Female Terrorism and Militancy: Agency, Utility, and Organization (Contemporary Terrorism Studies)

257 Pages·2008·1.07 MB·English

by  Cindy D. Ness

Female Terrorism and Militancy
This edited volume provides a window on the many forces that structure and
shape why women and girls participate in terrorism and militancy, as well as
on how states have come to view, treat, and strategize against them.
Females who carry out terrorist acts have historically been seen as mount-
ing a challenge to the social order by violating conventional notions of
gender and power, and their participation in such acts has tended to be
viewed as being either as a passive victim or a feminist warrior. This volume
seeks to move beyond these portrayals, to examine some of the structuring
conditions that play a part in a girl or woman’s decision to commit violence.
These include economics, the need to protect oneself, and the degree of
popular support that female participation receives in a given society. Amidst
the contextual factors informing her involvement, the volume seeks to
explore the political agency of the female terrorist or militant. Several of the
articles are based on research where authors had direct contact with female
terrorists or militants who committed acts of political violence, or with
witnesses to such acts.
This book will be of great interest to students of terrorism and political
violence, gender studies, and security studies in general.
Cindy D. Ness is Director of Programs at the Center on Terrorism at
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and a practicing psychotherapist. She
holds a doctorate from Harvard University in Human Development and
Psychology.
Contemporary terrorism studies
Understanding Terrorist Innovation
Technology, tactics, and global trends
Adam Dolnik
The Strategy of Terrorism
How it works, why it fails
Peter Neumann and M.L.R. Smith
Female Terrorism and Militancy
Agency, utility, and organization
Edited by Cindy D. Ness
Female Terrorism and
Militancy
Agency, utility, and organization
Edited by Cindy D. Ness
First published 2008
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 2008 Selection and editorial matter, Cindy D. Ness; individual
chapters, the contributors
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.
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
Female terrorism and militancy : agency, utility, and organization / edited by
Cindy D. Ness.
p.cm. – (Contemporary terrorism studies)
1. Women terrorists. 2. Political violence. 3. Violence in women. I.Ness,
Cindy D., 1959–
HV6431.F423 2007
363.325082–dc22
2007022946
ISBN 0-203-93726-0 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0-415-77347-4 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-203-93726-0 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-77347-8 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-93726-6 (ebk)
Especially for Viola Ness: Grandmother, Mother and Friend

Contents
Notes on contributors ix
Acknowledgments xiv
Introduction 1
CINDY D. NESS
1 In the name of the cause: women’s work in secular
andreligious terrorism 11
CINDY D. NESS
2 Women fighting in jihad? 37
DAVID COOK
3 Beyond the bombings: analyzing female suicide
bombers 49
DEBRA ZEDALIS
4 (Gendered) war 69
CAROLYN NORDSTROM
5 The evolving participation of Muslim women in
Palestine,Chechnya, and the global jihadi
movement 84
KARLA CUNNINGHAM
6 Black widows and beyond: understanding the
motivationsand life trajectories of Chechen female
terrorists 100
ANNE SPECKHARD AND KHAPTA AKHMEDOVA
viii Contents
7 The black widows: Chechen women join the fight
forindependence – and Allah 122
ANNE NIVAT
8 Palestinian female suicide bombers: virtuous
heroinesordamaged goods? 131
YORAM SCHWEITZER
9 Martyrs or murderers? Victims or victimizers? The
voicesofwould-be Palestinian female suicide
bombers 146
ANAT BERKO AND EDNA EREZ
10 Girls as “weapons of terror” in Northern Uganda
andSierraLeonean armed groups 167
SUSAN MCKAY
11 From freedom birds to water buffaloes: women
terroristsinAsia 183
MARGARET GONZALEZ-PEREZ
12 Women and organized racial terrorism in the
United States 201
KATHLEEN M. BLEE
13 The portrayal of female terrorists in the media:
similarframing patterns in the news coverage of
womeninpolitics and in terrorism 217
BRIGITTE L. NACOS
Index 236
Contributors
Khapta Akhmedova is Professor of Psychology, Chechen State University,
Russia, and Coordinator of the Psychosocial Rehabilitation Program of
Medecins Du Monde.
Anat Berko holds a PhD in Criminology from Bar-Ilan University and is a
Research Fellow with the Institute for Counter-terrorism (ICT), at the
Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel. She also lectures in the
Centers Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Security, at a
seminar at the Center of Excellence–Defence Against Terrorism in
Turkey and for Nato and PIP (Partnership for Peace countries) military
and police forces. Dr. Berko serves on Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Team,
the Israeli Council for National Security, as an advisor to senior-echelon
governmental decision-makers. An expert on suicidal terrorists, she is
widely covered in the Israeli and international media. Her book The
Path to Paradise: the Inner World of Female and Male Suicide Bombers and
their Dispatchers (2007) has been just published by Praeger. Dr. Berko
completed her military career in the Israeli Defense Forces as a Lieu-
tenant Colonel.
Kathleen M. Blee is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University
of Pittsburgh. She is the author of several books, including Inside Organ-
ized Racism: Women in the Hate Movement and Women of the Klan: Racism
and Gender in the 1920s, and numerous articles on the far-right, organ-
ized racism, gender, poverty, and group violence. She is currently
writing one book on social-movement formation and another on the
microdynamics of hate violence.
David Cook is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Rice University
specializing in Islam. He did his undergraduate degrees at the Hebrew
University in Jerusalem, and received his PhD from the University of
Chicago in 2001. His areas of specialization include early Islamic
history and development, Muslim apocalyptic literature and move-
ments, historical astronomy and Judeo-Arabic literature. His first book,
Studies in Muslim Apocalyptic, was published by Darwin Press in the