Women have gone from being life givers to life takers. Counterterrorism intelligence experts have gathered most of their information from failed female suicide bomber interviews. Farhana Ali (counterterrorism expert from Rand Corporation) explains how women have a maternal instinct to protect their “society, their children, or their community”. A good example is Wafa Idris, who was a 28 year old divorcee. On January 31, 2002 Wafa Idris detonated a bomb that killed her and an 81 year old man, and injured over 100 others. No one is sure if she meant to plant the bomb, or if she intentionally sacrificed herself for the Palestinian fight against the state of Israel. The one thing Palestinian’s knew was she was the first Palestinian female suicide bomber, and she opened the floodgates of a feminism movement. Wafa had volunteered at the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Ramallah. She had seen “terrible things… the body parts, the children who were shot, the pregnant women who lost their babies at Israeli checkpoints” (Biedermann, 2). Wafa’s brother Khalil even pointed out that seeing the horror and gruesomeness to her fellow countrymen “is enough of a motive for any reasonable person’ (to do such acts, and she) has honored the family” (Biedermann, 2). Wafa felt her only option was no longer fixing “the innocent”, but killing the people who did this to her countrymen was her anger finally erupting at the Israelis.
Below is a picture of young children glorifying Wafa Idris.
There has been an immediate trend in detonating one’s body for the “greater good”. There were four immediate female suicide bombers shortly after Wafa Idris’ suicide. From January to April 2008 there have already been seven female suicide bombers. The picture above shows young children embracing the ideals of Wafa sacrificing herself for their country. The question remains, could Palestinians truly stop the violence if there is a peace treaty that was honored by the Israelis? In the end of the Aljazeera clip, Fuad Najjar (son of An-Najjar who was killed before carrying out her suicide mission in the Gaza strip) discusses the ramification of the war on Israeli. “We want the occupation to end, for the Israeli’s to truly leave, and leave us alone. If we had dignity, independence, and freedom I don’t think anyone would contemplate suicide bombings”. With so little trust among neighboring countries, it is hard to see if there could be a conflict resolution. Until the countries can resolve their conflicts Palestinian women will continue to protect their country with whatever means necessary.
For more information:
http://www.israel-wat.com/idris_eng.htm
http://dir.salon.com/story/mwt/feature/2002/01/31/female_bomber/index.html
This is the first part of the YouTube video: Everywomen- Women in Terrorism
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSpH0wtwRzs
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