Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Suicide terrorism has recently become a widely used tactic and a significant strategic threat to the international community. To date, the motivations and factors to explain why women are becoming martyrs have not been fully explored or understood.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: What previously seemed highly unlikely because of the existing notions of women as victims of war rather than as perpetrators, women are taking a leading role in terrorism by using their bodies as human detonators for the explosive material strapped around their bodies. To complicate the notions of femininity and motherhood, the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) is often disguised under the women's clothing to make her appear as if she is pregnant and thus beyond suspicion or reproach. The advent of women suicide bombers has transformed the revolutionary womb into an exploding one. In the case studies of Sri Lanka and Chechnya, women have risen to the forefront of their organizations by engaging in suicide terrorism. Complicating matters, many of the women who have joined the Black Widows in Chechnya or the Birds of Paradise Unit of the LTTE are themselves victims of rape from the previous iteration of conflict. Thus they express their outrage against the brutal state by becoming martyrs for their organizations' cause. This paper examines the unintended consequences of rape in war and the increasing role played by women as suicide terrorists. It debates the costs and benefits of women's participation in terrorist organizations by using primary source and interview data collected by the author in Sri Lanka when she was a guest of the LTTE in Kilinochi and the Vanni (Rebel controlled territory).

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: How is the “female suicide
bomber” culturally constructed? Is she a “nationalist” or a
“terrorist”? How are the socially built feminine and masculine messages
brought into play? And what is the import of this double-edged
construct to a society in transition? - These are some of the questions
the paper “The Rhetoric of Evil vs. Martyrdom: Reflections from the
Israeli/ Palestinian Conflict and Female Suicide Bombers” attempts to
tackle. Looking through the prism of Palestinian female suicide
bombers, the paper explores the construction of nationalism and gender
in printed media outlets from the two sides of the barricade. Building
on Anderson’s theory of “imagined communities”, the paper analyzes how
images that are communicated via the printed media structure the
difference between “evil” and “martyr”, between “male” and “female”,
between “victim” and “attacker”. Observing the scholarly literature on
the role of women in armed-conflicts/ liberation struggles, the paper
examines the role Palestinian female suicide bombers play in a
non-Western society and the social, political and cultural implications
of such participation. Considering the arguably multi-levels of
subordination of Palestinian women, the paper finally inquires into the
larger philosophical debate of the construct of the “national identity
(self)” and “the Other” in cleavage societies.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: One of the most puzzling aspects of suicide attacks inIraq is the transnational character of many of the bombers. These suicidal militants were not homegrown but came from as far away as Europe and North Africa. This study sheds theoretical light on the process of transnational volunteerism for jihad in Iraq. It employs a social movement approach to radicalization by emphasizing three variables: political opportunity structures, mobilization networks, and strategic framing. It argues that transnational radicalization was influenced by the structure of opportunities and threats in thepost-9/11 security environment, the availability of pre-existing mobilization networks linked to second generation jihadists that emerged during the 1990s, and the strategic use of ideology to frame suicide as martyrdom.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Social movements worldwide evoked by globalization, though separated by time and place, often affect one another because of their common origin and related contexts. What effects do social movements targeting core countries and social movements targeting non-core countries (or non-core émigrés) have on each other? This study explored the effects of Al Qaeda as a social movement (originating in non-core countries which had its moment in the spotlight with the September 11, 2001 attacks), on the anti-immigrant movement in the United States (which peaked in 1994 with California Proposition 187, threatening to deny social services to immigrants and their children). The research design included two data sets: first, a control group of 18 ethnographic interviews with leading anti-immigrant activists conducted just before September 11, 2001 and, second, six follow-up interviews with anti-immigrant activists, along with participant observation at two post-9/11 anti-immigrant conferences. Results revealed: (1) a boost to anti-immigrant organizing at the national level focused on defending America that did not, however, elicit a surge in anti-immigrant activism as witnessed in 1994. (2) California’s white-led activists maintained a mainly anti-Mexican focus, whereas, the national level anti-immigrant organizations more notably targeted Arabs and Muslims. (3) Interviews revealed a more evident connection than previously recognized between overt hate-groups (including published biological determinists, arguing for “the separation of the races”) and anti-immigrant activists (often considered to be less overt hate-groups). (4) Finally, anti-immigrant sentiment perpetuated racial stereotypes, with regard to perceived ‘race,’ religion, or nation of origin, and according to gender.