If women suicide bombers expect respect from their male counterparts, they are sorely mistaken. It appears that women are being inducted into terrorist ranks to mock the masculinity of Muslim men. Professor Mohammad Hafiz, an expert on Islamic terrorism, informed MSNBC about this startling fact. Women, he points out, are just baits for men to join in increasing numbers into jihadi groups.
Traditional Islamic society prohibits unrelated women and men from mixing, leave alone engaging in any physical contact. This taboo is being used by unscrupulous terrorist groups who are arming women with explosives. Guards in the Middle East and especially Iraq are mostly men. They will hardly ever frisk a woman. So women terrorists have an easy entry where male terrorists have hard times entering.
In 2005, Sajida al-Rishawi along with her husband tried to blow up a hotel in Jordan. Her husband succeeded in blowing himself up but she failed. Her case attracted a lot of attention from the international media at that time. Then there was the revengeful attack by a woman belonging to Saddam Hussein’s Baath party. Her two sons were killed by Iraqi security forces while fighting for the al Qaeda.
Women have been known to periodically rise during peak male militancy. In fact, we have global mythology and history replete with references to the power of militant women. Diana and her female warriors, in Greek myths; the Amazons in South America and the matriarchies run by Sappho and Lesbia, all exalt female power. Are our jihadi women too in the same line? And is there anything new about this entry of women into the ranks of the terrorists?
Pundits declare that this increased recruitment of women show a desperation in militant ranks. The female insurgents are a sign that the numbers of male terrorists are declining. This argument is rooted in a naive patriarchal bias. The ferocity and violence which women are capable of are underestimated. The truth is more chilling.
Women are being inducted into terrorist ranks for two reasons. Women are protected by Islam. Terrorists being only hypocritical sado-masochists show their true colors when they disregard every Sharia injunction by admitting women to their ranks. The male terrorists are not decreasing, but they are getting increasingly afraid of dying. In sync with their policy of oppressing women, they are now asking women to even do the dying for them. Terrorism involves big money and no doubt, the men want to live to enjoy that cash. So women are convenient scapegoats forced to pander to perverted passions.
