Counterterrorism Blog

This month’s report by two U.S. government agencies, the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigations, warning United States law enforcement agents of female terrorists inside the United States is both dated and exaggerated. Years ago, when I was a security analyst in the U.S. government, I first warned the U.S. President and other policymakers of the rising threat by female terrorists. The intelligence assessment I drafted, now a publicly available article called “Rocking the Cradle to Rocking the World,” published by the Journal of International Women’s Studies, highlighted the different ways women contribute to terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda and explained why Muslim women would strap on the bomb.

So why release this report now? The new U.S. government document is likely a reaction to the exponential increase in female suicide bombers in Iraq. Since the U.S. occupation in 2003, my data shows that there have been at least seventeen female bombers in Iraq, committing a total of fourteen attacks—six of which were committed in 2007, alone, and three so far this year. With a rate of increase at 28%, one can assume that more women will take part in suicide attacks in Iraq.

In the new report, the US government illustrates that women use prosthetics to deceive security officials of their intentions and disguise their operations. This practice is not unique. Secular national terrorist groups have been able to capitalize on a woman’s ability to feign pregnancy in order to evade an arrest, bypass security, and launch successful attacks. After all, most of society assumes that a pregnant woman is least likely to perpetrate an act of violence. A pregnant woman therefore commands sympathy, respect, and compassion from others. But the practice of faking a pregnancy is a common one; it has been skillfully applied by the women of Sri Lanka’s Liberation Tamil Tigers Elam, where female members of the terror network hide explosives beneath their saris (Indian dress) to shield their weapons from the public.

The ability to conceal a bomb underneath a woman’s clothing is also strikingly useful for Muslim women in Iraq, who have mastered the art of deceit by placing the bomb underneath their abaya (conservative dress). The recent blast in Baghdad by two disabled women at a pet market in early February portrays the ease with which insurgents and al-Qaeda continue to innovate for maximum effect and success.

In my first op-ed published in 2005, I suggested that the female “bomber under the veil” will be increasingly difficult to track and target. A U.S. Marine officer returning from Falluja said to me, “We are not even allowed to look at an Iraqi woman, much less suspect her of being a suicide terrorist. If we can’t look at these women, how will we know what we are looking for?” Thus, taking advantage of cultural and patriarchal norms, Iraq’s female bombers are able to exploit a religious society that expects men to lower their gaze when a woman passes by.

What can we learn from the latest US government report? The subject of the report is no doubt important but not unique. It resurrects work that has been done by other scholars, including Mia Bloom and Anne Speckhard. It traces recurring themes and motifs that male terrorists repeatedly draw on, such as the universal image of women as supportive partners to men. The report also exaggerates the use of female bombers in the United States. It is highly unlikely that a Muslim woman in America wearing a prosthetic will conduct an attack on U.S. soil.

Unlike Iraq, Muslim women in the United States do not experience the same level of despair, depression, and distress that women in Iraq might endure as a result of living in a war that is in its fifth year. With high levels of integration and opportunities afforded to Muslim women in the United States, the U.S. government’s report appears to be unsubstantiated, leaning on speculation rather than evidence of a historical precedence or other signs of proof that might give the report its due credence.

With only a gut-feeling reaction and quizzical analysis, the new report should not raise the terror alarm in the United States. If research proves to be an indicator of truth, then the overall number of women who have committed or may commit a suicide operation in various conflicts around the world is still very small, when compared to the astronomical number of male martyrs.

Despite the increase of female terrorists, it is a slow and steady trend that exists outside of the U.S. homeland. Future female bombers will not detonate in the United States, but they will likely sacrifice themselves in Iraq. So long as this war continues, we will see more women ready to kill and be killed.

Farhana Ali is a terrorism expert at the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research organization.