Women Suicide Terrorism: The Strategic and Tactical Logic of Civilian Killings

Seung-Whan Choi

International Interactions, 2025, vol. 51, issue 3, 455-486

Abstract: A growing body of research indicates that women are increasingly involved in suicide attacks. These studies suggest that women, due to their seemingly innocent appearance, can more effectively target civilians rather than soldiers. However, these studies often overlook the strategic and tactical motives behind these attacks. This study argues that gender has become an important factor as terrorist organizations adopt new strategies—specifically, targeting civilians—and new tactics, such as using women to inflict high civilian casualties. Consequently, women are less likely to target well-defended security personnel, like soldiers and police, and are more likely to attack civilian targets compared to men. This gender difference in targeting behavior is supported by a statistical analysis of 6,127 suicide bombing incidents from 1980 to 2016. Therefore, the counterterrorism community needs to develop effective measures to address the new security challenges posed by female suicide bombers.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/03050629.2025.2493914 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:ginixx:v:51:y:2025:i:3:p:455-486

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/GINI20

DOI: 10.1080/03050629.2025.2493914

Access Statistics for this article

International Interactions is currently edited by Michael Colaresi and Gerald Schneider

More articles in International Interactions from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().