Women turn to Islamic militancy

2005-05-02 15:43

Cairo - Two women died in a botched attack on a busload of Israeli tourists in Cairo over the weekend in a first for conservative Egypt that analysts said would seriously complicate the work of security forces.

"Normally activists' mothers and wives try to persuade them not to volunteer for suicide operations or take part in attacks for fear of losing them," noted a local commentator.

"Here we are seeing a new phenomenon totally alien to traditional Egyptian society," said Hassan Nafaa from Cairo University's institute of political studies.

The two women who targeted the Israeli bus near Cairo's Citadel on Saturday were the wife and sister of a third attacker who wounded four foreigners in a suicide bombing less than an hour earlier near the world famous Egyptian museum.

Both women were veiled and wore a full-length black, face-covering hijab - or niqab.

"New active elements are joining the ranks of terrorist groups. Wearing niqabs also gives them flexibility in their movements and a larger scope of action," said Nabil Fattah from Cairo's Al-Ahram centre for political and strategic studies.

Niqab-clad women, or munaqabat, refuse to unveil in front of men except for their close male relatives and will let only female police officers check their identity.

Egypt's mostly male police force often let them go without thoroughly checking them at the many security barriers set up after a wave of deadly Islamist attacks against foreigners in the 1990s.

Analysts also remarked on the young age of Saturday's attackers whom the interior minister said were linked to an 18-year-old student who carried out a deadly bombing three weeks ago.

Those rounded up and arrested after the April 7 attack that killed two French citizens, a US national and the bomber in Cairo's bustling Khan al-Khalili bazaar district, were in their late teens or twenties.

"These attacks mark the emergence of a new generation that has embraced radical Islam and violence against foreigners," said Fattah.

- AFP