Gender and terrorism: an image of female suicide bomber in british media

Gender and Terrorism: an Image of Female Suicide Bomber in British Media Terrorist organizations have always been considered as men‘s domination sphere. Therefore involvement of women into such patriarchal structure has become one of the most unexpected turning points. By eliminating traditional gender stereotypical thinking and destroying patriarchal traditions female suicide bomber has created a tension. Theoretically, woman terrorist should be as equal as man, but the reality is completely different. Female suicide bomber started to be treated as different: inhuman, irrational, biological error, unstable, mentally unhealthy, mannish etc. In other words, it is obvious that due to intensification of the phenomenon of female suicide bomber women receive a different treatment. As in the present global world, female suicide bomber determines growing attention in the academic field, the aim of this thesis is to notice how she is valued, but not from pespectives of terrorist organizations or terrorists themselves, but from the media. In other words, the main purpose of this thesis is to find out if the female suicide bomber in the British media is portrayed as different, and if so, how that representation is given. Six main tasks were formulated to achieve this goal. First, to review and examine the theoretical research field related to female suicide bomber. Second, to select and discuss the predicate analysis as one of the discourse research methods. Third, based on chosen keywords, to select articles from four main British media channels: Daily Mirror, The Independent, The Guardian and BBC. Fourth, according to predicate analysis, to analyze whether a female suicide bomber in the British media is portrayed as different, and if so, how that representation is given. Fifth, to present and discuss all distinguishable aspects. Finally, to introduce conclusions and generalizations. Analysis has shown that the dimension of gender does not remain unnoticed in terrorism. Different woman‘s perception is highlighted through the representation of suicide bomber. It would appear that the involvement of women in such specific terrorist activities as suicide bombing should remove boundaries between gender, but the reality is the opposite. Woman is not only perceived differently from man, but being a suicide bomber suggests distinct perception at her from different angles. She is represented by six categories of woman, wife, mother, thing, exception and Muslim. From the West point of view, this activity of female suicide bomber destroys the status quo which is comfortable for the society. Therefore, any denial of stereotypes or the demolition of a woman‘s expectations impairs the self-conscious, deep-rooted perception of the biological and social gender. The construction of sexuality occurs through the representation of female suicide bomber in the context of six categories. This indicates that leaving beyond the biological and social roles does not help but rather interferes to maintain the status quo. The overall portrait of different female suicide bomber reinforces and confuses femininity at the same time. It is in the contrast to a more common perception and image of femininity. Therefore, the representation through six categories is emphasized because it seeks to maintain a perception of a diiferent female suicide bomber in the line of usual norms. It would be useful in the future to research how the relationship between gender and terrorism portrays female suicide bomber in non-western media. It is also worth considering to analyze the photographs or footage presented in the media. In this way it is not only possible to ascertain whether female suicide bomber is portrayed as different in the context of the opposite culture, but also to determine how different tools of expression distinguish main aspects of female suicide bomber