Gender and Terrorism (Female Suicide Missions)

Gender issues[i] are not among the most discussed in suicide terrorism studies[ii]; here, just as in all literature on security, “the experiences and roles of women have rarely been of interest”.[iii] In the last few years, the situation in the academic debate has little changed despite the growing understanding that “without consideration of gender, security is an empty concept.”[iv] In other words, gender could be a meaningful category of analysis only if is “defined inclusively so as not to remain synonymous only with women.”[v] While being “a contextual, socially constructed means of assigning roles and norms to given sex categories,”[vi] gender not only is related to personal and social identity and the ways people live their lives, but also matters in distributing power, privileges and prestige.[vii] Gender roles systems and relations impact all aspects of human existence, including those ones which have to do with violence and its extreme form – terrorism.…