222467to222472

Edna Erez and Anat Berko
The interviewees’ identifications as being Palestinian and Muslim shaped their
experiences as women. Some were shy, reporting having little social, face to face
contact with men outside of their nuclear and extended families. In embracing their
nationality and religion, the women stressed suffering and obedience, but also pride
and exceptionality. They felt that as Palestinians they were “special” and “better
than the American or Jewish women.”
Most women reported having “normal” childhoods, growing up in large families
with mothers who were homemakers. Most had breadwinner fathers, though two
grew up with their fathers largely absent (due to prison and divorce). The women
tended to have warm, close relationships with their mothers and distant but
respectful relations with their fathers. About half the women lost their fathers later
in life to illness, accidents, or terrorist activity. This loss of their father figure or the
absence of protector may have contributed, directly or indirectly, to the women’s
engaging in terrorist activity. According This is consistent with the statements of
interviewed social service workers, who stated that women who engage in terrorist
pursuits come from “weak families”, lacking in a protective/disciplinarian father.
Women’s pathways to terrorism
The women’s pathways to terrorism were triggered by a variety of motives and
reflected different personal, often gender-related circumstances. While most
women’s involvement in terrorism had largely been voluntary, there had also been
elements of coercion and entrapment in some of the women’s stories, elements
which varied in their form and intensity. Those who actively sought opportunities
to engage in terrorism did so for a number of reasons, including retribution,
religious conviction, and rebellion against gender restrictions. Others were seeking
excitement, or a way to end desperate circumstances while presumably gaining
respect in the process.
Of the women interviewed, all except two reported that their participation in
terrorism was voluntary. One exception was a woman who just wanted to get
trained in military activities and use of weapon, and was later coerced by the
organization that trained her to go on a suicide mission. The second case had been
a 19 year old woman whose parents had been complicit in her involvement in a
suicide mission. This interviewee’s responses and file indicated that she had been
sexually abused by a family member, and had also suffered from burn injuries
resulting from a cooking accident at home the year prior to her failed mission; this
accident disfigured her neck, face and other body parts. These “blemishes” (sexual
impurity and physical appearance) led her parents to offer their daughter as
“shahida” (female martyr).
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