Army of Roses: Inside the World of Palestinian Women Suicide Bombers [Paperback]

In Army of Roses, Barbara Victor's predetermined hypothesis is that the motivating factor for Palestinian women becoming suicide bombers is related to the "second-class status of women in that part of the world". That is, women decide to blow themselves up not because they are living under the frustrating conditions of occupation, as their male counterparts are, not even because they are misguided by religious and/or nationalistic drives, and certainly not because they are politicized and deeply engaged in the struggle for statehood. Women become suicide bombers (or shahida), according to the author, in order to escape the unbearable religious and traditional constraints imposed on them by the Islamic rules, patriarchal society and individual male family members; they do so to escape personal family problems and/or to uphold men's honor. Victor also argues that women fall much more easily into the prey of the manipulative male leaders (of course she never elaborates on the stories of male suicide bombers).

In the beginning of the book, Victor states that by focusing on the life stories of shahidas (as well as relying on interviews with survivors, officials, etc. on both side of the Green Line), she wants to find answers as why and how these women choose the path they do. However, since the author seems to already have answers to her questions, what she ends up doing with her collected data is to selectively highlight instances of personal problems and present them as the ultimate motivating factors. Victor's depiction of women's lives is unskillful in that the life stories in themselves betray her argument.

All but one of the women we are introduced to in the book (either actual shahidas or those who had attempted to be so) are active participants in their society. Furthermore, they all have their share of occupation -related burdens and frustrations, as well as their share of being lured and mislead by the dominant political and religious discourse into taking such an extreme and tragic measure as suicide bombing. Yet, it is striking how the author searches, almost desperately, for a reason "behind the surface" which would explain these women's choices. Inevitably, it is revealed that one woman was childless and disgracefully divorced, another woman, inspired to study, was under pressure to marry, yet another woman was molested as a teen and so on and so forth. It is this personal dimension of women's lives that is given weight as a reason for wanting to become shahida. The most telling example of such partial depiction is the case of Ayat Al-Akhras.

Ayat, the last child of a large and economically well-off family was happily engaged with a young man and inspired to become a journalist "to communicate to the world the Palestinian cause" when she took her life as a suicide bomber at a young age. She is described by her friends and family members as "fiercely opinionated", "the most outspoken within the family", and one who always "dominated conversations". As a child, Ayat witnessed her brother being jailed twice for throwing stones at Israeli soldiers. Another brother was shot by Israeli bullets and her sister "suffered miscarriage when Israeli tanks rolled into the camp and prevented access to ambulance and hospital." Ayat, we are told, developed a hatred for Israelis from young age, and expressed it intellectually.

A while before she blew herself and two Israelis, Ayat was visiting a friend when the Israelis soldiers shot through the windows and killed a teenaged boy residentof the home while watching TV. The older brother who was present at the scene remembers: "Ayat got hysterical ... I picked up my brother, who was bleeding badly, and ran with him in my arms towards the nearest hospital. Ayat ran with me, sobbing and screaming ... My brother died in my arms, and Ayat collapsed."

In the author's mind neither the harsh past life experience of Ayat nor the circumstances under which her personality developed the way it did, nor the trauma she experienced shortly before her final action seem to provide any motivation whatsoever - albeit unjustifiably- for her to become a suicide bomber. Instead, Victor is convinced that Ayat blew herself up so that the honor of being a shahida would restore her father's reputation who was the target of a growing accusation and hostility by the Palestinian community for allegedly collaborating with the Israelis. She sacrificed herself, we are told, for the sake of her father and her family. In a bizarre attempt to provide proof that Ayat did indeed take her life for the sake of her family's honor, Victor refers to Ayat's last testimony, customarily video-taped by all suicide bombers right before their death. Victor maintains: "As a woman and a daughter, she wanted to be the one to save her father and prove that she was stronger than her brothers. It was telling in her final video that she alluded to the importance of the powerful Arab nations when they did not come to the aid of the Palestinians". It is amazing how a plain political statement could be domesticized and personalized through the lens of Orientalism!

One wonders if Palestinian women in general are so oppressed and victimized and so easily manipulated by their male family members, why don't we see women suicide bombers in rates at lease equal to men?

Although the author has conducted some valuable interviews, she appears to be entirely ignorant of the local language--Arabic--and the culture and tenets of Islam. To give just two examples, her transcription of a simple and common Arabic phrase, "God is Great," is "Allahu Akhbar," (which, if it means anything, means something like "God is best informed"), instead of the simpler "Allahu Akbar." No exotic gutteral sounds, not very tough to write down. But--like authors who transcribe "jihad" as "ji'had" in order to make it seem even more foreign and troubling than it is--Victor chooses consistently and in the smallest details to make Palestinians and Muslims appear as different from "us" as possible.

A more troubling and stupid error occurs on p. 184, where she writes that the "five pillars of Islam" are "martyrdom, the declaration of faith. . .charity,. . .fasting for the month of Ramadan,. . . the pilgrimage to Mecca, and. . .ritual prayer." Even if Victor can't count, the reader should be able to enumerate six items here, the first of which, "martyrdom," is decidedly NOT one of the pillars of Islam. Aside from demonstrating the author's basic ignorance--and possibly simply her bad faith--it demonstrates that the book is poorly edited.

Again, many of the interviews are interesting and useful. But the author has a big ax to grind, and both her facts and interpretations need to be treated with caution.

This book was absolutely terrible. It was grossly inaccurate -- especially with respect to Islam. The author actually stated that martyrdom is one of the five pillars of Islam! (p. 184) She confuses the word 'shahaada' (the first pillar of Islam, which refers to the declaration of faith: "I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and that Muhammad (S) is his messenger") with 'shaheed' (which translates to 'martyr', or one who sacrifices himself in defense of one's country or religion).

The book was also extremely biased and one-sided. The author interviewed the families of the suicide bombers and members of Hamas (making sure to equate their understanding of Islam with the actual laws of Islam)-- and "balanced" this viewpoint by interviewing Israeli soldiers and psychologists. She never interviews a single credible authority on Islam regarding suicide bombing.

Overall, this book was an utter waste of time, and I can't believe that this woman actually works for CBS and US News. I give it an "F".