October 13, 2008.
There is a ceasefire in Gaza, but the BBC has found evidence of militant groups
preparing for a return to violence. One group, Islamic Jihad, is training female
suicide bombers.
Middle East correspondent Paul Wood went to meet a Palestinian woman who
has volunteered.
The young, veiled woman was sitting quiet and still as the room bustled
around her. The black flag of Islamic Jihad was pinned on the wall behind her
and two Kalashnikovs were carefully placed in camera shot. Her husband, an
Islamic Jihad fighter himself, tied on her “martyr’s” headband.
Umm Anas – not her real name – had just graduated from a programme to train
female suicide bombers in Gaza.
Our meeting was a highly-orchestrated propaganda event laid on by
Islamic Jihad. It was almost theatre – and certainly Israel accuses the Palestinian
leadership of manipulating young women like 18-year-old Umm Anas.
Yet, although she nervously twisted her wedding ring, Umm Anas did not
appear to be a cipher. She was articulate – more so than the men staging the
event – and she knew her own mind.
Secret ambition
When she spoke of becoming a suicide bomber, Umm Anas’s voice was strong
and steady: “This is a gift from God. “We were created to become martyrs for
God,” she continued, her eyes burning behind the full face veil. “All the
Palestinian people were created to fight in God’s name. If we just throw stones
at the Jews they get scared. Imagine what happens when body parts fly at
them.”
The bomb belt which she hopes will end her life – and kill many Israelis – rested
on the table next to us. Her main motivation in becoming a suicide bomber
appears to be religious rather than nationalistic – the fulfilment of a long-held
ambition. Even getting married recently hadn’t changed her mind. “When my
husband married me, he knew my way of thinking. He knew exactly who I am
and based on this he decided to marry me. Marriage doesn’t give me a second’s
doubt.”
I asked if that would alter if she became pregnant. “I would wait until I
delivered the baby,” she said. “I would give him to my parents and ask them to
look after him… Then I would leave them and the baby would remain behind as
a piece of me.”
Her parents, brothers and sisters did not know. “Martyrs – male or
female – have to work in secret. No one can know about it. We have to be
careful not to give our parents any sign of what we are about to do.
“Sometimes, maybe, they can tell and see on your face the signs of martyrdom.
They are suspicious but they don’t know for certain.” Ready for death
Umm Anas thinks she knows the manner of her death, but she doesn’t know
the timing. She is waiting for the collapse of the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire
between Israel and Hamas, the Islamic movement which rules Gaza.
Islamic Jihad accepted the ceasefire, but accuses Israel of readying for
another large incursion into Gaza. Israel meanwhile accuses militant groups of
using the pause to refit and rearm.
“There is a clear Zionist decision and trend to end and break the lull,” said an
Islamic Jihad spokesman last month. This, says the organisation, is why it has
been running its secret training programme for female suicide bombers. They
want to be ready.
Trainees are being prepared to attack invading Israeli soldiers. But would Umm
Anas be ready to walk into a restaurant full of civilians, too, and blow herself
up?
“Israeli soldiers, of course… are the easier target when they come here,
but civilians too because both civilians and soldiers took our land.”
But wouldn’t she have any difficulty killing people not holding a gun?
Wouldn’t she feel pity for women and children? “It is not important because all
of them have violated our land. Children are civilians, but they grow up to
become soldiers… They are all brought up to hate us. Palestine is only for
Palestinians. We must kick them all out in any way we can.”
Propaganda of fear
The use of Palestinian women as suicide bombers was once thought of as
immodest – and therefore un-Islamic – but that changed, the militant groups say,
because of shortage of male candidates and because women were better able
to get close to their targets.
That’s the official explanation, but female bombers also have much greater
propaganda impact. Their participation in suicide attacks was made possible by
religious rulings in Gaza.
Chairman of the Muslim Scholars Association Marwan Abu Ras told the
BBC there were many precedents in Islamic history for women joining military
operations. “We do not encourage death,” he said. “Islam prohibits you from
harming yourself, even to cause a small cut in your finger, but now we are
fighting a war of resistance. “If one nation violates another nation’s land, it is
the obligation of everyone – men, women, and children – to fight back.”
Finally, I asked Umm Anas if she was ever able to put out of her mind what she
was about to do. “I never stop thinking of this,” she said. “I take each step
carefully because I know I am going to sacrifice myself. Martyrs must pray all
the time. They must fast. “There are many duties to perform before we are
ready to face God. I am trying not to make any mistakes so that I do not miss
this opportunity.”
