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Women Suicide Bombers: Narratives of Violence PDF

564 Pages·02.86 MB·English
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This is an in-depth, original analysis of the phenomenon of women as terrorists. Rajan explores her subject in a truly interdisciplinary manner. She relies on the most recent sophisticated attempts to think about transnational feminism and feminist theory, but she also brilliantly brings to bear upon the subject a complex psychoanalytical framework which explores different stereotypes of women, such as victims, martyrs, and mother of the nation. This book will be an extremely important resource. Drucilla Cornell, Professor of Political Science, Women's Studies, and Comparative Literature, Rutgers University. A fascinating study that takes us across four continents, Women Suicide Bombers offers a refreshing perspective on disparate and controversial representations of women suicide bombers. It leads the reader through the labyrinth of the mass media, rebel communiqués and popular culture narratives, and succeeds in reconstructing these women as active militants negotiating violence, instead of as pathological victims. A must read that makes an invaluable contribution to the literature on women in war, global terrorism, human rights and anti-colonial movements. Charlotte Bunch, Founding Director of the Center for Women's Global Leadership and Distinguished Professor in Women's and Gender Studies, Rutgers University. Women Suicide Bombers This book offers an evaluation of female suicide bombers through postcolonial, Third World, feminist, and human-rights frameworks, drawing on case studies from conflicts in Palestine, Sri Lanka, and Chechnya, among others. Women Suicide Bombers explores why cultural, media, and political reports from various geographies present different information about, and portraits of, the same women suicide bombers. The majority of Western media and sovereign states engaged in wars against groups deploying bombings tend to focus on women bombers’ abnormal mental conditions; their physicality – for example, their painted fingernails or their beautiful eyes; their sexuality; and the various ways in which they have been victimized by their backward Third World cultures, especially by “Islam.” In contrast, propaganda produced by rebel groups deploying women bombers, cultures supporting those campaigns, and governments of those nations at war with sovereign states and Western nations tend to project women bombers as mythical heroes, in ways that supersede the martyrdom operations of male bombers. Many of the books published on this phenomenon have revealed interesting ways to read women bombers’ subjectivities, but do not explore the phenomenon of women bombers both inside and outside of their militant activities, or against the patriarchal, Orientalist, and Western feminist cultural and theoretical frameworks that label female bombers primarily as victims of backward cultures. In contrast, this book offers a corrective lens to the existing discourse, and encourages a more balanced evaluation of women bombers in contemporary conflict. This book will be of interest to students of terrorism, gender studies, and security studies in general. V.G. Julie Rajan is Visiting Assistant Professor at Rutgers University in Women's and Gender Studies, and has a PhD in Comparative Literature. Series: Critical Terrorism Studies Series Editors: Richard Jackson, Marie Breen Smyth and Jeroen Gunning University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK This book series will publish rigorous and innovative studies on all aspects of terrorism, counter-terrorism and state terror. It seeks to advance a new generation of thinking on traditional subjects, and investigate topics frequently overlooked in orthodox accounts of terrorism. Books in this series will typically adopt approaches informed by critical-normative theory, post- positivist methodologies and non-Western perspectives, as well as rigorous and reflective orthodox terrorism studies. Terrorism and the Politics of Response London in a time of terror Edited by Angharad Closs Stephens and Nick Vaughan-Williams Critical Terrorism Studies Framing a new research agenda Edited by Richard Jackson, Marie Breen Smyth and Jeroen Gunning The De-Radicalization of Jihadists Transforming armed Islamist movements Omar Ashour State Terrorism and Neoliberalism The North in the South Ruth Blakeley Contemporary State Terrorism Theory and practice Edited by Richard Jackson, Eamon Murphy and Scott Poynting State Violence and Genocide in Latin America The Cold War years Edited by Marcia Esparza, Henry R. Huttenbach and Daniel Feierstein Discourses and Practices of Terrorism Interrogating terror Edited by Bob Brecher, Mark Devenney and Aaron Winter An Intellectual History of Terror War, violence and the state Mikkel Thorup Women Suicide Bombers Narratives of violence V.G. Julie Rajan Women Suicide Bombers Narratives of violence V.G. Julie Rajan First published 2011 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2011 V.G. Julie Rajan The right of V.G. Julie Rajan to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record has been requested for this book ISBN: 978-0-415-55225-7 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-203-82183-1 (ebk) Typeset in Baskerville by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear For the millions impacted by war every day…

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