Involvement of Women
The "male-militancy path" has met with greater social acceptance in Palestinian society than the "female/grassroots path". Women in particular have increasingly associated political violence with expanded citizenship rights due to the perceived failure of nonmilitaristic tactics to achieve political goals, primary amongst these, the achievement of Palestinian autonomy.
The profile of the female Palestinian suicide bombers has been the subject of study by Katherine VanderKaay, who presented her profiling of the subjects at the American Psychological Association's annual meeting. While the first suicide bombing undertaken by a Palestinian took place in 1994, the first female suicide bomber from among Palestinian society did not emerge until January 2002. The bomber was Wafa Idris, a paramedic, reported to be 28, secular, Westernised and only nominally religious.
Read more about this topic: Palestinian Political Violence
Famous quotes containing the words involvement and/or women:
“It may be tempting to focus on the fact that, even among those who support equality, men’s involvement as fathers remains a far distance from what most women want and most children need. Yet it is also important to acknowledge how far and how fast many men have moved towards a pattern that not long ago virtually all men considered anathema.”
—Katherine Gerson (20th century)
“...I lost myself in my work and never felt that marriage would give me the security I wanted. I thought that through the trade union movement we working women could get better conditions and security of mind.”
—Mary Anderson (1872–1964)