ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the self-portrayal of Palestinian female suicide bombers during the Second Intifada. It examines the written testaments and visual documents of three women who carried out their acts with the support of the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas. The analysis focuses on the question of gender in their self-portrayal. Three theses emerge from the findings: (1) Gender played an important role in their decision to carry out a suicide bomb attack. The female bombers assumed that – because they were women – their act would enable them to make a major contribution to the resistance. (2) The women were conscious that they were breaking prevailing gender norms in Palestine with their act. This awareness sometimes led to apologetic remarks with regard to suicide bombing. (3) The visual documents in particular underline the possibility of reading martyrdom as the ultimate fulfillment of patriarchal motherhood, while shattering the myth of the peaceful woman at the same time.
