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"Women and Terror" looks at the emerging role of women in Al Qaeda
The December 12 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, December 5) "Women and Terror" looks at the emerging role of women in Al Qaeda and why it's controversial in the Muslim world
U.S. Counterterrorism Officials Concerned That Recent, Unprecedented Wave of Attacks by Female Al Qaeda Suicide Bombers Could Spread to Western Europe or United States.
Jordanian Researcher: Terrorist Leader Al-Zarqawi May be Using Women Martyrs to Goad Muslim Men Al Qaeda Heads at Odds Over Use of Women as Combatants and Suicide Bombers, says Taliban Source
NEW YORK, Dec. 4-- Until recently, many analysts in American government agencies saw the threat of women suicide bombers as a largely theoretical problem. Their best judgment was that "Al Qaeda Central" -- the close-knit organization around Osama bin Laden and ideologue Ayman Al-Zawahiri-- would resist any effort to use women as homicidal martyrs. But after several recent attacks by women, they are taking the threat of female Islamic terrorists, particularly suicide bombers, much more seriously, two U.S.
counterterrorism officials tell Newsweek in the December 12 issue (on
newsstands Monday, December 5). Having seen the phenomenon spread suddenly to Iraq and Jordan, the U.S. officials worry that the plague will move still with women suicide bombers carrying out attacks in Western Europe or the United States, reports Middle East Regional Editor Christopher Dickey.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20051204/NYSU002 )
One lesson from the recent female suicide bombers: expect the unexpected.
"The terrorists are quite aware of the profiles that exist, and they always
change things just enough to throw them off," says Prof. Mia Bloom, author of
"Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror." Yet the increasing use of women
as weapons of holy war also challenges the view of the world that many
jihadists thought they'd set out to defend. Many of Al Qaeda's leaders have
been intellectuals, doctors, lawyers, and engineers who are perfectly at home
with other aspects of modernity. But they differ violently with the West about
the way women should be allowed to participate in daily life, viewing females
as chattel in some cases, as revered mothers in others, and almost always as
icons to be protected from outside influences.
What changed? The simplest answer is that Al Qaeda's core organization in
Afghanistan and Pakistan and its avant-garde in Iraq need more recruits.
Jordanian researcher Hassan Abu Hanieh, who knew Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi
personally, says the terrorist leader is goading Muslim men. Before the
attacks by women began, a Web site often linked to Zarqawi posted a message signed by him. "Are there no men, so that we have to recruit women?" he asked at the conclusion. "Isn't it a shame for the sons of my own nation that our sisters ask to conduct martyrdom operations while men are preoccupied with life?" Of course, Zarqawi is also meeting a demand -- by women. "The recourse to women doesn't happen at the start," says Haizam Amirah Fernandez, a Madrid-based analyst. "It comes when the battle escalates to all sectors of society.
It happens after men become activists in guerrilla groups, fight and die,
perhaps in suicide attacks. Then the widows or family members seek vengeance, or want to give their life in the same cause."Yet the core leadership of Al Qaeda remains divided, it seems, about whether women should enter the struggle against the "Satanic power" of the United States as combatants, much less as suicide bombers. A Taliban source says Zawahiri is an ardent supporter of both the education of women and their participation in military activities. Before the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Zawahiri tried to persuade Afghan leader Mullah Mohammed Omar to allow girls to have some basic schooling and combat training. The Taliban leader would not hear of it. After the American invasion of Afghanistan, Zawahiri raised the subject again.
He even brought up the example of a famous Afghan woman named
Malalai who fought against the British in the 19th Century. But Mullah Omar
dismissed the idea once more, saying that the presence of women at the front or among soldiers would lead to a breakdown in discipline. After the meeting, the Taliban leader's private secretary warned Zawahiri not to raise the matter again, but Al Qaeda continued to hold military training for women at bases near the Jalalabad and Kandahar airports, according to this source, and kept them secret from the one-eyed leader of the Taliban.
Al Qaeda's fighters and their wives and widows often seem to be part of
one extended family, writes Dickey. Frequently the sisters and daughters of a
holy warrior will marry one of his comrades in arms. The widows of slain
guerrillas commonly wed one of their late husband's jihadist relatives.
Although these networks appear isolated, they could form the enduring core of Al Qaeda in the future, or a new incarnation of it. And some of the women
among them are now more than ready to take up arms, or to carry bombs,
whenever the organization needs them. As Mia Bloom writes in a forthcoming
book, "The underlying message conveyed by female bombers is: Terrorism has
moved beyond a fringe phenomenon and insurgents are all around you." But that is only the message for their enemies. In their own world, their willingness to carry out suicide attacks means something different. Among Palestinians, for instance, "the idea of violence empowering women has spread throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip," writes Bloom. Suicide bombing is changing the rules of deference and subservience that have dominated the traditional society -- a strange path to liberation for women hidden behind veils and burqas.
(Read cover story at http://www.Newsweek.com)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10315095/site/newsweek/
SOURCE Newsweek
Web Site: http://www.newsweek.msnbc.com
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10315095/site/newsweek
The December 12 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, December 5) "Women and Terror" looks at the emerging role of women in Al Qaeda and why it's controversial in the Muslim world
U.S. Counterterrorism Officials Concerned That Recent, Unprecedented Wave of Attacks by Female Al Qaeda Suicide Bombers Could Spread to Western Europe or United States.
Jordanian Researcher: Terrorist Leader Al-Zarqawi May be Using Women Martyrs to Goad Muslim Men Al Qaeda Heads at Odds Over Use of Women as Combatants and Suicide Bombers, says Taliban Source
NEW YORK, Dec. 4-- Until recently, many analysts in American government agencies saw the threat of women suicide bombers as a largely theoretical problem. Their best judgment was that "Al Qaeda Central" -- the close-knit organization around Osama bin Laden and ideologue Ayman Al-Zawahiri-- would resist any effort to use women as homicidal martyrs. But after several recent attacks by women, they are taking the threat of female Islamic terrorists, particularly suicide bombers, much more seriously, two U.S.
counterterrorism officials tell Newsweek in the December 12 issue (on
newsstands Monday, December 5). Having seen the phenomenon spread suddenly to Iraq and Jordan, the U.S. officials worry that the plague will move still with women suicide bombers carrying out attacks in Western Europe or the United States, reports Middle East Regional Editor Christopher Dickey.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20051204/NYSU002 )
One lesson from the recent female suicide bombers: expect the unexpected.
"The terrorists are quite aware of the profiles that exist, and they always
change things just enough to throw them off," says Prof. Mia Bloom, author of
"Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror." Yet the increasing use of women
as weapons of holy war also challenges the view of the world that many
jihadists thought they'd set out to defend. Many of Al Qaeda's leaders have
been intellectuals, doctors, lawyers, and engineers who are perfectly at home
with other aspects of modernity. But they differ violently with the West about
the way women should be allowed to participate in daily life, viewing females
as chattel in some cases, as revered mothers in others, and almost always as
icons to be protected from outside influences.
What changed? The simplest answer is that Al Qaeda's core organization in
Afghanistan and Pakistan and its avant-garde in Iraq need more recruits.
Jordanian researcher Hassan Abu Hanieh, who knew Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi
personally, says the terrorist leader is goading Muslim men. Before the
attacks by women began, a Web site often linked to Zarqawi posted a message signed by him. "Are there no men, so that we have to recruit women?" he asked at the conclusion. "Isn't it a shame for the sons of my own nation that our sisters ask to conduct martyrdom operations while men are preoccupied with life?" Of course, Zarqawi is also meeting a demand -- by women. "The recourse to women doesn't happen at the start," says Haizam Amirah Fernandez, a Madrid-based analyst. "It comes when the battle escalates to all sectors of society.
It happens after men become activists in guerrilla groups, fight and die,
perhaps in suicide attacks. Then the widows or family members seek vengeance, or want to give their life in the same cause."Yet the core leadership of Al Qaeda remains divided, it seems, about whether women should enter the struggle against the "Satanic power" of the United States as combatants, much less as suicide bombers. A Taliban source says Zawahiri is an ardent supporter of both the education of women and their participation in military activities. Before the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Zawahiri tried to persuade Afghan leader Mullah Mohammed Omar to allow girls to have some basic schooling and combat training. The Taliban leader would not hear of it. After the American invasion of Afghanistan, Zawahiri raised the subject again.
He even brought up the example of a famous Afghan woman named
Malalai who fought against the British in the 19th Century. But Mullah Omar
dismissed the idea once more, saying that the presence of women at the front or among soldiers would lead to a breakdown in discipline. After the meeting, the Taliban leader's private secretary warned Zawahiri not to raise the matter again, but Al Qaeda continued to hold military training for women at bases near the Jalalabad and Kandahar airports, according to this source, and kept them secret from the one-eyed leader of the Taliban.
Al Qaeda's fighters and their wives and widows often seem to be part of
one extended family, writes Dickey. Frequently the sisters and daughters of a
holy warrior will marry one of his comrades in arms. The widows of slain
guerrillas commonly wed one of their late husband's jihadist relatives.
Although these networks appear isolated, they could form the enduring core of Al Qaeda in the future, or a new incarnation of it. And some of the women
among them are now more than ready to take up arms, or to carry bombs,
whenever the organization needs them. As Mia Bloom writes in a forthcoming
book, "The underlying message conveyed by female bombers is: Terrorism has
moved beyond a fringe phenomenon and insurgents are all around you." But that is only the message for their enemies. In their own world, their willingness to carry out suicide attacks means something different. Among Palestinians, for instance, "the idea of violence empowering women has spread throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip," writes Bloom. Suicide bombing is changing the rules of deference and subservience that have dominated the traditional society -- a strange path to liberation for women hidden behind veils and burqas.
(Read cover story at http://www.Newsweek.com)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10315095/site/newsweek/
SOURCE Newsweek
Web Site: http://www.newsweek.msnbc.com
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10315095/site/newsweek
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