Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression

ISSN: 1943-4472 (Print) 1943-4480 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rirt20

Attitudes towards female suicide bombers in

Palestine and Tamil Sri Lanka

Edmar Salem

To cite this article: Edmar Salem (2015) Attitudes towards female suicide bombers in Palestine
and Tamil Sri Lanka, Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression, 7:3, 200-209,
DOI: 10.1080/19434472.2015.1009482

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Published online: 06 Feb 2015.

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 Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression, 2015
Vol. 7, No. 3, 200 –209, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19434472.2015.1009482

Attitudes towards female suicide bombers in Palestine and Tamil

Sri Lanka
∗
Edmar Salem

University of Buckingham, Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies (BUCSIS),

Buckingham, UK
(Received 13 October 2014; accepted 15 January 2015)

Although female suicide bombing has been occurring since the mid-1980s, in
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recent years, the phenomenon has significantly increased. As of July 2014,

women are estimated to have carried out approximately 30% of all suicide
attacks. According to a number of terrorism experts, the main reason why
female-initiated bombing is increasing is significantly due to people empathising
with the phenomenon. However, very little research has attempted to study the
ways people in the general population perceive female suicide attacks. Instead,
existing research, by and large, tends to postulate public perceptions from
knowledge obtained in anecdotal or media-derived sources. In this pilot study, a
newly devised survey was conducted to examine the attitudes of two population
groups considerably represented by female suicide bombers: Palestinians and
Tamil Sri Lankans. A total of 64 participants completed the self-administered
questionnaire. The key finding from this survey was that the majority of
respondents denounced female suicide bombing, yet considered female agency in
line with altruistic rather than egoistic motives. Larger sample sizes are required
to determine the attitudes of respondents in future research.
Keywords: female suicide bombers; attitudes; Palestine; Tamil

Introduction
There are two factors which have inspired the emergence of this pilot study. First, there
is a claim that women have significantly carried out suicide attacks on behalf of groups
operating in the Palestinian territories and Tamil Sri Lanka. According to Yaregal
(2011), after Wafa Idris’ mission on 27 January 2002, almost 30% of Palestinian
suicide operatives have been women. In 2012, it has been suggested by The Times of
Israel that ‘for the first time’ Hamas has set up an all-female suicide unit, ready to con-
front government policies by targeting buses or cafes in Israel (Miller, 2012). Similarly,
in the Tamil context, Rajan (2012) estimated that female participation in suicide
bombing is close to 50%. Research by the US Army and Training Doctrine
Command (2006) has further revealed that after 21 May 1991, roughly 20% of
LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) female suicide attacks were perpetrated
against high-rank officials, compared to 4% of male suicide attacks which targeted
public figures. Second, part of the reason why there has been a breadth of female
suicide bombing in those contexts is because of the ways women operatives are glor-
ified in their respective societies. Marway (2011), for example, is a strong proponent of
∗
Email: edmar.salem@buckingham.ac.uk

# 2015 Society for Terrorism Research

 Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression 201

this view, who suggested that media projections in those regions typically present the
characteristics of women bombers in highly mythical terms, describing their ‘martyr-
dom’ as even more heroic than men who perpetrate the same acts. The implication
of this hypothesis is that women are becoming more involved in suicide terrorism
because there is widespread approval for this phenomenon among the constituencies
this violence represents. Yet despite the breadth of female suicide missions and the
impact cultural depictions seem to have on public opinion, very few attempts have
studied how people in the terrorists’ constituencies actually feel about the employment
of women bombers.
Studying public attitudes towards female suicide bombing is important for two
reasons. First, some scholars have indicated that female-initiated missions elicit
much more passionate responses from their constituencies than male-initiated missions
(Avraham, 2014; Bloom, 2011; Cunningham, 2012; Dearing, 2009; Marway, 2011;
Nacos, 2005; Ponzanesi, 2014; Rajan, 2012; Schweitzer, 2006; Sutten, 2009;
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Szalkai, 2012; Zedalis, 2008). As aforementioned, this is primarily due to the

framing patterns that occur in cultural projections. According to this argument, while
male operatives tend to be portrayed in gender-neutral terms, portrayals of female oper-
atives, by and large, tend to produce specific images of the perpetrators as improved
versions of traditional women – as sexually pure virgins, brides, mothers, or in ways
that interlink women with nature. Sometimes, the characteristics of women bombers
may also be analogised to legendary female figures of the past. For example, the follow-
ing shows how Wafa Idris was poeticised as a Christ figure shortly after conducting her
mission:

Perhaps you were born in the same city, the same neighbourhood and in the same house.
Perhaps you ate from the same plate or drunk from the same cup, the water flowing
through the veins of the holy city and who placed a child in Mary’s womb. Perhaps
the same holy spirit placed the martyr Wafa Idris and enveloped her pure body with dyna-
mite. From Mary’s womb issued this martyr who eliminated oppression while the body of
Wafa became shrapnel that eliminated despair and aroused hope. (Alvanou, 2007, p. 17)

The problem with these representations, according to some scholars, is that they largely
ignore the apolitical aspects which might have motivated the women to act (Cunning-
ham, 2012; Nacos, 2005; Ponzanesi, 2014). Indeed, research into the personal lives of
female bombers suggests that women are often compelled to forsake their lives once
they deviate away from patriarchal norms. In this sense, female suicide bombers
operate out of ‘shame’ and ‘dishonour’ in order to redeem fallen reputations, such as
being barren, divorced, defiled, unchaste, and so on (Avraham, 2014; Beining &
Evans, 2014; Dearing, 2009; O’Rourke, 2009; Sofer & Addison, 2012; WPSU,
2012). Most arguably, terrorists and their supporters expunge such information when
generating propaganda, to avoid losing the wider support of their constituencies. To
that end, existing research regarding the attitudes of people towards female-initiated
bombing demands further investigation. Assessing attitudes towards female partici-
pation in suicide terrorism can help us determine whether theoretical assumptions are
accurate about the widespread perceptions of the people represented by women
bombers.
The second reason why studying public attitudes towards female suicide bombing is
important is because there is a significant gap in the literature with regard to postulating
the way a society perceives women bombers through sufficient empirical evidence.
Indeed, upon examining the literature, a very small percentage of researchers have
 202 E. Salem

based their generalisations on data obtained from primary or quantitative methods, such
as surveys administered to sample sets of the people in the geographies where female
suicide bombing is a feature. Instead, much of the generalisations expressed tend to be
drawn from secondary/anecdotal or qualitative sources, such as media-derived data-
bases, or testimonials of very few individuals, which are then extrapolated to the popu-
lations under examination. Although there are advantages to qualitative research, this
method is arguably flawed when describing public opinion, as the views observed
are very limited and may not necessarily denote the typical perceptions of the wider
population being studied. Therefore, the aim of this study is to provide an empirical
account of how people in the general population perceive the phenomenon of
female-initiated bombing. Ultimately, the present study is guided by the following
research questions. Do the majority of respondents justify and react positively to
female participation in suicide bombing? Do most respondents predominantly consider
female agency with altruistic motives?
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Review of previous studies

Examination of existing research shows that much has been produced with regard to
public perceptions towards suicide terrorism in the general sense. Haddad (2004), for
example, attempted to compare public attitudes towards suicide bombing by using a
sample set of Palestinian refugees in southern Lebanon (N ¼ 342) and Lebanese
Muslims (N ¼ 533). The study found that approval of suicide operations was more pro-
nounced among Lebanese than Palestinian participants. The study also found that
support for suicide attacks was more evident among women than men, those on
lower income, and attachment to political Islam – which meant, the greater commit-
ment to political Islam, the more likely participants were to support suicide terrorism.
While these findings are interesting, they, arguably, cannot be extended to female
suicide bombing since they did not examine public perceptions from a gendered angle.
Two studies were found which have attempted to specifically research public atti-
tudes towards female-initiated missions. The first was a public opinion poll, which
took place in October 2003, on behalf of the Palestinian Center for Policy and
Survey Research. The poll examined the views of Palestinians regarding the Maxim
restaurant attack, which was perpetrated by female bomber, Hanadi Jaradat, that
month. As reported, 75% of those sampled were in favour of the attack. The
problem with this poll is that it has comprised a single-item question that asked respon-
dents whether or not they supported the attack. In this sense, the poll failed to provide
more insight into perspectives regarding other aspects of female suicide operations,
such as why respondents thought women terrorists become suicide bombers, and
whether respondents would normally support female suicide missions in future events.
The second account found in the literature search was an attempt by Standish (2008)
to provide a cross-cultural analysis of Chechen and Palestinian attitudes, however, only
managed to generate raw data on the latter. Through the use of open-ended question-
naires administered to 28 Palestinian participants, Standish (2008) concluded that
most respondents were in support of female suicide operations. Interestingly, when
asked about the motives of women bombers, respondents articulated egoistic reasons
for becoming suicide terrorists, namely to redeem lost honour and avenge the deaths
of male relatives. Such findings clearly contradict the hypothesised ways Palestinians
are generally supposed to perceive female suicide operatives – as altruistic, ideal fight-
ers, espousing nothing but ethno-separatist motives. This implies that Palestinian
 Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression 203

society might, in the general sense, down play female agency, despite the ‘heroic’
depictions that surface in the Palestinian media. Yet, putting forward this claim
would be problematic for two reasons: first, the sample size is relatively low for one
to generalise the Palestinian community; and second, one cannot easily summarise
the generated cases as statistics or frequencies since responses were aggregated
through the opinions expressed by a single participant.
Consequently, the present study aims to counter these significant gaps by introdu-
cing a survey that comprises several questions and statements regarding female-
initiated bombing. In doing so, we are able to determine exactly how many individuals
concurred with the respective items presented.

Method
The sample set selected for participation in this pilot study includes respondents from
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the Palestinian territories and Tamil Sri Lanka. The rationale behind this sampling
decision is to analyse perspectives from two different geopolitical arenas where
female suicide bombers operated significantly. In addition, there appears to be a lack
of empirical research with regard to Tamil attitudes. Therefore, the present study
aims to generate raw data which address this matter in the context of female suicide
terrorism. Seeing that data gathering required participation from individuals in
distant locations, the questionnaire was therefore administered over the Internet. Ques-
tionnaire administration involved creating posts on various online forums and groups
specific to Palestinian and Tamil interests. Undeniably, the respondents selected for
participation in this study would not normally use English to communicate in everyday
life. Therefore, the questionnaire was translated in Arabic and Tamil to enable adequate
response rates. Data gathering involved two phases: first, participants were asked to
respond to 6 items which related to their social characteristics, including age, gender,
ethnicity, and so on; second, participants were asked to respond to 13 interval-scale
questions and statements which related to the employment of female suicide
bombing. In the latter, participants reported their responses on a 3-point Likert scale
of 1 (Agree) to 3 (Disagree). To be specific, the interval-scale measure asked respon-
dents whether they justified female suicide bombing, whether they would mostly attri-
bute egoistic or altruistic motives behind women perpetrating suicide missions, and
how they normally react to news of female suicide attacks. Once data were gathered,
the Statistical Product and Service Solutions was used to generate data frequency ana-
lyses and cross-tabulations.

Results
Demographic information
Data gathering for this pilot study took place between January and April 2013. In total,
64 participants took part in this small-scale experiment. As presented in Table 1, the
sample set comprises 30 (46.9%) Palestinians and 34 (53.1%) Tamils. More than
half (N ¼ 36, 56.3%) of those surveyed were female. There was also more participation
from respondents under 29 years (N ¼ 37, 57.8%), who were unmarried (N ¼ 31,
48.4%), educated to university level (N ¼ 38, 59.4%), and considered their financial
status as ‘Somewhat or much poorer than most’ (N ¼ 35, 54.7%). With regard to reli-
gion, Palestinians were predominantly Muslim (N ¼ 25, 80%), while 20% (N ¼ 5)
 204 E. Salem

Table 1. Socio-demographic characteristics of the study sample (N ).

Palestinian Tamil Total
Gender
Male 14 14 28
Female 16 20 36
Total 30 34 64
Age(years)
18 –28 19 18 37
29 –39 6 11 17
40 and older 5 5 10
Religion
Christian 5 0 5
Hindu 0 31 31
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Muslim 25 3 28
Marital status
Married 11 1 12
Unmarried 17 14 31
Divorced 2 3 5
Education
Primary 1 0 1
Secondary 8 17 25
University 21 17 38
Income
Somewhat or much poorer than most 15 20 35
Similar to most people 10 11 21
Somewhat or much richer than most people 5 3 8

were Christian. In the Tamil case, 90.3% (N ¼ 31) were Hindu, while 9.7% (N ¼ 3)
were Muslim.

Attitudes towards female suicide bombing

Palestinian responses
Table 2 presents the responses of Palestinian participants to items regarding female
suicide bombing as percentages. As given, the majority (63.3%) of the participants dis-
agreed with the concept that female-generated bombing is justified, compared to 16.7%
who agreed. Neither did the majority (60%) of participants report favourable reactions
upon hearing about a female-initiated attack in the news. An overwhelming majority
(90%) of the participants disagreed with the idea that women engage in suicide terror-
ism with feminist objectives in mind. When asked whether women initiate suicide
bombing in order to avoid shame and regain lost honour, opinions were mixed, as
evident by equal proportions of 36.7% for agree and disagree. Slightly more than
half (56.7%) of the sample set disagreed with the notion that women typically
become suicide bombers in order to avenge the loss of relatives by security forces,
as opposed to 30% who agreed. Although the majority (60%) of participants denied
 Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression 205

Table 2. Item percentages of Palestinian responses regarding female suicide bombing.

Agree Neutral Disagree
1. Female suicide bombing is justified 16.7 20 63.3
2. Female suicide bombers are feminists 6.7 3.3 90
3. Female suicide bombers want to avoid shame and are 36.7 26.6 36.7
convinced that this act will regain their honour
4. Women become bombers because they are passionate about 63.3 10 26.7
the ideas and aims of their political movement
5. Female suicide bombers want to provide financial support for 40 16.7 43.3
their family
6. Female suicide bombers mostly want to avenge deaths of 30 13.3 56.7
loved ones
7. Women become bombers because they want to be heroic 30 20 50
celebrities
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8. Most female suicide bombers belong to the poorest classes in 43.3 20 36.7
the society
9. Women are often forced to become suicide bombers 26.7 13.3 60
10. Insurgent groups employ female bombers because they are 53.3 6.7 40
more effective than men
11. Insurgent groups employ female bombers because men have 10 3.3 86.7
higher value of life
12. Women are often manipulated into becoming suicide bombers 50 26.7 23.3
13. How do you usually react upon hearing of a suicide bomb 6.7 33.3 60
attack by a woman? (1 ¼ Favourably to 3 ¼ Unfavourably)

women become forced to carry out suicide attacks, 50% agreed that some manipulation
might be required for women bombers to act. Nevertheless, most (63.3%) of the partici-
pants reported that women bombers are typically motivated to act by passion for the
political aims of their hosting organisation.

Tamil responses
Table 3 presents the responses of Tamils participants to the questions and statements
regarding female suicide bombing as percentages. As set out, the vast majority
(70.6%) of respondents in this sample set did not justify female-initiated bombing,
as opposed to 23.5% who agreed. The majority (64.7%) of respondents also reported
unfavourable reactions upon hearing of a female suicide attack, while 29.4% reported
neutral reactions. A large majority of 85.3% of the respondents disagreed with the
notion that female bombers are motivated to act for feminist objectives. Nor did
most (64.7%) respondents agree with the concept that some women attempt to
redeem their lost honour by engaging in suicide terrorism. In response to the item
regarding female bombers avenging the deaths of loved ones, 76.5% of the sample
set disagreed, compared to 5.9% who agreed. When asked if some women tend to
be forced into conducting suicide missions, most (61.8%) respondents disagreed.
Nevertheless, 55.9% of the sample set agreed with the concept that women may
need some convincing to act, compared to 32.3 who disagreed. Ultimately, a vast
majority of 70.6% perceived women bombers as motivated by passion for the ideas
and aims of their political movement.
 206 E. Salem

Table 3. Item percentages of Tamil responses regarding female suicide bombing.

Agree Neutral Disagree
1. Female suicide bombing is justified 23.5 5.9 70.6
2. Female suicide bombers are feminists 5.9 8.8 85.3
3. Female suicide bombers want to avoid shame and are 26.5 8.8 64.7
convinced that this act will regain their honour
4. Women become bombers because they are passionate about 70.6 11.8 17.6
the ideas and aims of their political movement
5. Female suicide bombers want to provide financial support for 32.4 17.6 50
their family
6. Female suicide bombers mostly want to avenge deaths of 5.9 17.6 76.5
loved ones
7. Women become bombers because they want to be heroic 35.3 5.9 58.8
celebrities
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8. Most female suicide bombers belong to the poorest classes in 35.3 11.8 52.9
the society
9. Women are often forced to become suicide bombers 38.2 0 61.8
10. Insurgent groups employ female bombers because they are 20.6 8.8 70.6
more effective than men
11. Insurgent groups employ female bombers because men have 17.6 8.9 73.5
higher value of life
12. Women are often manipulated into becoming suicide bombers 55.9 11.8 32.3
13. How do you usually react upon hearing of a suicide bomb 5.9 29.4 64.7
attack by a woman? (1 ¼ Favourably to 3 ¼ Unfavourably)

Discussion
As indicated earlier, very little research has attempted to assess the attitudes of a sample
set of respondents regarding female-initiated bombing. The current pilot study is the
first of its kind to design and implement an online survey that generates raw data on
the subject matter. It is also the first study to conduct a quantitative experiment
which analyses and compares the perceptions of Palestinians and Tamils regarding
this phenomenon. Overall, the pilot study received approximately equal proportion
of responses from the population groups under examination. The study significantly
found that the vast majority (67.2%) of respondents denounced female suicide
bombing, with 62.5% reporting that they usually react unfavourably to news of a
female suicide attack. Such finding clearly contradicts some of the claims expressed
in the literature, which assert that societies embroiled in promoting female-generated
bombing, typically tend to approve and laud the violence. Those who agreed with
the concept of female suicide bombing accounted for 20.3% of the responses, with
Tamils, interestingly, representing 4.7% more justification than Palestinians.
However, a much larger sample size is needed to determine this pro-female suicide
bombing sentiment. The other significant finding is that respondents, for the most
part, tended to disagree with the survey items that question egoistic motives behind
women engaging in suicide terrorism. For example, all together, 60.9% of the
sample set disagreed with the idea that women are often forced to conduct suicide oper-
ations, nor did 51.6% agree that women attempt to redeem lost honour by engaging in
suicide terrorism – although in the Palestinian case, the latter would need a larger
 Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression 207

sample size in future research as opinions were more mixed. Moreover, a majority of
67.2% disagreed that women are typically motivated to act out of personal revenge
for the death of relatives. Instead, female suicide terrorists were generally recognised
as driven by an altruistic passion for self-determination, similar to the host organisation;
67.2% agreed, while 21.9% disagreed. Such responses, undeniably, seem to comply
with the literature, most specifically, that nations participating in terrorism are generally
exerted to interpret suicide agency as an extension of ‘martyrdom’ or self-sacrifice.
Another significant finding worth noting is that Palestinian participants were 14.1%
more likely to perceive female suicide bombers as strategically more effective than
men, compared to Tamil participants.
Despite these significant findings, there are a few limitations in this pilot study. As
emphasised, the first limitation is that a much larger sample size is required to determine
the attitudes and perceptions of the reported cases. According to Brooker and Schaefer
(2006), a sufficient response rate in survey-based research would be to gather between
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400 and 2000 responses, particularly if researchers intend on making generalisations

about the target population. Therefore, the full-scale version of this experiment would
require more than 400 participants in each of the Palestinian and Tamil data-sets. Intro-
ducing some sort of prize draw might lead to larger responses in future research. The
second limitation of this experiment was identifying an appropriate sampling frame.
Since data gathering occurred entirely over the Internet, participation primarily required
respondents to self-administer the survey out of convenience, rather than the researcher
identifying an extensive list of possible respondents (probability-based sampling). Also,
the use of survey research over the Internet meant that very little was known about the
characteristics of the respondents taking part. However, by translating the questionnaire
and advertising on websites specific to Palestinian and Tamil interests, this research
attempted to avert response bias. In fact, some like Wright (2005) strongly recommend
respondent anonymity in survey research, particularly for sensitive topics. The third
limitation was the use of a 3-point Likert scale. In order to determine precise levels
of the respondents’ views, it might be worth adopting a 5-point Likert scale in the
larger experiment, giving participants the opportunity to select ‘Strongly agree’ or
‘Strongly disagree’ when reporting their answers. In spite of these relatively small limit-
ations, the results generated and the methods adopted in this pilot study proved signifi-
cantly feasible for the large-scale version of this experiment. Such results could
potentially contribute to contemporary counter-terrorism and counter-narrative policies,
by serving as a heuristic model for anti-terrorist researchers to understand how people in
the general population interpret female suicide bombing.

Conclusion
In summary, there was very little support for female involvement in suicide terrorism
among this study’s participants. The majority denounced it and react unfavourably
upon hearing that a woman perpetrated a suicide attack. Nevertheless, when asked
about the characteristics of female bombers, the majority of participants seemed to
have perceived their motives in less negative terms. The majority perceived women
suicide terrorists as altruistic actors, motivated by the notions of achieving martyrdom
and political freedom, rather than redeeming lost honour or avenging personal losses.
This paradox suggests that cultural projections could have less impact on the opinions
of observers when interpreting female suicide missions as ‘heroic’ since support was
low. Instead, perceiving female bombing as ‘altruistic’ could be due to factors
 208 E. Salem

associated with the notions of countering state oppression. Two explanations could
possibly explain why support for female-initiated bombing was lower than anticipated
in some of the literature. First, places such as the Palestinian territories and Tamil Sri
Lanka are largely patriarchal, where women tend to be discouraged from functioning
in roles and duties deemed ‘masculine’, in this case, fighting for the nation. Second,
participants might have possibly recalled female suicide operations in contexts not
specific to theirs when completing the survey. For example, as of July 2014, Ayanniyi
(2014) noted that women bombers account for roughly 30% of all suicide operations in
the pan-Islamic movement. If there has been notable media coverage of female suicide
bombing taking place in disparate settings, we can reasonably expect very few people
to sanction the phenomenon since women bombers would be serving different causes.
To that end, future researchers may wish to consider altering the survey items used in
order to ask questions specific to the contexts under examination. Furthermore, there is
a need for future research to address the findings that emerged in this experiment with
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larger sample sizes.

Notes on contributor
Edmar Salem is a doctoral student at the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies, University
of Buckingham. His research involves studying attitudes and perceptions towards female suicide
bombing, taking into consideration the implications for counter-terrorism policy formation.

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