts of suicide terrorism. Clara Beyler writes, “When women become human bombs, their intent is to make a statement not only in the name of a country, a religion, a leader, but also in the name of their gender.” For example, Darine Abu Aisha’s best friend, Nano Abdul, believed that Darine became a ‘martyr’ because she had gone as far as she could within her society. Even though she was extremely bright and attended university, “her fate as a Palestinian woman was sealed – an arranged marriage, six or seven children, a husband who probably wouldn’t have the same hopes or curiosity about life that she did.”18 As a result, she chose to martyr herself to escape her certain fate on earth. Therefore, the aspiration to achieve gender equality is another factor that helps to explain Darine’s desire to become a suicide bomber.

Furthermore, many of the women who become suicide bombers are either recruited or “handled” by men. Thus, one could argue that women are still being categorized and treated as subordinates rather than being empowered. Even though these women are being “allowed” to make what they view as a great sacrifice, in the end, they are being sent off to die by men, perhaps in the place of men. This suggests that their lives continue to be valued less than those of the men, which directly contradicts the argument that women are able to achieve gender equality as a result of their actions. Clara Beyler asserts that in some groups, such as the Palestinian Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigades or the Chechen rebels, female suicide bombers do not achieve gender equality because they are not given the same opportunities to participate in the terrorist group as men are. However, there are groups, such as the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) in Turkey or the Tamil Tigers of Liberation Eelam in Sri Lanka, which do allow women to play an active role in the terrorist organizations. In those cases, suicide terrorism is arguably “the next logical step” of involvement.

For example, during the period of 1980-2003, ten of the PKK’s fourteen suicide attacks (71%) were carried out by women. The PKK case is unique because it is believed that none of their suicide bombers were walk-in volunteers; the men and women who committed acts of suicide terrorism on behalf of the PKK were “long-serving members” of the group.21 These facts do support the idea that women formed part of the group and were not recruited for the sole purpose of becoming suicide bombers.

However, this case does not necessarily reflect gender equality. There were more women than men deployed to martyr themselves (ten women as opposed to four men). This may actually suggest that men are more highly valued within terrorist organizations and, as a result, the women are sent to die instead. Though the fact that so many women were “allowed” to die could be seen as a reflection of gender equality, it could also be viewed as gender inequality since they are martyred at a higher rate than the men.

Another group that has used female suicide bombers is Hezbollah. From 1982 to 1986, six women carried out suicide attacks on behalf of Hezbollah against American, French, and Israeli forces in Lebanon. These women represented 16% of the 37 total suicide attackers whose gender was identified.22 It is important to note that during this period, most suicide bombers were volunteers, not part of the group. As a result, it is possible that the numbers of men and women who became suicide bombers are not a result of the choices made by Hezbollah, but rather a reflection of simple supply and demand. Rather than reflecting any sort of gender bias, these data may simply illustrate the numbers of men and women who volunteered for suicide missions.

In many of the cases, a connection can be made between a female suicide bomber and a male loved one (such as a brother, a cousin, an uncle, a fiancé, or a father) that died in a particular conflict. This factor is most effectively illustrated by the Chechen case. Within that society, there is an entire group of female suicide attackers called the Black Widows who are said to become suicide bombers for the sole purpose of seeking revenge for the loss of family members killed as a result of Russian military action.23 For, example, in November 2001, a Chechen woman named Elza Gazuyeva killed herself and the Russian commander who was believed to have ordered the death of Elza’s husband in a suicide attack.24 Though she empowered herself to take revenge against the man she believed had ordered her husband’s murder, it is also possible that she was attempting to escape life without her husband. It is impossible to definitively identify whether she was trying to escape or empower herself, but either way, it does seem that her husband’s death was at least part of the reason she became a suicide bomber.

However, while these women are no doubt devastated by the loss of their loved ones, this factor alone cannot explain their actions. For example, even though the number of people killed during the First and Second Chechen Wars (1994-1996 and 1999-present, respectively) is widely disputed, the number of women who have become suicide bombers is much smaller. One Chechen official said on August 15, 2005, that between 150,000 and 160,000 people had died or gone missing over the course of those conflicts.25 Robert Pape, on the other hand, writes that from 2000-2003, 1.1 million people comprised the Chechen occupied population, while 50,000 deaths had occurred as a result of military presence (a rate of 50 deaths per 1,000 people). However, there were a total of 33 suicide attacks, and less than 14 suicide attacks perpetrated by females. Thus, for every 1,000 deaths related to the military presence, less than one suicide attack was committed by male and female suicide bombers combined.26 By examining this data, it becomes evident that this explanation alone is not sufficient because though many women have lost loved ones in this particular conflict, very few have reacted by becoming, suicide terrorists.

In some cases, women are believed to have been led to suicide terrorism as a result of harassment or embarrassment by members of opposition forces. Dr. Iyad Sarraj, a Palestinian psychiatrist from Gaza who has studied the phenomenon of suicide, explains: “The children who threw stones and Molotov cocktails and confronted Israeli soldiers in 1987 and who watched their fathers and other male relatives being beaten and humiliated by Israeli forces, are the young men [and women] who are the martyrs of today.”27 By this logic, as a response to past mistreatment, these people may become suicide bombers to empower themselves against the enemy.

Nowadays, in some conflict zones, women are humiliated as they pass through checkpoints. In one case, a Palestinian woman was forced by an Israeli officer to wait an hour to pass through the checkpoint and suffered verbal abuse and offensive sexual advances made by the guards while she waited. After describing that incident, the woman said that she felt that “[l]ife is worth nothing when [we] are being humiliated on a daily basis.”28 When the women feel this way, their decision to become suicide bombers allows them to escape this daily humiliation and to take revenge.

Another example of humiliation by the opposition forces is the story of Darine Abu Aisha, who was discussed in previous sections of this article. On one occasion, Darine got very upset because soldiers at a checkpoint would not let a sick infant pass. When she tried to convince them to allow the infant to pass through, the soldiers told her that they would – if Darine kissed her cousin Rashid on the mouth. This incident was so severe that the two would have to marry because after having kissed her cousin, she would not be able to marry anyone else. Since Darine did not want to get married, Rashid promised to help her find another solution that would empower her to change the course of her life and protect the family’s honor, and that is how she is said to have started down the path to martyrdom. However, the abuses of opposition forces do not end with the spoken word. Both Tamil and Kurdish women have been known to join the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) and the PKK (the Kurdistan Workers Party), respectively, because they were raped by members of the Sinhalese or Turkish military.30 Mia Bloom writes, “What is incredibly compelling about delving into how and why women become suicide bombers is that so many of these women have been raped or sexually abused in the previous conflict either by the representatives of the state or by the insurgents themselves.”31 In these cases, the women could be motivated by either escapism (to escape humiliation or scorn) or redemption (to take action against the enemy) in order to become martyrs.

Rape is unfortunately a frequent occurrence during wars and is typically viewed as a negative consequence of conflict. However, rape has only led to female suicide terrorism in a handful of contexts in which suicide terrorism was already taking place. Since in many societies rape precludes a woman from marriage and compromises her honor, the combination of the internal anguish caused by rape and the external factor of an already-existent suicide terror campaign can come together to yield an act of female suicide terrorism – if a woman believesthat her act will lead to redemption. Therefore, in order for a female suicide bomber to martyr herself in hopes of redemption, the precedent must be set by someone who comes before her. In other words, if suicide terrorism is already occurring within a conflict, and a rape victim sees that previous martyrs have been glorified, she may be likely to see martyrdom as a path to redemption.

There is little strong evidence that financial motivations drive female suicide terrorism. For example, in Chechnya, one woman agreed to become a suicide bomber because the Chechen rebels promised to pay her relatives $1,000 to compensate for the cost of the jewelry that the woman had stolen from her family. However, this woman decided at the last minute not to complete her mission and turned herself in to the Russian police.33 It is clear that this woman was desperate for money – but not desperate enough to kill herself. Even though this woman did not go through with her assignment, it is worth noting that she was, at least temporarily, willing to commit an act of suicide terrorism in order to repay a $1,000 debt. This story is one example of a would-be martyr reneging on her agreement with the terrorist organization, and it shows that financial motivations may not be a strong enough factor to lead a woman to kill herself.

Though it is difficult to imagine placing a value of a thousand dollars on human life, Dr. Emanuel Savin, an expert in terrorism, believes that economic factors are very influential in the decision-making process of potential bombers. Due to the dire circumstances in which many Palestinians find themselves as a result of the Israeli occupation, suicide bombing offers a way for women to take control of their family’s fate and earn money for their families.34 Even though a large amount of this money did not go directly to the families, they still received about 10%, and considering the per capita income is $1,000 per year on average, it is conceivable that a family would sacrifice a child to attain financial security – especially if they believe that their child will live on forever in Paradise. Saddam Hussein gave $25,000 rewards to the families of each martyr, plus $25,000 to re-build houses destroyed by the Israeli army (which were destroyed to discourage future suicide bombers).36 However, Israeli forces do not solely destroy the homes of suicide bombers. In response to less than 100 suicide attacks, Israeli forces destroyed approximately 500 houses. As a result, many more families suffered as a result of the suicide bombers’ actions and ostensibly did not receive financial compensation for the destruction of their homes.

Interestingly, Dr. Abul Aziz al-Rantisi, spokesperson for Hamas, admitted during an on-camera interview that male suicide bombers’ families are paid $400 per month, whereas the families of female suicide bombers receive half that amount. This money is paid each month for a lifetime to the families by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, or the Palestinian authority, depending on who takes responsibility for the attack.38 Despite the fact that they are completing the same task and dying for the same cause, female suicide bombers only receive half the amount of money that their male counterparts do. If men are paid twice as much as women, but the money is not typically named as a motivating factor for male martyrs, it is difficult to believe that financial problems on their own serve as motivation for women. Additionally, if a family desperately needs money, it would be more economically advantageous to send a son instead of a daughter to become a martyr.

Thus, while the financial aspect certainly may contribute to a woman’s decision to become a martyr, it seems that this reason is, at best, a secondary one. Without at least one other personal issue or problem present, it seems that even if a woman did enter into an agreement with a terrorist organization solely in order to earn money, she would be likely to renege on the agreement just as the Chechen woman did. However, if the woman presents other problems in addition to financial concerns, she may be more inclined to take into account the fact that her family will receive a fairly large sum of money upon her death and ultimately decided to become a martyr.

Though all of the factors above, along with countless others, may be offered as explanations for the actions of female suicide bombers, it must be recognized that no single factor directly leads to suicide terrorism. Mia Bloom, who over the course of her book discusses many of these factors in extreme detail, acknowledges that, “Motives vary: revenge for a personal loss, the desire to redeem the family name, to escape a life of sheltered monotony and achieve fame, and to level the patriarchal societies in which they live…”39 However, in cases like Darine’s, we can see that a combination of life experiences and personal problems can come together to incite a woman to action. It was not just the incidence of humiliation at the checkpoint, or just the fact that she did not want to get married, or just the fact that she was being forced to marry her cousin. She became a suicide terrorist because of all of these reasons and possibly others as well. It is extremely difficult to ascertain the precise motivations of any suicide bomber because we oftentimes must rely on the insight of friends and family after she commits her act of martyrdom.

The length of the above list is indicative of a wide variety of personal motivations, and though many writers have focused on one particular group or the individual stories of each suicide bomber, there is no single characteristic that forms a nexus between all of the female suicide bombers. Additionally, these personal motivations cannot fully explain why women become suicide bombers, because though countless women throughout the world face similar circumstances or problems, very few of them become suicide bombers (the world’s current population includes approximately two billion women above the age of fifteen, but only eighty-two women have successfully completed suicide terrorist attacks.) In order to fully comprehend this issue, we need to examine it considering the external factors that lead terrorist groups to employ women. Since the decisions of terrorist organizations are founded upon concrete strategic and tactical goals associated with eliciting a particular reaction from their enemies, evaluating these factors provides a more fruitful and objective way of arriving at a feasible explanation.  “Bombers work as parts of organizations, rarely as individuals. These organizations and their roles in the bombing must be understood.

Some experts believe that we should view suicide bombers as guided missiles, carefully prepared and launched by some larger, organized group, instead of picturing them as driven to kill themselves and others out of a spontaneous surge of emotion.”

Religion is often cited as the main motivation for suicide terrorism. Therefore, before discussing the specific strategic and tactical advantages that terrorist organizations may enjoy as a result of female suicide terrorism, it is essential to understand the role that religion plays in determining whether women are allowed to become suicide terrorists. The first female suicide bomber, Sana’a Mehaydali, was a 17-year-old girl “sent by the Syrian Socialist National Party (SSNP/PPS), a secular, pro-Syrian Lebanese organization, to blow herself up near an Israeli convoy in Lebanon in 1985.”43 Since then, however, there have been eighty-one suicide bombings perpetrated by women worldwide who represent both secular and religious groups. Islam is the religion that is typically linked to suicide terrorism. In actuality, only three of the groups that use female suicide bombers are religiously oriented: Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and Al-Qaeda, and these groups are Islam-based. However, both Hamas and the PIJ initially rejected the use of women for suicide attacks. The reason they began accepting female suicide bombers is because the public response was “overwhelmingly positive” and they believed that great strategic gains could be made by utilizing women.

It is clear, then, that suicide terrorism cannot be explicitly linked to religious motivations. In fact, out of the nine groups that have used female suicide bombers, six are secular (the Syrian Socialist National Party, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the Kurdistan Worker’s Party, the Chechen separatists, and the Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigades).Of all the women who have committed suicide attacks, 85.4% commit them on behalf of secular groups. Since religious groups tend not to use women, some argue that these groups do not believe that women are worthy of martyrdom. Following that logic, then, groups that do use women may be seen as more egalitarian. However, one could also argue that the reason religious groups use women is because women are seen as less important than men and should thus be sent to die in the place of men.

It is impossible to ascertain which mentality these groups have and thus the religious versus secular examination of the involvement of women as suicide terrorists is not productive. Women who choose to become suicide bombers are likely to follow through with their decision regardless of which organization is sponsoring them, and oftentimes it contributes to the strategic and social goals of a terrorist group (whether secular or religious) to accept responsibility for a female suicide bomber’s attack.

Thus, since we cannot generalize female suicide bombings as being particular to either secular or religious agendas, it is clear that something else is happening on an organizational level that has led groups to accept females as suicide terrorists. In order to examine these group-level motivations, we must first understand why terrorist organizations use suicide terrorism at all. Then, we must examine the specific factors that explain why some terrorist organizations employ female suicide bombers.

In a general sense, Pape states that the purpose for suicide terrorism is, “to use the threat of punishment to compel a target democracy to change policy, and most especially to cause democratic states to withdraw forces from land the terrorists perceive as their national homeland.” He goes on to argue that suicide terrorism is a strategy of coercion that attempts to force the target government to make policy changes.48 The crux of Pape’s argument is that democracies are “soft” and thus have populations who “have low thresholds of cost tolerance.” As a result of the public’s low tolerance for fatalities, especially civilians, suicide terrorists are able to affect the policies of democratic states.49 As of 2003, when Pape published his book, every population that had been targeted by a modern suicide bombing campaign was a democracy (the United States, France, Israel, India, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and Russia). As a result, Pape makes a strong argument regarding the connection between the use of suicide terror and the willingness of democratic states to give in to “modest or very limited goals,” though thus far suicide terrorism “has…failed to compel target democracies to abandon goals central to national wealth or security.”

For the purposes of this article, it is vital to take into consideration the specific advantages that the use of female suicide bombers provides terrorist organizations. While all suicide bombers have an impact on the target populations, many scholars argue that female suicide bombers provide a particular advantage because the idea of a woman committing such severe acts of violence is seen as especially reprehensible. To use Pape’s terms, the “cost tolerance” is seen as being lower within some societies when women are involved in the attacks due to the preconceived notions of what a woman’s role in society should be.

Because the number of female suicide bombers is so much lower than the number of male suicide bombers, their specific strategic advantage (e.g. if the use of female suicide bombers allows terrorist organizations to demand more extreme actions or concessions from the target democracy) has not been examined thus far in depth. There are many factors that help to explain why it may be beneficial for terrorist organizations to employ female suicide bombers.

Some of the reasons commonly given to explain why terrorist groups use women include:
• The especially strong societal reaction to female martyrs
• The glorification of martyrs
• The ability of female martyrs to shame or inspire others to join the cause
• The ability of women (especially those who feign pregnancy) to use societal taboos to avoid searches or scrutiny
• The ability of women to serve as accomplices to male suicide bombers
• The fact that women can access soft targets

Some of these advantages, such as the glorification of martyrs and the ability of female martyrs to inspire others, are arguably equally relevant to male suicide bombers. Due to specific gender-related factors, though, the impact of females is argued to be significantly different. Since women may be viewed in the countries affected by suicide terrorism as weak or inferior, they may become role models not only because they are suicide bombers, but because of their gender, and are therefore entitled to a more highly glorified status. This argument will be expanded upon below and will be split into two sections: strategic advantages and tactical advantages.

Mia Bloom explains, “Suicide attacks are done for effect, and the more dramatic the effect, the stronger the message; thus a potential interest on the part of some groups in recruiting women.”52 Suicide bombers in general inspire fear and shock within the target population; however, in societies where women are viewed as weak and subordinate to men, the “shock value” of a female suicide bomber is especially large. Rhiannon Talbot of the University of Newcastle in the United Kingdom adds, “All of these women undermine our idea of who and what a terrorist is. Our intuitive assumptions presume that terrorists and terrorism are a man’s preserve. Most people still believe that women would not kill in such a barbaric and indiscriminate way that targets innocent children equally with soldiers or police officers. This is why there is usually a public outcry of horror against women terrorists.”

The case of Wafa Idris supports this idea that female martyrs can cause a strong societal reaction. In an editorial praising her actions was published in Al-Sha’ab, an Egyptian Islamist weekly. This editorial deserves a close examination as it details the strategic benefits that can be enjoyed by a terrorist organization as a result of a female suicide attack.

The editorial begins:
“It’s a woman!! A woman, oh men of the [Islamic] nation; a woman, oh youth of the nation; a woman, oh women of the nation; a woman, oh those who call for the liberation of the nation’s women; a woman, oh soldiers of the nation; a woman, oh rulers, princes, and leaders of this nation; it is a woman, a woman, a woman.”

From this introduction, we can clearly see that the author is not referring to martyrdom as a general phenomenon; rather, the author is drawing attention to the fact that the author believes the fact that the bomber is female is an integral part of the reason she should be praised.

Continuing, the author writes:

“It is a woman who teaches you today a lesson in heroism, who teaches you the meaning of Jihad, and the way to die a martyr’s death. It is a woman who has inscribed, in letters of fire, the battle of martyrdom that horrified the heart of the enemy’s entity. It is a woman who has shocked the enemy, with her thin, meager, and weak body… It is a woman who blew herself up, and with her exploded all the myths about women’s weakness, submissiveness, and enslavement.”

“It is a woman who today teaches you, oh Muslim women, the meaning of true liberation, with which the women’s rights activists have tempted you… It is a woman who has now proven that the meaning of [women’s] liberation is the liberation of the body from the trials and tribulations of this world… and the acceptance of death with a powerful, courageous embrace…”

“It is a woman, a woman, a woman who is a source of pride for the women of this nation and a source of honor that shames the submissive men with a shame that cannot be washed away except by blood… It is a woman in the spring of her youth who swore in the name of her God, with every drop of her blood, with every limb of her body, and with every one of her cells that turned into coals that burned the hearts of the enemy with the fire of fear, loss, and pain…“

In the body of this editorial, the author points out that Wafa had a particularly strong impact on the enemy because she was a female who committed this act of martyrdom. The author argues that Wafa breaks the stereotype for her gender, allowing women to be seen as liberated, empowered, and capable of fighting alongside men to achieve a set goal. According to the author’s logic, Wafa should serve as a role model for Muslim women and should shame the men who are not active participants in the conflict.  Barbara Victor confirms that the general societal reaction to Wafa’s death aligns with the opinion asserted in the editorial above. While researching for her book, Victor visited Wafa’s home and was greeted by a crowd of people who, regardless of age or gender, praised Wafa, happy “that one of their own had become a heroine for the Palestinian struggle – a woman, a symbol of the army of women who were ready to die for the cause.”56 For them, Wafa was not merely a suicide bomber; rather, she was a hero, a model that all Palestinian women should aspire to emulate. Of course, male martyrs also elicit a societal reaction, and it is impossible to quantify which gender elicits a stronger societal reaction. This factor only reflects the perception that women get more attention, which may or may not be correct. However, a terrorist group may believe that a female suicide bomber is useful if there is simply a chance that she could receive more attention than a man.

Continuing along those lines, it is also difficult, if not impossible, to determine whether female martyrs are more glorified than male martyrs. In Palestine, posters of both male and female martyrs are posted around their towns, leaflets about the terrorist organization that sponsored them are distributed, and people celebrate in the streets. In Sri Lanka, community support is cited as one of the main reasons that so many individuals are willing to commit suicide attacks on behalf of the Tamil Tigers. Before their death, the bombers’ identities are hidden, but after their deaths, their identities are publicized and annual public ceremonies are held to celebrate the martyrs. Both male and female suicide bombers are glorified in this way.

The case of Wafa Idris illustrates the glorification of a female martyr. After becoming a martyr, Wafa’s picture was posted all over the city and her mother distributed sweets to the children of the neighborhood in a widespread celebration of her actions. The press and the public compared Wafa to Jesus Christ, the Mona Lisa, and Joan of Arc, allowing her to become an instant celebrity upon her death and providing inspiration to other young women who would dream of one day becoming suicide bombers.

In the media and in propaganda, terrorist organizations are argued to benefit greatly from women who martyr themselves. A special emphasis may be placed upon female suicide bombers because the idea that a woman would go against tradition and kill herself in the name of their cause is very powerful and draws special attention to the issue. As a result, some terrorist groups may be inclined to recruit women because “[s]uicide attacks are done for the effect, and the more dramatic the effect, the stronger the message.”60 The effect of female suicide bombers may be more dramatic, especially in more conservative societies, and thus the use of women would provide a specific strategic benefit to the terrorist organization that sponsors her.

Furthermore, it is argued that “…this tactic makes them appear more threatening since it has erased the barriers between combatants and noncombatants, terrorists, and innocent civilians.” Following this logic, the target population becomes even more fearful in reaction to female suicide bombers because the line between combatant and noncombatant becomes blurred. At that point, anyone could potentially be an attacker. This allows the terrorist organization to achieve the specific goals of shocking the enemy and causing fear in the target population. Additionally, it may help the group to recruit new members and, if membership is low, to incite other people into joining their ranks. Female suicide bombers can potentially both shame men into joining the cause and inspire other women to become martyrs, a factor which will be discussed further below.

As mentioned previously, it is extremely challenging, if not impossible, to quantify the glorification of suicide bombers. Therefore, the argument that female suicide bombers attract more attention or are more highly glorified is not necessarily correct or incorrect, but simply not possible to verify. However, by doing a Lexis-Nexis search of the first four Palestinian female suicide bombers which Barbara Victor discusses in her book, and then a search of four Palestinian male suicide bombers, we can begin to see which gender gets more attention within the press.

This sample may prove helpful since male and female suicide bombers with similar numbers of casualties and similar attack dates are examined, so we can begin to isolate the gender variable and determine whether being a woman helps a suicide bomber to attract media attention. Of course, this is an imperfect model because it only considers a small sample of all Palestinian suicide bombers and does not take into account news coverage that is not published in English.

This data set somewhat supports the argument that women receive more press coverage than men during the month following their suicide attack. The first Palestinian female suicide bomber, Wafa Idris, killed one person and received 45 hits in a General News (Major Papers) search.  A male suicide bomber, Safwat Khalil, who detonated two days earlier and killed one person as well, only received one hit. Since Wafa Idris was the first female suicide bomber, her case may be special not necessarily because of her gender, but because her action represented something “new” in the field of terrorism.  The next Palestinian female suicide bomber, Darine Abu Aisha, who killed two people, received ten hits, while a male suicide bomber who also killed two people 11 days prior only received one hit.  Ayat al-Akhras, the third Palestinian female suicide bomber, especially supports the argument that women receive more attention than men. She killed two people, yet received 12 hits; a male suicide bomber who detonated two days before lher and killed 28 people received only two hits. Though unlike the other cases, the number of people killed by this set of suicide bombers was not similar, this suggests that female suicide bombers may receive more media attention than male suicide bombers, regardless of the number of people killed by their attacks.  The fourth Palestinian female suicide bomber, Andalib Suleiman Takata, does not support the argument that women
receive more attention. Although she killed six people (more than the combined total number of people killed for the three female suicide bombers that came before her), she did not receive any hits in the General News (Major Papers) search. A male suicide bomber, on the other hand, two days earlier killed  seven people and received ten hits.

This could be explained by the difficulty in searching all possible variations on her name.  However, Victor explains that her case did not receive a lot of media attention because she had no “sensational story”, but was simply “easily swayed and….caught up in her own fantasy of stardom.”  In all of the cases, the World News – Middle East and Africa (Major Papers) results showed fewer discrepancies between males and females than the General News (Major Papers) searches did.  It is hard to determine the reason why this is the case, but it may be due to the fact that many of these names have a variety of spellings, or may have been misspelled by some media sources.  Though on the whole this data set does seem to support the thesis that female suicide bombers receive more media ttenation than male suicide bombers, the limited size of the data set and the possible varied spellings of martyr names make it impossible to decisively conclude if that is actually the case. Moreover, the press coverage given to suicide bombers does not necessarily reflect public opinion, so it is impossible to tell whether men or women are more glorified within a society.  Some authors believe that one of the most important aspects of the glorification of martyrs is that these female suicide bombers may be used to mobilize others into action. When women are used, it is argued that they not only inspire other women to take action, but also shame men into participating.
This occurs in a variety of cases, one example being: “A propaganda slogan in Chechnya [that] reads: “Women’s courage is a disgrace to that of modern men.” Another example is that “[b]efore Ayat Akras blew herself up, she taped her martyrdom video and stated, ‘I am going to fight instead of the sleeping Arab armies who are watching Palestinian girls fighting alone,’ in an apparent jab at Arab leaders for not being
sufficiently proactive or manly.”  It is possible that some suicide bombers are inspired by the acts of the martyrs that died before them. For example, Andalib Suleiman Takata, the fourth Palestinian female suicide
bomber, was fascinated by suicide bombers and had pictures of martyrs taped all over her walls.68 Andalib “believed that dying as a shahida would transform her into an instant superstar.” After Ayat al-Akhras martyred herself, Andalib went to her Ayat’s home and talked to a man that could help her become a martyr. She told him that she wanted to do what the other three girls had done, and sadly, she killed more
people than those three girls combined.  However, it is difficult to discern a causal link between the inspiration provided by one martyr and the actions of  another. Andalib was not only influenced by other female suicide bombers, but was also extremely angry because she had watched her father and brothers suffer humiliation at the hands of the Israel military. Therefore, though a person may be inspired by a suicide bomber, if personal problems are not present, it seems unlikely that that person would become a
suicide bomber solely because of that inspiration. From the perspective of the terrorist organization, though, perhaps even the possibility that female martyrs will inspire others to join their ranks is worth the effort of training a woman and allowing her to carry out an attack.  One frequently cited reason that terrorist organizations use female suicide bombers is that women provide a tactical advantage. Females can more easily pass through security checkpoints and may not face the high level of scrutiny to which males are subject (especially in conservative societies in which physical searches of women are often seen as particularly offensive). According to Bloom, Israel’s restrictive checkpoints and border policy proved
fairly effective against Palestinian insurgent organizations inside the Occupied Territories. Since the mid
1990s, it has been almost impossible for unmarried men under the age of 40 to get legitimate permits to cross the border into Israel – for any reason. Terrorist groups have therefore looked further afield for volunteers including women and even children. Women don’t arouse suspicion like men and blend in more effectively with Israeli citizens [emphasis added]. Attacks perpetrated by women have tended to be those where the terrorist planners needed the perpetrator to blend in on the Israeli “street.” These female terrorists…westernize their appearance, adopting modern hairstyles and short skirts. The use of the least-likely suspect is the most-likely tactical adaptation for a terrorist group under scrutiny. This quote suggests that allowing women to become martyrs was necessary in order to ensure the success of suicide terrorist
attacks. To be able to achieve their strategic goals (that is, to cause the greatest number of casualties possible and to instill the maximum amount of fear in the target population), groups had to adapt because men drew too much attention or were sometimes unable to cross through checkpoints. Consequently, they began to use “the least-likely suspect,” women, so that they could continue to execute successful suicide attacks. According to O’Rourke, on average, women do have a higher average number of victims than men (9.7 versus 3.6 killed).  However, she points out that this discrepancy is largely due to the higher effectiveness of Chechen women as opposed to Chechen men.  Terrorist organizations have also developed a clever strategy that allows female suicide bombers to cause the most casualties possible. This strategy, which has been used by several terrorist organizations to deflect suspicion from females, is
the use of an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), frequently referred to as a “suicide belt,” to feign pregnancy.  This photo shows an Improvised Explosive Device that could used to commit an act of suicide terrorism.  In those cases, the women are particularly immune to searches because they are not only women, but also seemingly pregnant. This allows them to pass through security checkpointsand into crowded areas even more easily than women who do not appear to be pregnant without raising suspicion.
Mia Bloom explains, “To complicate the notions of femininity and motherhood, the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) is often disguised under the woman’s clothing to make her appear as if she is pregnant and thus beyond suspicion or reproach. The advent of women suicide bombers has transformed the revolutionary womb into an exploding one.” In one case, a thirty-four year old woman posed as the pregnant wife of a Sri Lankan soldier in order to gain access to a military hospital within a secure complex. Her gender combined with her apparent “pregnancy” allowed her to pass through those security checkpoints without arousing suspicion.76 The first female suicide bomber died in 1985, yet women continue to successfully commit suicide attacks. This suggests that even after years of experience with female suicide bombers, security officials are hesitant to search women (especially pregnant ones) because that practice is seen as offensive and improper.
However, some countries, such as Israel, have responded to suicide attacks and have trained security officers to detect suspicious behavior in both men and women. Additionally, one company developed a laser device designed to detect explosives or chemical weapons from a distance. In countries that have been targets of suicide attacks, efforts have been made to train security personnel and develop antiterrorist
technologies. It is clear that educational methods and technology are being developed to help detect potential suicide bombers and prevent them from completing their missions. Additionally, women are sometimes used as accomplices to male suicide bombers. For example, women may be assigned
to accompany a male suicide bomber on his mission in the hopes that her presence will detract attention from the male. Acting as a romantic couple, a male-female duo may be able to avoid scrutiny at checkpoints equally as effectively as single women can. Therefore, women provide a strategic advantage
not only when they commit acts of suicide terrorism alone, but also when they serve as accomplices to men attempting to complete their missions. Furthermore, when women comprise part of a team suicide attack, the attack is likely to yield more casualties. These factors help to explain why women have come to be employed for acts of suicide terrorism.
Since women raise less suspicion than men, they are also able to access soft targets, such as politicians or other public figures that may be assassination targets. The most famous example of this is the case of “Dhanu,” a woman who belonged to the Black Tigresses (the female suicide bomber unit of the LTTE). In
May of 1991, Dhanu was able to get within a few feet of India’s top political figure, Rajiv Ghandi, because she appeared so innocent that Ghandi actually brushed his security team away to allow her to pass through the crowd and approach him. Then, she pretended to drop a flower garland on the ground and detonated her suicide belt, effectively killing herself, the LTTE cameraman that was filming the assassination, and, most
importantly, her target. Since she was able to reach her target without raising suspicion, she was able to kill this important political figure.
This photo shows Ghandi greeting a group of women seconds before Dhanu (the woman wearing glasses) detonated her suicide belt. The Dhanu case represents one of many assassination suicide attacks, and women have committed 72% of all such attacks for which the gender of the bomber has been identified.
This supports the argument that female are able to access soft targets more successfully than men. However, it is interesting to note that there have also been cases of men dressing up as women in order to
carry out suicide attacks. As such, it could be argued that from a strategic standpoint, women are not necessary to gain access to soft targets because men who make themselves look like women could potentially be just as effective. Of course, women would be more convincing and possibly less likely to
get caught than a man pretending to be a woman. However, the fact that men are able to pass as women makes it impossible for this factor to explain why terrorist organizations are willing to use female suicide bombers.

There are many reasons that terrorist organizations employ female suicide bombers. Strategically, female suicide bombers benefit their host organizations because they attract more attention and are glorified within their societies, which may inspire others to join their cause. Female suicide bombers also provide tactical advantages because they are able to pass through checkpoints with less scrutiny (especially when they appear to be pregnant) and thus can access soft targets. This makes their attacks more successful because they are able to kill greater numbers of people. All of these perceived advantages may enable terrorist organizations to more effectively fight their enemies or resist occupation.  Even though some religious organizations may be opposed to the use of female suicide bombers in theory, these strategic and tactical advantages make the acceptance of female martyrs more palatable. Since women who want to
become martyrs may do so regardless of who is sponsoring them, it is often beneficial for terrorist organizations to accept responsibility for the attack so that they can continue to reap the benefits long after the woman has martyred herself.  The topic of female suicide terrorism is extremely complex. Experts have examined both individual and group level motivations for female suicide terrorism and have come up
with a wide variety of explanations. On an individual level, internal factors such as the inability or unwillingness to marry or humiliation by opposition forces are given to explain why these women choose to become suicide bombers – to escape their situation or to empower or redeem themselves. However,
none of the commonly cited personal problems can explain why women become suicide bombers in and of themselves.  Worldwide, a countless number of women face these same problems but do not commit acts of suicide terrorism. These personal problems can help to explain why some women become suicide terrorists, but they cannot explain why all female suicide bombers make that choice. Therefore, it is also necessary to examine the issue at a group level. Suicide terrorism is a phenomenon that occurs within both secular and religious groups in response to external factors such as war or occupation. The tactical and strategic advantages offered by women may allow terrorist groups to further their objectives and attract attention within society. Though more useful than speculation about personal motivations, group motivations still cannot explain every case of suicide terrorism. It is clear that some combination of these individual and group motivations must come together in response to particular external factors in order to yield female
suicide terrorism. However, it is impossible to know exactly which set of circumstances will lead a woman to suicide terrorism, and equally difficult to prove which factors allow a woman to be accepted into or sponsored by a particular terrorist group. Thus, taken individually, none of the explanations given to
explain female suicide terrorism are sufficient and it is impossible to construct a model in which certain individual and group factors, even when considered along with the external factors present, can be causally linked to the phenomenon of female suicide terror. Any combination can yield female suicide terrorism, and thus acts of female suicide terrorism are not predictable. One problem with this conclusion is that without fully comprehending the factors that lead to female suicide terrorism, it is impossible for police or counterterrorism forces to develop a profile of potential terrorists. After September 11th, 2001, the
United States Department of Homeland Security created a terrorist profile to be used to issue visas – but that profile did not include women.  As previously discussed, there are more male suicide terrorists than female suicide terrorists, but since females seem to more easily avoid suspicion and access soft targets, it is vital that terrorist profiles recognize that female terrorists are within the realm of possibility.

This article has pointed out that terrorist organizations have adapted their suicide terror tactics to include female suicide bombers in order to avoid suspicion and gain access to soft targets. It is quite possible that security officials will become increasingly wary of women trying to cross checkpoints. As a result, terrorist organizations will be faced with the challenge of developing new techniques for suicide terror operations,
and female suicide bombers may no longer provide as much of a strategic or tactical advantage. As women become less effective, terrorist groups may turn to other demographics in order to achieve their goals.  There is concern, however, that this is already happening. International human rights groups have stated
that Palestinians are willing to use children as suicide bombers, even though according to an agreement signed by the Palestinian Authority, no child under the age of eighteen is allowed to participate in hostilities. However, at least three male suicide bombers under the age of eighteen have died over the
course of that particular conflict, all representing the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade. One of these successful suicide bombers, Issa Bdeir, was only sixteen years old, which shows that the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade may be open to using increasingly younger individuals as suicide bombers. However, there are many reasons that terrorist organizations may not want to use children as suicide bombers. For one thing, a younger suicide bomber may not be savvy enough to choose an appropriate location or be able to talk his/her way out of a difficult situation. Furthermore, it is unknown what the population’s reaction to a child suicide bomber would be; the public might consider such actions too extreme and thus refrain from supporting such measures, leading the terrorist organization to lose public support. Finally, children cannot
make the choice to become a suicide bomber, so child suicide bombers would be fundamentally different than adult ones.  As a result, for the time being, it seems probable that terrorist organizations will continue to use adult suicide bombers as long as their strategic goals continue to be met.  The further exploration of the topic of profiling and the contemplation of future terrorist demographics is not within the scope of this article, though both topics warrant more extensive research. However, the existence of female suicide bombers raises serious questions about whether profiling works. After all, terrorist organizations have used women to conduct suicide attacks because they raise less suspicion and can thus access soft targets. As soon as women are no longer effective, terrorist organizations may attempt to recruit from different demographics. In order to prevent suicide attacks from occurring, counterterrorism efforts must focus on identifying new potential suicide bomber demographics and continuing to develop technologies and ways to identify warning signs (such as behaviors) that a person may be a suicide bomber.

The final point to be drawn from this study, though, is that neither male nor female suicide bombers have been able to cause foreign occupants to end their occupation or to respond with more military force. Both groups are also unable to provoke changes in the policies or practices of their target governments. Using this particular measure, since neither male nor female suicide bombers have been able to cause their
enemies to grant large concessions, they are of equal value.  However, when viewed through the lenses of individual, strategic, and tactical logics, female suicide bombers are inherently different than male suicide bombers, though perhaps only because they are interpreted to be so. Though impossible to quantify, the societal definitions of the roles of men and women may allow female suicide bombers to elicit a stronger reaction, garner more media attention, or become more glorified. Additionally, in conservative societies, where the modesty of a woman is of vital importance, women do offer tactical advantages to terrorist organizations because their gender allows them to avoid scrutiny by security guards and gain access to soft targets. Overall, although female suicide bombers may offer some advantages over men, neither group
has been able to cause any significant change in the tactics of their enemy. Therefore, by some measures, female suicide bombers are different, but their value in terms of affecting the opposition’s decision-making process is equal to that of male suicide bombers.