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Abstract
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Friedman (2008) noted that American news media has paid a great deal of attention to female suicide bombers in recent years. Friedman examined a sample of reports from 2002 to 2004 to see how these women were portrayed and found five typical motives: (1) strategic desirability, (2) the influence of men, (3) revenge, (4) desperation, and (5) liberation. Friedman was also interested in how the news reports reinforced or challenged popular beliefs about women and war.
The orientation of Friedman's study was the behavior of the news media and journalists and how their biases influence public opinion. In contrast, the present paper explores what we can learn about female suicide bombers from the reports of journalists. Since suicide bombers, unless captured on the way to their goal, are deceased, they are unavailable for study. As a result, the use of open- source information, such as reports in the media, becomes of great importance (Lee, David & Noji, 2007).
In the case of female suicide bombers, the relative scarcity of female cases makes understanding their motives even more difficult. Psychologists rarely have the opportunity to interview female suicide bombers, and so the reports from journalists may provide important clues to the psychodynamics of these women. The present paper is based on reports about female suicide bombers downloaded from The New York Times using www.lexisnexis.com and the search term "female suicide bomber" (accessed May 13, 2010). Seventy-six articles were listed and downloaded. These articles were read for information pertaining to the past history and motivations of the females. The majority of articles simply noted that the suicide bomber was female, but a few included details of her life. All of those with relevant information are cited in the included case descriptions.
Journalist reports, mainly from the New York Times, are used to identify the motives behind female suicide bombers: post-traumatic stress, feelings of burdensomeness, feeling of hopeless and despair, and a desire to transform their image in their families and communities.
Keywords: female suicide bombers, motives, media, journalists
Copyrights belong to the Author(s). Suicidology Online (SOL) is a peer-reviewed open-access journal publishing under the Creative Commons Licence 3.0.p /> |