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Desperation Drives Iraq's Female Bombers

Death of insurgents leaves female relatives feeling suicide is their only option

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Jul 5, 2008 7:53 AM CDT
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(Newser) – Female suicide bombings are on the rise in Iraq's restive Diyala province, the New York Times reports, and success in combating al-Qaeda may be the cause. Many local insurgents have been killed or detained, leaving their surviving female relatives with little hope for the future. They often come under great pressure to give their own lives for the cause.

Eleven of the 20 female suicide bombings in Iraq so far this year were in Diyala, where the conservative Sunni culture keeps women in subordinate roles. Some bombs were detonated by remote control. "I feel these women are really victims of terrorism,” said an Iraqi woman who wants to start a program to remove possible female bombers to shelters. “Only women in despair, in desperate situations, would do this."

Iraqi women line up for food rations distributed by the Iraqi Army to displaced families who have recently returned to their homes in Iraq's volatile Diyala province on Thursday, July 3, 2008.
Iraqi women line up for food rations distributed by the Iraqi Army to displaced families who have recently returned to their homes in Iraq's volatile Diyala province on Thursday, July 3, 2008.   (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
U.S. Army soldiers stroll through Forward Operating Base Warhorse as a sandstorm blankets Baqouba, capital of Iraq's volatile Diyala province, July 1, 2008.
U.S. Army soldiers stroll through Forward Operating Base Warhorse as a sandstorm blankets Baqouba, capital of Iraq's volatile Diyala province, July 1, 2008.   (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
A woman grieves for her relative at a hospital morgue in Baqouba, the capital of Iraq's Diyala province, 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad, Tuesday, July 1, 2008.
A woman grieves for her relative at a hospital morgue in Baqouba, the capital of Iraq's Diyala province, 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad, Tuesday, July 1, 2008.   (AP Photo)
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US program aims to prevent bombings by helping Iraqi women
CNN

Female suicide bomber kills 15 in Diyala
Washington Post

 
Iraq • Diyala • suicide bomber • suicide bombing • Sunni insurgents • female suicide bomber • al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia • al-Qaeda in Iraq

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