Talk:Female suicide bomber

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Islam forbids suicide bombings? It may be a wise idea to provide some sort of references to back this up, since it can be considered a pretty important concept. --Joeljkp 16:10, 21 May 2004 (UTC)

I came to this talk page because I thought the same thing. 24.194.227.174 23:01, 21 May 2005 (UTC)

Contents 1 Tamil Tigers 2 Feminism 3 Recent years 4 ain't systemic bias grand? 5 hello, glorification!!! 6 Proposal to merge into Suicide Attack 7 List of rewards

[edit] Tamil Tigers

I added a brief comment about the Tigers use of female bombers, but it requires more research than I have time for right now. I think that the facts will challenge the emphasis on the Middle East in the opening part of the article. GreatWhiteNortherner 20:40, May 21, 2004 (UTC)

Actually, I am not very comfortable about a separate article on female suicide bombers as opposed to a generic one on suicide bombers. However, this entails a longer discussion elsewhere. The emphasis on Middle East is clearly a phenomenon that borrows from recent history - while it cannot be denied that Tamil Tigers were the world's first militia to use suicide bombing with any degree of sophistication. And their indifference to age or gender while choosing the potential bombers - makes this article rather pointless in some sense. There may be a few who disagree. Chancemill 17:22, May 22, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Feminism

There seems to be an ongoing debate about whether suicide bombing is empowering or abusing women. There should be a discussion on this here on in a separate article. GreatWhiteNortherner 20:40, May 21, 2004 (UTC)

Again, my doubts as expressed in the previous section stand. Do we need a separate article? Chancemill 17:24, May 22, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Recent years

Can someone post something more specific than "recent years" for when female suicide bombers have become increasingly prevalent? When did this really begin? Is it really something new and distinctive, or just noted recently? --Ben Kovitz 17:56, 21 May 2005 (UTC)

The first was in 1986; the phenomenon really took off in the early 1990s, when the Tamil Tigers started employing women as suicide bombers. The article explains this now.

[edit] ain't systemic bias grand?

I am bemused by the way that, before my edits, this article focused almost exclusively on Palestinian Muslims while giving only the briefest mentions to the bombers in Chechnya, Lebanon, Turkey, and Sri Lanka. I guess secular nationalists who don't kill white people in industrialized countries just aren't that important; they're even treated as atypical ("The Tamil Tigers have been one of the groups most active in using suicide bombers, although [emphasis added] they are Hindus or Marxists") despite employing the majority of female suicide bombers.

Now that I'm finished carping. . .there is still much that this article needs to address:

• Why organizations employ female suicide bombers
  • Women were and are predominantly treated as noncombatants
    • This gives an element of surprise, at least initially
    • Also useful in propaganda, e.g. as a sign of dedication or resolve
  • Stealth: the Middle East is already covered, but as I recall, female Tigers exploited Hindu norms of modesty to hide their bombs
• Why women become suicide bombers
  • Primarily for the same reasons as men, but any notable differences should be covered as well
• Impacts and reactions outside the Middle East

—Charles P. (Mirv) 1 July 2005 17:56 (UTC)

You might want to mention the connection with honor killings, where women are told they must become suicide bombers to restore honor to their families. Ken Arromdee 19:00, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

The article mentions that an Islamic religious leader (Sheikh Ahmed Yassin) gave permission to women to participate in suicide attacks as well as listing the rewards in "Paradise" that these female martyrs would receive apon their deaths. Can anyone elaborate on that? What are the rewards they are promised?

[edit] hello, glorification!!!

WHY on earth should there be a printed list of all known suicide bombers? Isn't notoriety the first thing we should deny? Above - get a break - people write about what they know. You know more about the tamil tigers, add it.

I agree, the list of people who have "died for the cause" so to speak should be left out, they should be looked down on rather than be glorified Cokehabit 15:59, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

Who is glorifing anything? I thought Wikipedia was supposed to be an unbiased source of information. Omitting infomation to prevent the "goals" of suicide bombers is demonstrating the bias that this thread was initiated to highlight. Besides, having a list of bombers and their personal motives might help people on "our side" understand.

[edit] Proposal to merge into Suicide Attack

Should have been done long ago. This article does not contain anything that cannot be reasonably covered under Suicide Attack. Will go ahead and merge if there are no objections. Chancemill 11:20, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

A brute-force merge would probably be bad. The article needs a lot of improvement before it can be merged; otherwise, Suicide attack will be of questionable quality. Calbaer 20:22, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Opposed. This article stands by itself, it is a differnet phenomenon with its own characteristics. No merging. Amoruso 13:16, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Merge. The only unique thing about female suicide bombers is their sex, which may be intended to defeat some profiling measures. As such, it is noteworthy enough to have it's own section in the suicide attack article, but not it's own article. --Djedi 18:28, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

it's important also for different reasons than profiling. The major importance is that women are regarded as worse victims in almost all cultures, which is why people often use the claim of the killing of "women and children" as a sign for a worse atrocity. When one side who claims that the killing of women is more atrocious, and yet uses women as suicide bombers, it's a very important occurance to talk about in depth. Amoruso 20:22, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Merge Who is to say this topic can't be talked in-depth under the article Suicide Attack? I see no real reason why it should not be merged with Suicide Attack.Shardakar 05:44, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

Merge This article adds nothing that could not be put on the 'Suicide attack' page. 84.64.166.49 11:44, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

Merge While gender is important to consider, by keeping it as a separate article implies political motivations by women are necessarily different than men. The gender dynamic can still be addressed under the general 'Suicide attack' page. Clashista 5:53, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Merge As someone else said, female suicide bombers might merit their own section, but not their own article. It's NOT a "differnet phenomenon"--it's the exact same phenomenon with an added twist due to different societies' expectations of women. The same twist is present in any role traditionally filled by men, but we don't have articles like "female doctors", "female firefighters", or "female serial killers." --Lode Runner 19:51, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] List of rewards

Where is the list of rewards indicated by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.197.28.239 (talk • contribs)