The XX Factor: What women really think.

Women and Children Killing Women and Children

There's been a spate of recent female suicide bombers in Iraq, most recently a woman—who is suspected to be a Sunni linked to al-Qaida in Mesopotamia—who killed 30 Shiite pilgrims today in the village of Abu Jasim. According to the New York Times, the upswing in female bombers is becuase of adjusted tactics by aggressive insurgents wanting to avoid detection:

Cultural mores here generally mean women are subject to less intrusive searches, while their loose robes  more easily hide explosive vests or belts. Iraq’s police and military have responded by trying to hire more women as security officers to search women at checkpoints.

Anne Applebaum wrote about the strategic advantages of female suicide bombers for Slate in 2002, focusing on Palestinian women who chose to blow themselves up for their cause. But Anne's points are applicable to this most recent explosion, since today's Iraqi bomber targeted tents of women and children:

Yet the use of women—young women—isn't entirely a matter of terrorist tactics either. There is a public relations game at work, too. By sending someone like Akhras into a supermarket to set off a bomb, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade—or its backers—are knowingly breaking down whatever frail, lingering barriers remain between combatants and noncombatants, terrorists and innocent civilians in the Middle East. The war has come to this: Women and children are now killing women and children.

Obviously in the seven intervening years since Anne wrote this piece, things have changed, and the situation in Iraq is not identical to the one in Israel, but her point about the barriers between combatants and noncombatants is still a relevant one. If you want to know what's in it for these female martyrs, since they don't get the 70 virgins promised to male bombers, Michelle Tsai did an excellent "Explainer" on the rewards awaiting female suicide bombers in heaven.