34% of Suicide Bombers are Women

Women evade most terrorist profiles because they are perceived as wives and mothers, not bombers....Based on my study of suicide bombings since 1985, 34% have been carried out by women. Female operatives not only better penetrate a crowd of civilians than their male counterparts, they also get more publicity....

However, although many of the bombers have been eager martyrs, there is evidence that some have been manipulated or used as pawns by men. The Chechen women who helped take over the Dubrovka Theater in Moscow in 2002 did not control the detonators for their explosive devices, according to surviving hostages. Reem Riyashi, Hamas' first female bomber and a mother of two, was reportedly coerced to become a shahida, or female martyr, in 2004 by her husband and her lover, who together decided that the extramarital affair brought such shame that only martyrdom could resolve it....It becomes clear that perpetrating violence has done little to help women level the playing field in societies that consider their deaths more valuable than their lives. But in death, they serve another grim purpose: prompting security services around the world to subject women, including pregnant women, to humiliating and sometimes invasive searches ? thus feeding the resentments that lead to more terror.