August 25, 2008	Monday	Sha'aban 22, 1429

BAQUBAH: From the jail cell she was sharing with her mother, sister and one-year-old son, the young widow watched with a sardonic expression as the boy weaved unsteadily toward a visiting American soldier and lifted his arms to be carried.

“Aboud”, she called out to the toddler, “tell them to release me.”

The police say the matriarch, Ikran, used her two daughters, Asma and Ilaf, to recruit their girlfriends to blow themselves up in the name of the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Even though the women were terrified of the masked men who took over their neighborhood, they said they’d never do such a thing – “Life is a gift from God.”

Although it remains far from clear whether the women committed the crimes of which they were accused, the tale they shared from their barren cell offers a peek into the violent and claustrophobic world in which women are groomed to become suicide bombers.

As violence levels have plunged across Iraq, the number of attacks carried out by female suicide bombers has increased a potent threat that is especially difficult to counter. The gowns favoured by devout Muslim women easily conceal explosives, and it is culturally unacceptable for the men who make up the bulk of the Iraqi security forces to frisk them.

Although such attacks are not new to Iraq, they were relatively rare until last year, when eight women bombers struck. This year, the number has jumped to 30, according to US military records. In one particularly bloody day late last month, four women blew themselves up in Baghdad and in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing at least 44 people.

More women have carried out suicide bombings here in Diyala province than anywhere else in Iraq 15 this year alone. Iraqi commanders believe Al Qaida in Iraq has established networks in the province designed specifically to recruit women.

The ethnically and religiously mixed province east of Baghdad has long been a center of Al Qaeda in Iraq, which formed alliances here with Sunni tribesmen and nationalist political groups against Shia militants. This is a world in which few women are educated, loyalty to family and tribe are paramount, and fear permeates relations with outsiders.

Al Qaeda in Iraq leaders, known as emirs, managed to recruit entire clans to their cause by marrying into the families here. The women forced into these marriages are often passed around among emirs, said Saja Quadouri, who sits on the provincial council’s security committee and is its only female member.

“They will get married to more than one man and get pregnant without knowing who the father is,” she said. “Eventually, due to despair, hopelessness and fear, they get exploited to commit such crimes, as they become unwanted by society.”

Other women are persuaded to perform a suicide mission to avenge the loss of a father, husband or brother, said a US intelligence analyst, who asked not to be identified for security reasons.

In tribal societies, the loss of male relatives typically leaves women without protection or means of survival.

Police suggested that the women might have been seeking revenge for their men or might have been motivated by financial pressure to work for the insurgency.—Dawn/ The LAT-WP News Service (c) Los Angeles Times