Suicide Attack - Female Suicide Bombers

Female Suicide Bombers

According to a report issued by intelligence analysts in the U.S. army in 2011, "Although women make up roughly 15% of the suicide bombers within groups which utilize females, they were responsible for 65% of assassinations; 20% of women who committed a suicide attack did so with the purpose of assassinating a specific individual, compared with 4% of male attackers." The report further stated that female suicide bombers often were "grieving the loss of family members seeking revenge against those they feel are responsible for the loss, unable to produce children, dishonored through sexual indiscretion." Female suicide bombers are predominately presented as being motivated by non-political factors, as opposed to their male counterparts.

Female suicide bombers have been employed in many, predominantly nationalistic, conflicts, by a variety of organizations, against both military and civilian targets:

• In Lebanon on April 9, 1985, Sana'a Mehaidli, a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), detonated an explosive-laden vehicle, which killed two Israeli soldiers and injured two more. During the Lebanese Civil War, female SSNP members bombed Israeli troops and the Israeli proxy militia the South Lebanon Army.
• Former Indian Prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on 21 May 1991 by Thenmozhi Rajaratnam, a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. 30–40% of the organization's suicide bombings are carried out by women.
• The Chechen shahidkas have attacked Russian troops in Chechnya and Russian civilians elsewhere; for example, in the Moscow theater hostage crisis.
• Women of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have carried out suicide bombings primarily against Turkish Armed Forces, in some cases strapping explosives to their abdomen in order to simulate pregnancy.
• Wafa Idris, under Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, became the first Palestinian female suicide bomber on January 28, 2002 when she imploded herself on Jaffa Road in Central Jerusalem.
• On February 27, 2002, Darine Abu Aisha carried out a suicide bombing. On the same day, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the religious leader of Islamist militant group Hamas, issued a fatwa, or religious rule, that gave women permission to participate in suicide attacks, and stated that they would be rewarded in the afterlife.
• Hamas deployed its first female suicide bomber, Reem Riyaashi, on January 14, 2004. Al-Riyashi attacked Erez checkpoint, killing 7 people.
• Two female attackers attacked U.S. troops on August 5, 2003. Whereas female suicide bombers are not typically introduced in initial stages of a conflict, this attack demonstrates the early and significant involvement of Iraqi women in the Iraq War.
• On March 29, 2010, two female Chechen terrorists bombed two Moscow subway stations killing at least 38 people and injuring over 60.
• The Taliban has used at least one female suicide bomber in Afghanistan.
• On December 25, 2010, the first female suicide bomber in Pakistan detonated her explosives-laden vest, killing at least 43 people at an aid distribution center in northwestern Pakistan.