Jihad Magazine for Women

Tuesday August 31, 2004

Islamic extremism is usually discussed in the context of men. Islam is a religion dominated by the male point of view and that goes doubly for Islamic extremism. Extremist leaders are all men and suicide bombers are almost all men. What, however, becomes of the women? There are women involved here, after all.

BBC reports on a new magazine coming out to help these women cope with the men in their lives who are violent, barbaric murderers:

The magazine is called Al-Khansa, after a famous Arab woman poet in the early days of Islam, who wrote eulogies to male relatives who had died in battle. It appears to be the first "jihadist" publication aimed exclusively at women. ... The main objective seems to be to teach women married to radical Islamists how to support their husbands.

The main objective of the magazine seems to be to teach women married to radical Islamists how to support their husbands in their conflict with the authorities. It also gives them specific advice on how to bring up their children in the path of jihad, how to provide first aid and what kind of physical training women need to prepare themselves for fighting.

Some [articles] take a somewhat patronising attitude, dwelling on supposed female weaknesses that must be overcome in the cause of jihad - such as over-dependence on home comforts like TV and air conditioning. A section on current affairs also devotes some space to an attack on the recent development of having women presenters on Saudi TV, suggesting it is a kind of prostitution.

These are pretty sick people. They are making a fetish of suicide and murder. They are creating a culture of death and nihilism unlike anything I’ve ever read about and it’s very disturbing. These extremists are helping to ensure that Islamic culture doesn’t ever rise up make further contributions to humanity in the future.

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