Women Fight For Right To Join Al Qaeda

Extremist Who Says Women's Place Is In The Home Draws Backlash From Female Jihadists

(AP)  Muslim extremist women are challenging al Qaeda's refusal to include - or at least acknowledge - women in its ranks, in an emotional debate that gives rare insight into the gender conflicts lurking beneath one of the strictest strains of Islam.

In response to a female questioner, al Qaeda No. 2 leader Ayman Al-Zawahri said in April that the terrorist group does not have women. A woman's role, he said on the Internet audio recording, is limited to caring for the homes and children of al Qaeda fighters.

His remarks have since prompted an outcry from fundamentalist women, who are fighting or pleading for the right to be terrorists. The statements have also created some confusion, because in fact suicide bombings by women seem to be on the rise, at least within the Iraq branch of al Qaeda.

A'eeda Dahsheh is a Palestinian mother of four in Lebanon who said she supports al-Zawahri and has chosen to raise children at home as her form of jihad. However, she said, she also supports any woman who chooses instead to take part in terror attacks.

Another woman signed a more than 2,000-word essay of protest online as Rabeebat al-Silah, Arabic for "Companion of Weapons."

"How many times have I wished I were a man ... When Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahri said there are no women in al Qaeda, he saddened and hurt me," wrote "Companion of Weapons," who said she listened to the speech 10 times. "I felt that my heart was about to explode in my chest...I am powerless."

Such postings have appeared anonymously on discussion forums of Web sites that host videos from top al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. While the most popular site requires names and passwords, many people use only nicknames, making their identities and locations impossible to verify.

However, groups that monitor such sites say the postings appear credible because of the knowledge and passion they betray. Many appear to represent computer-literate women arguing in the most modern of venues - the Internet - for rights within a feudal version of Islam.

"Women were very disappointed because what al-Zawahri said is not what's happening today in the Middle East, especially in Iraq or in Palestinian groups," said Rita Katz, director of the SITE Intelligence Group, an organization that monitors militant Web sites. "Suicide operations are being carried out by women, who play an important role in jihad."

It's not clear how far women play a role in al Qaeda because of the group's amorphous nature.

Terrorism experts believe there are no women in the core leadership ranks around bin Laden and al-Zawahri. But beyond that core, al Qaeda is really a movement with loosely linked offshoots in various countries and sympathizers who may not play a direct role. Women are clearly among these sympathizers, and some are part of the offshoot groups.

In the Iraq branch, for example, women have carried out or attempted at least 20 suicide bombings since 2003. Al Qaeda members suspected of training women to use suicide belts were captured in Iraq at least three times last year, the U.S. military has said.

Hamas, another militant group, is open about using women fighters and disagrees with al Qaeda's stated stance. At least 11 Palestinian women have launched suicide attacks in recent years.

"A lot of the girls I speak to ... want to carry weapons. They live with this great frustration and oppression," said Huda Naim, a prominent women's leader, Hamas member and Palestinian lawmaker in Gaza. "We don't have a special militant wing for women ... but that doesn't mean that we strip women of the right to go to jihad."

Al-Zawahri's remarks show the fine line al Qaeda walks in terms of public relations. In a modern Arab world where women work even in some conservative countries, al Qaeda's attitude could hurt its efforts to win over the public at large. On the other hand, noted SITE director Katz, al-Zawahri has to consider that many al Qaeda supporters, such as the Taliban, do not believe women should play a military role in jihad.

Al-Zawahri's comments came in a two-hour audio recording posted on an Islamic militant Web site, where he answered hundreds of questions sent in by al Qaeda sympathizers. He praised the wives of mujahedeen, or holy warriors. He also said a Muslim woman should "be ready for any service the mujahedeen need from her," but advised against traveling to a war front like Afghanistan without a male guardian.

Al-Zawahri's stance might stem from personal history, as well as religious beliefs. His first wife and at least two of their six children were killed in a U.S. air strike in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar in 2001. He later accused the U.S. of intentionally targeting women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I say to you ... (I have) tasted the bitterness of American brutality: my favorite wife's chest was crushed by a concrete ceiling," he wrote in a 2005 letter.

Al-Zawahri's question-and-answer campaign is one sign of al Qaeda's sophistication in using the Web to keep in touch with its popular base, even while its leaders remain in hiding. However, the Internet has also given those disenfranchised by al Qaeda - in this case, women - a voice they never had before.

[petro49l]

Al Qada is a group of misogynistic, homosexual killers. Women and children are often their victims. A.Q. hallucinates about anarchy, world domination, and torture. Their bizarre minds cannot grasp mercy, culture, or order. Bin Laden is the lead monster who should be captured and punished.

[sear1ngtruth]

So what is CBS trying to tell us?
That Al- Queada is right, or that they should allow women martyrs.

Why doesn''t CBS denounce the whole terrorist thing altogether, instead of making it out to be a women''s rights issue?
ST

[husein_pasha]

It may be true, in the country where I live, although the women don`t participate actively in the politics, they are the most "fire" political fans. Our secular wives are the biggest fans of the secular idea, they are speak much more than us, while the religous women are the most aggressive Islamists, much more aggressive than the men, they publically confront the secular regime, ruin signs of the secularidm but promoting frminism in the same time

[husein_pasha]

Moreover, they show their opposition to the secular order by wearing religious clothes at school, university, workplace... But they are feminists" they tudy, they work

[husein_pasha]

feelfree, Bush regime brang the Sharia to Iraq

[jboxton]

Good God, just let the kids, women, dogs whatever in. The more of them we kill the better I feel.

[jboxton]

Good God, just let the kids, women, dogs whatever in. The more of them we kill the better I feel.

[patriotic9]

They better not start offering 72 virgin men for a woman suicide bomber, otherwise we will see a lot of female school teachers from our own country joining alqaeda.

[kennergirl]

If I put myself in their shoes this is what I would see....

A woman who has no rights at all, who is beneath her husband or any other man that she may come in contact with. She has no say in anything.

I guess they do want to kill themselves! And in what a better way than to be considered a martyr. You get out of your miserable life and would be considered a hero.

[tbweb]

Jihad is not exclusive to men.
--Umm Farouq

WHAT? Are you kidding me? Equal rights for suicide bombers! lol Just when you think you heard it all!

[beehive21-2009]

She looks like a witch,wheres the broom ? Last time we heard,women were,killing innocent people,with Bombs attached.Whats it Say ? The women are brainwashed too.Robots for the Clerics,who love Fairytales, like the holy book they use to follow ,before the were paid to blow up people, women kids,babies at Funerals,Weddings they are Cowards,bombs away,fools.

[gmond]

Seems to me that if they want equal rights, they would have to first denounce their own religion. Talk about having your cake and eating it too..

[petro49l]

American Soldiers build their bodies by bench pressing 500 pounds of steel. Al Qada Women admire brute strength, physique, and courage. They cannot stand being married to dry, tasteless skinny men with bodies like twigs. A.Q. should face the facts. Women do not respect worthless failures.

[yongamerica]

A woman''s role, he said on the Internet audio recording, is limited to caring for the homes and children of al Qaeda fighters.

... And blowing up market stalls killing other women and children

[yongamerica]

If we invited them over to your place for the contest, I would say that they would all be deserving of some praise.

Posted by FeelFree4U

And why don''t you stand in the middle of them and be the judge?

[petro49l]

Hey FeelFree, save your micropenis comments.

[feelfree4u]

RE: "Hey FeelFree, save your micropenis comments."

Posted by Petro49L

I didn''t make any.

Sounds like you are projecting your own insecurities again.

[downtowner97]

Does anyone actually believe this? Like Rumsfeld says, we need to be attacked again so we can appreciate our government.

[jerr11]

If women are allowed to join Al Qaeda, does that mean they get 72 virgin men when they die?

Might be hard to find all these virgins!

LOL

[xraytwonine]

what a joke

[demwatcher]

I don''t have a problem with them wanting to join. Guided missiles are equal opportunity.

What is even better is that they will die and not be able to breed any more "little johnnie jihads".

[feelfree4u]

RE: "This is actually comical."

Posted by MyOpinion1

You can say that again. Anything coming from the SITE Group or IntelCenter can be pretty easily dismissed as a demented joke.

Just more nonsense geared to scare the gullible into surrendering hard-fought rights, and to provide an excuse for murdering, maiming, and torturing more brown people for no good reason.

[minnick8-2009]

People who hate America and everything American should turn off their computers and log off the Internet. Where do these computer literate women think computers and the Internet came from? Do they think Islam grew them? They are such hypocrates. They should also park their cars, turn off their electric lights, refrigerators, stoves, and get rid of their telephones and cell phones. If they don''t want anything from the Satan America they should boycott all of it.

As for women who want to be terrorists in equality with their low life men, have at it, we can kill them too.

[minnick8-2009]

my favorite wife''s chest was crushed by a concrete ceiling," he wrote in a 2005 letter. From the Article in reference to Al-Zawahri''s.

In other words, the wife with the biggest boobs. Fortunately thee were several others (wives) to replace the one that was crushed.

[feelfree4u]

One of the more absurd items in this propaganda ooga-booga piece has to be the photograph.

If this woman had really planned to be a suicide-bomber, but then changed her mind, would someone really be foolish enough to don the explosives once again for a photo?

The regime has relied on poor reasoning skills to sell their fake war of terror so far, but it looks like more and more folks are wising up, and realizing that the terrorists that we need concern ourselves with at the moment, are those of the regime.

Our domestic threats far outweigh our foreign ones.

[feelfree4u]

Re: "A lot of the girls I speak to ... want to carry weapons. They live with this great frustration and oppression," said Huda Naim, a prominent women''s leader, Hamas member and Palestinian lawmaker in Gaza. "We don''t have a special militant wing for women ... but that doesn''t mean that we strip women of the right to go to jihad."

I certainly couldn''t fault them for that, but there is no mention of any bomb here, and and the Democratically elected majority government of Hamas is not al-Qaeda, so why is this in any way relevant?

Did Rita Katz decide to throw that in?

Does this have anything to do with the unarmed Palestinian civilians that were slaughtered by Israeli troops yesterday, as they were demonstrating against the Israeli Gaza blockade and the Israelis opened fire?

Did I miss your article on that, CBS?

Looks like someone is trying very hard to "link" the al-CIA''duh network to the Palestinians'' legitimate grievances against the Israeli extremists.


Israeli Apartheid must end.

[feelfree4u]

Re: "His first wife and at least two of their six children were killed in a U.S. air strike in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar in 2001."

Really? So we just summarily executed his wife and children for no reason, and with no effect?

That''s some beacon of freedom.

[feelfree4u]

Re: "He later accused the U.S. of intentionally targeting women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Well, we know that''s true.

That''s old news.

Also lengthy imprisonment with no charges, and of course torture, rape, and soddomy.

[feelfree4u]

Re: "Another woman, Umm Farouq, or mother of Farouq, wrote: "I use my pen and words, my honest emotions ... Jihad is not exclusive to men."

Excellent! "Pen and words" for "Jihad". I guess that shows once and for all that Jihad" does not necessarily equate to violence. King Bush could learn a lot from this woman.

Re: "Such women are al Qaeda sympathizers who would not feel comfortable expressing themselves with men or others outside their circles, said Dia''a Rashwan, an expert on terrorism and Islamic movements at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo."

Whoa!!!! Whoa there!!!!

How did this alleged "expert" determine who this woman(?)- could have been anyone, since it was on the Internet- how did he determine who she "sympathizes" with from this comment?

How did he figure out who she is and isn''t "comfortable" with?

Is this guy like a palm-pilot reader or something?

Is this guy really an expert, or does he just make it up as he goes along?

[cdfoxtrot]

Perhaps they SHOULD let women join. Then they can look forward to focus groups and touchy-feely sessions where everyone has to make embarrassing speeches and get in touch with their "inner" self. And nothing will get done. And the West will be able to breathe a sigh of relief.

[feelfree4u]

Re: "By Associated Press writer Lauren Frayer; AP writer Pakinam Amer contributed to this report from Cairo; AP writer Diaa Hadid contributed from the Gaza Strip; and AP writer Zeina Karam contributed from Beirut, Lebanon."

My mistake. There are authors named in this, uh, report.

Did it really take 4 people in 4 different countries, along with Rita Ktz from SITE and the other phony "experts" cited, to assemble this steaming mound of propaganda?

Funny how "al-Qaeda" is suddenly getting so active, right when Mr. McClellan releases his book.

[feelfree4u]

Re: "The magazine is published by a group that calls itself the "women''s information office in the Arab peninsula," and its contents include articles on women''s terrorist training camps, according to SITE."

Are those training camp articles written by Rita Katz, by any chance?

[randynason]

We have killed women and children indiscriminately, so it''s not hard to believe that they should be easy marks to be recruited. When you''ve already lost it all, what else is left?

[minnick8-2009]

Are you as outraged about the LSD Church and the other polygamy nutters, or just Muslims?
Posted by FeelFree4U

I really despise the FLDS and the polygamist sect in the US as much as the Muslims.

I grew my dislike for Muslim men as a young woman in the U.S. military when I was stationed in Germany all the back in 1970. Middle Eastern men hung out on the streets there, and it was not possible to venture downtown Franfurt without being harrassed by filthy, veering, men who were obviously of Middle Eastern descent. I later learned that because I didn''t have my head covered up, they assumed I was a prostitute. I just remember they were dirty, and leering, and veering, and totally disgusting. Since that time, my opinion of them has only gone down.

I grew my dislike for the FLDS when my mother got involved with them and took my younger brothers to be indoctrinated into that lifestyle for their "salvation." When I was out of the military, I got custody of my brothers at age 24; they were 14. Unfortunately, they were so damaged by then, there wasn''t much I could do to help them. I learned that one of their "leaders," had regularly beaten my brothers with a 2 X 4. I was really angry at my mother for a lot of years, but now, thankfully, she is dead.

[feelfree4u]

minnick8,

Re: "I really despise the FLDS and the polygamist sect in the US as much as the Muslims."

Well, at least you are an equal opportunity despiser.

So, you hate Muslims. Your comments make more sense now.

Re: "I learned that one of their "leaders," had regularly beaten my brothers with a 2 X 4. I was really angry at my mother for a lot of years, but now, thankfully, she is dead."

Yikes!

I''d say the FLDS 2 X 4 job sounds a lot worse than getting dirty looks from some Arab-looking guys.

It doesn''t make sense to me though that you would hate a billion people just because you thought these guys were being rude to you.

[minnick8-2009]

It doesn''''t make sense to me though that you would hate a billion people just because you thought these guys were being rude to you.
Posted by FeelFree4U

Are they not wanting to destroy America and our way of life? Do they not treat their women despicably? Are they not looking for every opportunity to attack America and its allies? So, when they get to my front door, what, I should love them? Forget it.

[minnick8-2009]

because you thought these guys were being rude to you.
Posted by FeelFree4U

They were filthy, leering, leacherous, and would try to reach out and touch with no invitation or provocation. I came from a small town in the West and I had never been exposed so such despicable treatment, not even from male soldiers in the military. That impression that was made has only been reinforced with the developments that have occurred since 9/11.

[minnick8-2009]

So, when they get to my front door, what, I should love them? Forget it.

Posted by minnick8

I hope they never get to my front door; I hope we Nuke them before that happens.

[feelfree4u]

minnick8,

Re: "Are they not wanting to destroy America and our way of life?"

Nope. There have been millions of Muslims living in the U.S. for a long time. Ever have one give you problems, try to cut your head off, insist that you convert, cover-up, or whatever?

I don''t know anyone that has had any problems like that.

Re: "Do they not treat their women despicably?"

Most organized religions have been repressing women for a long, long time. The Catholics just did it again, yesterday.

Re: "Are they not looking for every opportunity to attack America and its allies?"

Nope. Most of them just seem to want to live peacefully, like most folks, without being tortured, maimed, and killed by U.S. and Israeli weapons.

Re: "So, when they get to my front door, what, I should love them?"

I don''t know how or why you would think that might happen, or why it hasn''t happened yet, if you are that worried about it.

[feelfree4u]

minnick8,

Re: "They were filthy, leering, leacherous, and would try to reach out and touch with no invitation or provocation. I came from a small town in the West and I had never been exposed so such despicable treatment..."

Try any night club in any big town in the West, and I think that you''ll find this kind of behavior more common than you might think, and definitely not restricted to Muslim men.

[feelfree4u]

minnick8,

Re: "I hope they never get to my front door; I hope we Nuke them before that happens."

So you hope we kill a billion or so people, in countries around the globe, for no particular reason, and you are telling me that they are the dangerous ones?

How about the millions living peacefully in the U.S.?

Round them up for execution?

You know that most Muslims are not Arabs, right?

[feelfree4u]

minnick8,

The main thing to keep in mind about these IntelCenter and SITE Institute videos, audios, and whatever, is that they are fake.

Nothing to get worked up about.

[feelfree4u]

minnick8,

Re: "I had never been exposed so such despicable treatment, not even from male soldiers in the military."

Things must have changed a lot since ''70.

Nearly 1 in 3 women in today''s armed forces have indicated that they experience a rape or attempted rape by their fellow soldiers, in fairly recent polling.

[gurusavant]

historically, it has proven, that women who depended on men to protect them, have not advanced and have not established themselves as free human beings within society and have not created a society where they govern and are protected by laws they create (the way men have). women who have in the past stood aside and let men take over the battles, have given in to the laws and rules that they establish thereafter, oppressing them, and putting them in worse and worse places. socially as well as spiritually and emotioanlly.

[husein_pasha]

I`m not an Islamist but I claim that the benefit of the existence of the women is that they bring children to the world and can give us pleasure. I don`t understand this feminism,: what do you waNT? Aren`t you pleased thert we feed you, we buy clothes for you, we sleep with you? The law may give equal rights for the men and women but the women haven`t done anything great like the men. Learn where your place is and shut up

[DaveGress]

Isn''t religion wonderous! It even brainwashes people they exclude. ROFLMAO. Hey if everyone joined Islame then there''d be no overpopulation worries!

Can someone please invent a pied piper for muslims that will lead them all in to an active volcano?

[DaveGress]

What''s more it is said that all Muslims have to look forward to is Jihad. Me, I look to the simple things in life. I''m reminded of the scarecrows plight in ''Wizard of Oz''. He sang ''If I only had a brain''. If only muslims had a brain. Imagine where they''d be.

[mossyred]

So Islam is the ''Religion of Peace''? Right...and I''m the Easter Bunny.

[haoli25]

I''m guessing this sisterhood will NOT be burning the bras for this right.

[trishab4]

CBS: In response to a female questioner, al Qaeda No. 2 leader Ayman Al-Zawahri said in April that the terrorist group does not have women. A woman''s role, he said on the Internet audio recording, is limited to caring for the homes and children of al Qaeda fighters.


-Sounds like they could fit well with the Polygamists Christians, Mormons in Texas, UTAH. Maybe interbreed to improve the physical look of each.