Female suicide bombers are better than their male counterparts, at least in some ways, according to an Army assessment:
Although women make up roughly 15% of the suicide bombers within groups which utilize females, they were responsible for 65% of assassinations; 20% of women who committed a suicide attack did so with the purpose of assassinating a specific individual, compared with 04% of male attackers.
The threads linking such women in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere include:
– Grieving the loss of family members, seeking revenge against those they feel are responsible for the loss
– Unable to produce children
– Dishonored through sexual indiscretion
One woman in Iraq used that last motivation as a lever, saying “she assisted in organizing rapes of women and then persuaded the women to commit suicide attacks as a means to atone for the shame of being raped.”
The full report, by Army intelligence analysts at Fort Leavenworth last year, can be found here. h/t Public Intelligence
