UK professor to conduct study of female suicide bombers

A UK professor plans to undertake a first-of-its-kind global study of failed female suicide bombers languishing in jails around the world to gain valuable insights into what inspires women to carry out terror attacks.

Helen Gavin, from University of Huddersfield in northern England, is considered an authority on female aggression and what draws women into terrorism.

Her latest study is aimed at finding out why women may be inspired to blow themselves up, taking innocent victims with them.

“We see young girls leaving the UK and going to Syria, for example, and we do not know why they have gone and whether they are being radicalised,” Ms Gavin said. “We will be looking at women who have been arrested and convicted of violent crime around the world. We intend to talk to female offenders,” she said in reference to her planned research.

Any women terrorists interviewed will be those who failed in their objective to carry out suicide bombings, but the researchers still expect to gain valuable insights.

Women tend to make ideal suicide bomber recruits for terrorism chiefs because they can easily pass through checkpoints and slip into busy public places without arousing suspicion.

Ms Gavin believes clear gender differences can be drawn with a distinction between the urges to “avenge”, for a wider cause, and “revenge” for more personal motives.

“Although women are just as susceptible to ideological motivation, men seem to be drawn into suicide terrorism for ‘avenge’ purposes... Whereas women tend to need ‘revenge’ because they have lost a loved one, often a husband,” Ms Gavin said.

A recent study found more than 200 women suicide bombers have blown themselves up since June 2014, killing more than 1,000 people in Nigeria.