AMU Homeland Security Opinion

Women Jihadists Suicide Bombers Are Increasing in Numbers

By Shelley Smith

Female Warriors.

The announcement of the Taliban planning a 20-year war in Afghanistan and the international questions of whether the United States developing policies to match the current issues as strategically right, will not stop a troop drawdown and extra brigades being sent to Afghanistan. On the other hand nor will the increase of troop involvement in Afghanistan cause a halt to suicide bombing recruitment, and those who carry it out to inflict damage and cause civilian and military casualties and death.


Muslim extremist women are coming forward in increasing numbers to become female jihadists. In the May 31, 2008, Associated Press article Women Fight for Right to Join Al Qaeda, Muslim women are challenging the Islamic gender conflict by Al Qaeda and its offshoot group’s refusal to include women in its ranks. While there are no women that are known to be in leadership ranks, terrorism experts note there are clearly sympathizers.

Yet this has not stopped some al Qaeda members from training women suicide bombers who have wreaked havoc in Iraq since 2003. With Hamas in disagreement with al Qaeda over the use of women, Hamas has launched many Palestinian female suicide bomber attacks over recent years.

Rabeebat al-Silah, Arabic for “Companion of Weapons,” was a 2,000 word essay, in response to al Qaeda No. 2 leader Ayman Al-Zawahri who said in April, 2008, al Qaeda does not have women.

“How many times have I wished I were a man … When Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahri said there are no women in al Qaeda, he saddened and hurt me,” wrote “Companion of Weapons,” who said she listened to the speech 10 times. “I felt that my heart was about to explode in my chest…I am powerless.” As quoted within the above mentioned article.

Rita Katz, director of the SITE Intelligence Group, whose group monitors militant Web sites states “Suicide operations are being carried out by women, who play an important role in jihad.”

But female suicide bombers are not just wreaking havoc in Iraq and Palestine. The LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) in Sri Lank, also use female suicide bombers. During October 09, 2008, Sri Lanka’s Minister Maithreepala Sirisena, Minister of Agricultural Development and Agrarian Services escaped the attempted attack by one or more women suicide bombers.

According to Debra D. Zedalis, author of Female Suicide Bombers, the first known woman suicide attack was committed by a 16 year old female in 1985 and the LTTE use women as suicide bombers between 30 and 40 percent of the time. She further states that women have participated in suicide bombings not just from Sri Lanka, but in Chechnya, Palestine, Turkey, Israel and others.

In the Sept. 16, 2008 article Women Officers Hired to Thwart Female Bombers Baghdad, by Emad Al-Sharaa, Zaineb Naji and Tiare Rath. The United States military has estimated a greater increase in 2008, then during the periods between 2003 and 2007, due to more suicide bomber attacks being carried out by women. This has forced the Iraqi security forces and the U.S. military to adopt a new security strategy. Due to this increase in the number of women suicide bombers, an all-female civilian security force has been created to try to stem the threat of women suicide bombers. Due to the sensitivity of issues with Islamic social and religious customs, female officers will search women under their abbayas to thwart off a potential suicide attack and suspected would-be bombers.

Quoted from the article, “We want women to be supporters of peace,” said Azhar al-Sharbaf, a legal consultant in the ministry, “not used as a tool for killing.”

As national and international agencies continue the vigilance of chasing down to counter and prosecute those involved in or of attempted suicide bombings and other criminal activities, we can not minimize or divert our attention from the threat of al Qaeda and other “sleeper cells” that threaten within U.S. soil. The seriousness of this issue whether it be from a female, male, or child suicide bomber is represented best from the transcripts of Frontline Chasing the Sleeper Cell, by Lowell Bergman & Matthew Purdy, reporters for the New York Times, that reflect into these present times and that are continually aimed at U.S. national security.

About the Author

Shelley Smith is an expert in analysis and research on varied national and international issues, homeland security, terrorism and counterterrorism, law enforcement, criminal justice systems, and other. Smith has an A.S. in Criminal Justice with Honors and a B.A in Intelligence Studies. She is currently pursuing an M.A. in Intelligence Studies Capstone with a concentration in Middle Eastern Studies at American Military University.

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