Women must be empowered and educated to counter increasing trend of female suicide bombers

By Arshi Saleem Hashmi, Assistant Professor, National Defence University, Member SAVE Pakistan

How does an eight-year-old child react to the so-called injustices by the West against the “Muslim world”? Most probably by doing nothing, for it is beyond the capacity of a child of this age to comprehend and interpret justice and injustice. So when a group of women and men kidnapped and forced a girl of 8 years of age to wear a suicide jacket, she resisted. In her own little world, God is beautiful, caring and very loving. Dying to please that God is not something that fits well in her world. This is what happens when kids are kidnapped or taken from their parents by so-called religious groups and used as human bombs.

Women suicide bombers are not a new thing in Pakistan, although they are rare. The first case of a woman suicide bomber was in 2009 when a woman killed many in Peshawar. Then in December 2010, a woman killed 45 people who were queuing for food in the Bajur area in a suicide attack. In February 2011, again in the Bajur area, a woman suicide bomber was arrested. Though the number of women suicide bombers is very low, it is certainly a dangerous trend. According to the figures of the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, more than 52 would-be female suicide bombers were arrested by the police and other law-enforcement agencies across Pakistan in 2010.

A girl captured in 2010 revealed on TV that she and her younger sister were told by her father and brother to give their life for God and in return they will go to heaven. The younger sister detonated the bomb, but the elder couldn’t do it and got arrested. In October 2004,a member of Lashkar-e-Jhanghvi,(LeJ) Gul Hasan, was arrested over suicide attacks against two Shiite mosques in Karachi. During investigations, he revealed that LeJ was planning to launch suicide attacks using female bombers. According to media reports, Hasan had reportedly trained two of his nieces, both students at a school in Karachi, to carry out suicide attacks without the consent of their parents. Gul’s wife, who is also said to have been a member of LeJ, made the girls leave their home for the “holy mission.” Their father searched for them and even filed a case with the police regarding their disappearance. The girls were arrested in Swat in June 2005.

Former female religious teachers of Lal Masjid, (Red mosque in Islamabad) have also been reported to have trained women to avenge the Lal Masjid operation. Bomber recruiters brainwashed female and male seminarians, below six to seven years of age, for jihad. Their families are generally told that they would undergo training, but those from the outskirts of Islamabad and Rawalpindi are generally kidnapped as their parents are not convinced that they should send their children for jihad. Religious groups like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Sipah-e-Sahaba and a network of women working under the banner of Tehreek-e-Islami are all involved in using women as suicide bombers. Sometimes the target is military and sometimes it is against other sectarian groups.

Most of the time the young girls are forced to obey family elders, be it father, brother, or any other male family elder. They are supposed to accept what they are being told. Such women and young girls are unfortunate members of families who are sympathetic towards militants or are actively involved in militancy. The women have no choice of their own. Contrary to other parts of the world, militancy in Pakistani women is not an independent phenomenon. They do not “decide” to become a terrorist but are forced to obey. This does not mean that every woman in Pakistan is forced to obey their families. Many urban educated families in particular have a different attitude. It is mostly in tribal areas that women are supposed to follow what they are told.

The gloomy scenario however does not mean that Pakistani women have surrendered to extremism and militancy. In fact they have been reacting against it whichever way it was possible. The girl who refused to wear the suicide jacket is an indication that religious extremism is unacceptable and it is mostly forced and not willingly approved. Last year in October, when Meera, a girl whose father and brother forced her to become suicide bomber, she not only refused, she came out in public and exposed the situation in front of the media. Women in urban and also rural areas have rejected the notion of Jihad through violent means. Those who are influenced are in the minority and despite their organized efforts they have not been able to actually recruit young girls and women in large numbers. Usually it is coercion or violence that made these girls follow the footsteps of male militants.

The struggle against violent extremism is obvious among women of all classes and regions in Pakistan. The school girls in Swat whose schools were destroyed by the Taliban came out with more enthusiasm despite the threat, and reminded the government that more than anything they needed their schools back. School class rooms are the best places to teach young minds about peaceful coexistence, tolerance and religious harmony. A rigorous revision of school syllabus for public schools will help in encouraging young children to be more tolerant towards other faiths. Mothers in these affected areas are now more vigilant of their children by keeping an eye on their association with any such group or people who could influence their young minds. Rather than long speeches which do not make sense to a common woman, small meetings in cities, town, and villages to discuss personal experiences would help women to take this message to hundreds of other women in their families and towns. This one step helps to create a chain of likeminded women who reject extremism not only for themselves but for their men as well as their children. Women have a powerful role to play. Their role in deterring violent extremism is even more powerful then the role of being an extremist. This is what SAVE believes and its “Mothers for Change” project essentially targets that. Once women are convinced that violent extremism is self destructive, they will be the best source to influence their children which will eventually contain militancy.

The social, political and security situation has not deterred the Pakistani women, they have never endorsed violent extremism and they will never support it. The more women become a target of violent extremism, the more they will react against it. Fortunately Pakistani media and civil society are backing the women who are challenging and questioning the dictates of the religious extremists.

Pakistani women do not “Decide” to become suicide bomber but they certainly have the courage to say NO to dying in the name of religion. They have decided that come what may, they will not surrender to violent extremism.

SAVE Yemen Thoughts on International Women's Day

A member of SAVE Yemen reflects on the unstable situation in the country and remembers the women of Yemen who will not be celebrating International Women's Day this year.

Tomorrow, March 8, women worldwide will celebrate the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. These women celebrate women’s successes and all their political, social and economic achievements. This global event is meant to connect all the women around the world and to highlight the inequalities that need redressing.

Yemen is going to celebrate it too and join the global events that will take place on such an occasion. However, this year and particularly at this time, things are different here. Despite all the challenges that it faces, Yemen lives in a historical and critical moment.

The Yemeni people are on alert as the wind of change has swept from Tunisia and Egypt to Yemen. Like other Middle Eastern countries, young people are the fuel of these new revolutions. Protests in Yemen (in Sana’a, Taiz, Aden and other Yemeni cities) become semi-daily and protesters’ camps occupy squares in those main cities. Killing and injuring protesters has darkened Yemeni lives but also pushed them to continue protesting.

In such an atmosphere, there is not much to say about March 8 and the desire to celebrate it becomes even less. In Yemen at present, people have stopped talking about pressing issues like illiteracy, poverty, unemployment or terrorism. The people, old and young, talk about change and how to topple Saleh’s regime. I wanted to collect some voices on the occasion of International Women’s Day, but all they wanted to talk about was “revolution” and “ousting the current regime”. One of my male colleagues ridiculously commented "what about having International MAN Day"!

In fact, I do not remember when Yemen started to celebrate International Women’s Day, but I have attended a number of these celebrations over the past few years. I do still remember last year’s celebration. It was a big conference in which women from all walks of life in Yemen came and participated. A number of papers were presented. Most of the papers were gender-based, addressing issues like inequality in political, social and economic life. I met a number of extraordinary and pioneering Yemeni women. On March 8 2010, I met Jennifer from the German embassy to whom I introduced SAVE Yemen and who then introduced SAVE Yemen to Yemen Gender Network and other activities. Jennifer has just left Yemen but on such an occasion I cannot forget such a wonderful woman, who is not a Yemeni, but she has given a lot of her time and effort to lift up the status of Yemeni women. Such women make us, Yemeni women, feel connected with other women globally.

"This International Women's Day, we should go to any village in Yemen and live one day with those hard-working women, honor them and show them some appreciation."

However, despite the advantages of celebrating the March 8, it saddens me that the majority of disadvantaged Yemeni women are left out. It saddens me that in these events, I just see those few educated and elite women. This is not representative of the majority of Yemeni women.

In Yemen the majority of women are illiterate and live in rural areas where they are less connected with media and information sources. Those women won't celebrate the March 8. They have simply never heard about this day, so it is meaningless to them. Actually many Yemeni women would be surprised to know that some countries observe the March 8 as a national holiday.

I feel deeply sad, not because of the meaninglessness of March 8 for most of Yemeni women, but for the hardships they still live in. These women are vulnerable because they are deprived of proper education, of access to health services, of economic independence, and of political and social empowerment.

I was talking to one of my friends who happened to be in Abyan (a Southern Yemeni governorate) where she met local women. Those who follow Yemeni news will know Abyan as a place where a number of terrorist incidents took place. I was really shocked to hear from her how the illiteracy of those women was exploited. The women were providing the terrorists with food and shelters without knowing their bad intentions. The women were simply told that they were guests, and as such they had to give them hospitality (hospitality to the guest is a must and a feature of Yemeni culture. It would be an insult if a guest received no hospitality). Those women live with guilt after knowing they hosted the killers and attackers. "I cannot believe I have indirectly taken part in killing innocent people. I will live with this guilt forever. We are simple illiterate women; we do not know how to differentiate between the terrorist and the innocent. We do not have a clue and nobody has advised us," one of those women explained.

Looking at such a tragic story, it re-enforces the importance of working with mothers. A global initiative that SAVE began last year under the Mothers for Change! campaign calls for counter-terrorism initiatives to work closely with mothers.

Finally, apart from holding conferences, workshops and similar events on International Women’s Day, I wish to celebrate it differently and do something concrete for women who are in need of support and empowerment. For example, if we could just go to any village in Yemen and live one day with those hard-working women, honor them and show them some appreciation.

I just wish on the day of 8th of March that we could connect the Yemeni women with their sisters around the globe - every Yemeni woman would wait for such a day impatiently. Will this day come?

Yemen and the "packages of death": Women's changing role in extremist organizations.

Although one woman's name has been cleared, we must be vigilant about the changing role of women in extremist organizations. Fahmia Al-Fotih gives us a unique insight into Yemeni reactions to the package bombs and analyzes why extremist organizations target women to play key roles in promoting their ideologies.

 Photo: AFP/GETTY via www.telegraph.co.uk. Female students protest the arrest of Hanan Al-Samawi

It has been a year since the founding of the SAVE Yemen chapter and I was hoping to celebrate the 1^st anniversary of SAVE Yemen differently. 

But again, Yemen has been grabbing the international media headlines because of 'infamous' terrorist activities.

Last week’s package bombs mark the first incident of its kind in Yemen, as it involves a woman, a young 22-year old student. The computer science student, Hanan AL-Samawi, had never thought that she would be a suspect of terrorism. Neither did her family or her friends.

Despite the fact that the name of the student has been cleared, the incident has increased fears that AL Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) might have penetrated the university system. At the same time, Yemeni people and human rights activists expressed their fear that counterterrorism measures might be accompanied by violations of human rights.

The students at Sana'a University demonstrated in support of their colleague who, along with her sick mother, was detained by security (female soldiers of the Yemeni Counter Terrorism Unit. For more on this Unit, follow this link http://ht.ly/36tSy).  However, there are some who say that the girl was arrested and investigated by governmental and national bodies.

The 'packages of death' were a shock for everyone, but the shock was even bigger for Yemenis. The involvement of a woman in such an incident was highly provocative in a very conservative society where the names of women are not usually revealed in public, let alone mentioned in connection with such a heinous crime and across the international media.   

More importantly, the incident has raised questions about the possibility of recruiting women within AL Qaeda in Yemen, along a similar vein to Iraq's female suicide bombers or Chechnya’s Black Widows. Many have started to wonder if the time has come for us to start hearing about AL Qaeda’s women.

When Hanan's name was cleared, many speculated a man disguised in women’s clothes might have sent the bomb packages using the personal information of the university student. Others say it might have been a woman seeking revenge (perhaps whose husband was killed by local or foreign security). 

Analysts believe that recruiting women into AL Qaeda in Yemen is contradictory to the religious and ideological beliefs of the organization. AL Qaeda believes in women’s traditional role centered on the family and house, and forbids male-female interaction. However, the call by AL Qaeda’s leaders in Iraq for women to take part in suicide bombing operations marks a turning point in the organization's ideologies and beliefs. The calls for women to join the Jihad are continuing. Some people ironically commented that 'there are some vacancies now within the AL Qaeda organization'.

Terrorists are aware that they are targets and thus their mobility becomes restricted by the need to stay undercover. From this stems the need to use women in the implementation of terrorist operations. In conservative societies, women are less suspicious than men.

Women have played - and still play - an essential role within the organization through logistical support (shelter and food for instance), preaching and spreading AL Qaeda ideologies.

Nowadays, the role of women has surpassed the 'traditional' role and goes beyond the provision of food and shelter. Undeniably, women play a vital role in promoting extremist and terrorist ideologies among community members and mobilizing and allocating money and human resources.

More surprisingly, in recent years, we have started to hear about the key role of women in electronic media in this regard. Alarmingly, a study has revealed that 40% of websites that promote extremist ideologies or who sympathize with AL-Qaeda are run by young women who are between 18-25 years old. The most well-known of those women is Saudi-born Om Osama who, along with her tech-savvy female staff, was running a magazine until she was arrested.  Of course, there are blogs, chat rooms and forums through which recruitment for AL Qaeda is taking place.

Again, a woman to become a suspect in a terrorist act is a new phenomenon in Yemen. Saudi Arabia, however, has already seen three high-profile cases of women becoming involved in terrorist acts and having links with AL Qaeda. The Saudi authorities have captured two of these women (Heela AL-Qaseer and Om Osama). The third - Wafa'a AL-Shahri – escaped from Saudi Arabia to join her husband in AL Qaeda in Yemen.

Yet, the positive thing, I think, is that people have seriously started to question the role of women in fighting terrorism and challenging extremism, which in turn will strengthen the position of SAVE and its mission.

Seeing these events, it is difficult to be anything but pessimistic, but I have faith that there is a hope or miracle out there to save Yemen. That hope or miracle stems from Yemen’s peaceful people, particularly its women.

Women SAVE Pakistan: Empowering Women to Sensitize and Mobilize Against Extremism, with Mossarat Qadeem

On Thursday, October 21, Mossarat Qadeem, Executive Director of the PAIMAN Trust and SAVE Pakistan Coordinator, spoke on SAVE Pakistan’s activities and the vital role women can play in combating violent extremism at the Austrian Embassy in London. Dr. Emil Brix, Austrian Ambassador to the United Kingdom, hosted the event.

Ms. Qadeem, who has over twenty years of experience in working with susceptible youth in stricken regions in the Northwest Frontier and FATA provinces, spoke about her experiences and the best-practice strategies she has developed for combating violent extremism. Here are some of the most striking quotes from her presentation. To read a full summary of the presentation, including Mossarat's experience negotiating with the Taliban and the achievements of the PAIMAN Trust, go to the Women without Borders/SAVE website.

The problem 

 “Extremism in Pakistan is an external problem, because it is being imported by different groups from countries in the region. We have border disputes with India, and Afghanistan feels that Pakistan is responsible for what has been happening in Afghanistan today.”

“We are the victims of psychological warfare. There are different groups within the same religion, who belong to different schools of thought, playing against each other. Then there are the ethnic quarrels, and the social economic clash point – the “haves” against the “have-nots”. We usually lack access to proper knowledge, resources, and economic opportunity, and above all, in Pakistan the lack of awareness in the poorest regions has always been exploited.”

“30,000 people have already been killed because of this war on terror that we have become a part of, and 50,000 people are missing. The threat still looms that there may be a recurrence in Fatah and even in Swat and we fear that we are exporting extremism."

The role of  women

“It is very important to concentrate on the role of women in their families and in     

their communities. Women are extremely marginalized. They were not allowed 

to go to school, and their mobility was highly restricted.”

                                                                                                                                 “Now this is the important part. It was not possible to think that by empowering              

women, we really can end this. But believe me, it is possible. No one actually 

recognizes the role of women. They are part of the problem so they can be part 

of the solution.”

“Because of the restrictions on mobility we don't have the indigenous support; 

people don't support women coming out of the house and playing a role in 

rehabilitation, peacemaking and peace-building, so we lack skills as peace 

nuilders and the knowledge to transform the conflict into something peaceful. 

We lack these sources and of course, we lack the culture and a true leadership 

that can support women to come out and help reintegration, rehabilitation, or 

prevention of more people becoming radicalized and extremists.”

The Project

“We tried to analyze the role of women. Then we tried to strengthen the role women             can play in combating extremism within the culture and society, where extremism has impacted everyone. We tried to convert weaknesses into strengths. We developed the need for peace from within. You cannot impose peace from outside, you have to build the need for peace from within that community, from within the individuals as instruments to end that violent extremism. We're also trying to provide a platform for women to act, to bring peace into their lives and into their communities. Under this program we have established a center for conflict resolution and peace building. We train male and female youths, not only from Universities but also women from the same community. So far, we have formed 70 youth groups, and we also have subsidised women. Women’s peace groups have formed - we have some 51 women’s peace groups in Fata. These peace practitioners work together at different levels in the same society. Through them we have been able to reach out to 35,000 male and female youth and over 2,000 women.”

“We have been directing these women on the impacts of extremism on their lives and on the lives of their male children. We explain to them that Islam has nothing to do with the extremists. Through one women’s group, we reached out to 75 boys. They were so disappointed with this whole situation, they thought they are being besieged by the extremists on 1 side and by their own mother on the other hand. But now they are with us; we're trying to give them working skills, skills that they asked for and we're also trying to give them direction.”

The role of men 

“We need to educate the men in the family to accept women as peace builders. We may need to desensitize through disorientation sessions through the mullah in the mosque. We went to the mullah first and we put him to our side, then the elders in the community and neighbors. We tried to sensitize the children in the way that yes, we are going to talk about this, and we are going to be open about this.”                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                            

“A woman cannot go against the wishes of her husband, so we never worked that way. We work in a sensitive way, and we first make men understand that the role of a woman is very important, and they are still working for it.”

What you can do

“As far as resources, of course a lot of financial resource are needed, but otherwise you can support the women morally. Send them messages, because this is right now when they come to us. They are so disappointed, not only with themselves but with the whole society that they belong in. So, this acceptance is very, very important. So if you can just send these messages to these women so that they stay on guard, we will definitely forward that to them with translations.”

Power-Hungry Few Exploit Students and Faculty in the Name of Religion, by Arshi Saleem Hashmi

On April 1, students from Punjab University and members of the Islami Jamiat Tulaba attacked Professor Iftikhar Baloch, beating him with metal rods and hitting him over the head with a giant flower pot. Baloch had expelled those students earlier in the month for disruptive activities, and it is assumed that they were taking revenge. Arshi Saleem Hashmi is a Senior Research Analyst at the Institute of Regional Studies in Islamabad and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the National Defense University of Islamabad, and she shares her thoughts regarding this event here.


What happened at Punjab University campus was shameful, and Pakistanis felt insulted and humiliated when a few hooligans under the patronage of the Islami Jamiate Taliba (IJT), a student wing of Jamat-e-Islami seriously injured Professor Baloch on April 1, 2010 because he was against their highhandedness and was vocal against the abuse of university campus for malicious objectives.

There are two important aspects to this unfortunate incident: one, it shows the “power” of the very few radical beings who still believe in a very narrow interpretation of Islam. They feel that they would transform society according to their version of Islam, thus working as the custodians of morality in the Pakistan.


Second, Pakistani society is going through a battle of ideas, between lawlessness and democracy. Intolerance towards different ideas is yet another reason for this kind of behavior, where a minority group using aggression tries to make others accept their ideas—the choice is to accept them or else be ready to face the music. In the past, minority groups like these have been used by the regimes, not just General Zia’s military regime but later on, when democracy arrived in the country in the 1990s, the power and exploitation of these so-called Islamists was not contained by any administration. No substantive effort was taken to control aggression in the name of religion. It was only when Taliban took over Swat and Pakistan had to take a decision whether to continue ignoring this creeping threat of intolerance and extremism or to take action. Only in 2009 did the Parliament approve the motion in favor of military operations in Swat and tribal areas.


A ban on student politics on campus provided the opportunity to utilize this opportunity. Islami Jamiate Taliba posed as an Islamic group so only they remained active on campus while all other student bodies were banned on the pretext that they were affiliated with political parties. IJT’s political affiliation with Jamat-e-Islami was always ignored and nobody dared to ask the legality of their presence on the campus, fearing this might turned the opinion against them. Anybody criticizing an “Islamic organization” was easily branded anti-Islam. I still remember in the 1990s, when I was a student in the Department of International Relations at University of Karachi and Islami Jamiat Taliba was the only organization allowed operating on campus for unknown reasons, I used to loudly criticize the members of IJT for interfering in our personal life, how to conduct ourselves was none of their business. During a student trip to northern areas, when some of the sympathizers tried to separate girls and boys during the outing, I protested and told them not to make this trip a Jamat-e-Islami tour. If the parents of the girls and boys allowed them to go and explore the country for a week, live in hotels and youth hostel, trusting them completely, who were these so called custodians of Islam to check! Moderate Pakistanis, who are the majority of this country, have been fighting for many years now for their right to live peaceful, moderate, and tolerant lives. They are not at all interested in extremism of any kind, but unfortunately we are made hostage of the ideas of the few.


The issue here is that change does not come when a presidential system changes into parliamentary system or a military dictatorship is rejected in favor of democracy. It does mean a lot, but real change only comes when the society at large accepts the very basic ideas of tolerance, interfaith harmony, pluralism and moderation. Enlightment is nothing but having these ideas accepted by every individual of a society; it does not mean that people have to give up on their faith or belief system, but it rather provides an environment to give space to others.


Pakistani society is still confused. Although the majority believes in pluralism and religious harmony, the impression of the past three decades are so deep that it will take time for the majority to break their silence and any religious or political notion based on narrow interpretation will be completely rejected. Right now, there is no support for the radicals, but still—when religion enters the debate, people tend to remain silent rather than raising their voice against wrong interpretation of Islam. Pakistan will get back to its real self, i.e. a moderate Muslim state, when a forceful, collective voice against the abuse of religion in politics will emerge by the people.




Arshi Saleem Hashmi is a founding member of SAVE Pakistan, and she also works as a Senior Research Analyst at the Institute of Regional Studies in Islamabad and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the National Defense University of Islamabad. To read more about the incident with Iftikar Baloch, see the full story published in the New York Times at the following link. The Nation, Pakistan has also been covering this story extensively. You can find their website here. The Dawn Media Group has also followed this story from the beginning. 


To learn more about Women without Borders / SAVE, please visit our website at www.women-without-borders.org or email us at office@women-without-borders.org. You can also find us on Facebook or on Twitter, at www.twitter.com/SAVEalerts!