Demystifying the Palestinian female suicide bomber: An analysis of Western newspaper texts

"She bomber," "lipstick martyrs," and "cheerleaders for the jihad" are names Western newspaper texts have proposed for the Palestinian female suicide bomber. Images of the "gentler sex" putting on a vest full of loaded ammunition and blowing herself up in an attempt to kill as many she can penetrates the public mind. This thesis is an analysis of 44 articles from Western newspapers about the Palestinian female suicide bomber. These texts frame the phenomenon in ways which "backwards" and "Other" Palestine, women, Arab feminism, and Islam. A content analysis reveals certain gendered themes that emerge in these texts which constitute discourse. This discourse positions gender as the main theme for "Othering" and "orientalizing" Palestine. This paper is concerned with how Western media portrays women's militancy in ways which fit with, or don't fit with, socially constructed gender roles of women in states of conflict.