How to Handle the Problem of Female Suicide Bombers

In this article on female suicide bombers by the Strategic Studies Institute, Debra Zedalis writes "Suicide bombers are today's weapon of choice. An action that was once so surprising...has now become the daily fare of the nightly news."

For some, the choice to use women as walking homicidal grenades is startling. After all, in January 2002, Hamas (a prominent terrorist organization) declared that it renounced using women in that fashion. However, over the years, Hamas has changed their position. In addition, Saudi Arabia has now sanctioned it as well through a fatwa issued in August 2001.

Ironically, these human grenades are portrayed as 'martyrs' by their leadership. Such romanticizing of murderers is hardly surprising, when you think of the groupies that are also attracted to such serial killers as Ted Bundy and others. This means that we are facing a swelling number of devoted murderers who are happy to strap a bomb under their skirt.

Let's face it - using women makes sense in so many ways: They have voluminous robes to conceal weaponry and they are seen as relatively harmless, as most people have a somewhat idealized picture of the female of the species.

However, historians have long understood that Muslim women were a force to be reckoned with. In the 1800s during the Mahdist War, a British soldier once wrote of his military's encounter with Muslim women, saying that the Muslim men turned the prisoners over to the women, who were expert torturers. He added that it was better to be left in the hands of the men rather than be given to the women.

So now that Muslim women are once again becoming equal to their men, how should the military regard them? One soldier said that it was impossible to screen Muslim women in Iraq (thus implying that the military is doomed if female suicide bombers become de rigeur).

First, let me say that I don't approve of the war overseas. However, I also don't approve of murderers and these Muslim terrorists certainly are murderous.

If the military refuses to get out right now, then their other alternative is to realize that what was working before isn't working now. They only have a couple of options, really: One is to treat all men and women with equal suspicion. However, a female bomber could get much closer than a male bomber before it would be apparent that she was carrying.

The only other option would be for the military to demand that women begin to don the same garb as their male counterparts. After all, if the Muslims are beginning to finally see women as equal, perhaps this should be reflected in their dress as well. Muslim women could opt out of this by avoiding the peacekeeping forces altogether.

It's rather ironic that there is such an increase in these bombers, as Muhammed specifically decreed in the Koran "And do not kill yourself, for God is indeed merciful to you." He also proclaimed "He who drinks poison and kills himself will carry his poison in his hand and drink it in Hell for ever and ever."

These bombers may not know this, as many of them are illiterate. They are, perhaps, kept so deliberately in order to make them more malleable.

In my opinion, though, the governments in the civilized world have also come to value a lack of education among their masses. And, as we know, those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it. This allows the governments to manipulate us as they will, and only profits the governments while bestowing upon the average citizen no good whatsoever.