Expect sharp rise in suicide attacks by women in Iraq: US expert

[Barrett808]

Source: AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The number of suicide attacks by women in Iraq has risen sharply this year and can be expected to spike again in the coming months, a US expert in terrorism said Monday.

"Between January and April, there were 12 suicide attacks by women in Iraq. That marks an exponential increase," Farhana Ali, a US international policy analyst of Pakistani origin, told AFP after a symposium on terrorism at the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting in Washington.

More women carried out suicide attacks in Iraq in the first few months of this year than in between 2003 and 2007, when there were just 11 suicide bombers in the country, according to Ali.

"So long as this conflict continues, you will see greater instability in Iraq and women will be greatly victimized -- you will see more women in Iraq choose suicide terrorism in the next few months," she predicted. ... Iraqi women, slowly, over the course of the conflict have been marginalized," she told AFP. "They were at the forefront of their society. They were in the Iraqi cabinet, in government, in NGOs. We stripped them of those opportunities. Many have left but those who stayed behind are also victims of rape and torture and kidnapping. So they are being victimized twice," she said.

"Women use attacks as a protest. In Iraq, they are protesting at the loss of their men, the loss of their society and the loss of their country," said Ali.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080505/wl_mideast_afp/usiraqterrorismwomenhealthpsychiatry

---

The expected sharp rise seems to be well underway.

[FormerOstrich]

1. There hasn't been a day

since our invasion that I don't think of the horror we have inflicted on my Iraqi sisters. Anytime I am bellyaching about something about how much dust seems to accumulate I realize how petty and insignificant my pissy problems are and my heart breaks.