Analysis
The film called “The Terrorist” made in Sri Lanka in 1999 tells a story of a nineteen-year-old girl called Malli that was recruited as a child soldier and then selected as a future suicide bomber for a terrorist group. The film follows the gender factor of the situation very well and presents a series of observations of Malli’s typical female behaviors combined with her professional activities as a soldier and a terrorist.
For example, Malli is a romantic; she likes to spend time by the river, looking at the water. When she washes her face, she collects water in her hands and looks at it run through her fingers. Malli often thinks of a young male soldier she once saved during a battle, and how he talked about her long hair. Malli is caring towards Surya, the boy that leads her through the forest to the base of terrorists, she hugs him when he cries, she comforts him when he has bad dreams about his late family members and burnt down the village. She quickly gets emotionally attached to the boy. Malli also enjoys being beautiful, seeing photographs of models she is trying to copy their poses. Malli has a strong maternal instinct, she loves children and animals, and her pregnancy makes her change her attitude towards her mission.
At the same time, Malli cold-bloodedly kills and executes people throughout the film, she fully embraces her role as a terrorist and a future “thinking bomb” (Man, 2013). Malli trains, acts, and dresses like a male, she is treated equally with male soldiers in her camp – all of these aspects defy her femininity. Gender can be enforced in terrorism through the oppression of females and limiting their education.
Reflection
Malli has been recruited to become a soldier since childhood, she never experienced what it is like to be a girl, she never wore beautiful garments and shoes, she never did her hair properly, she never got to express her female nature. Throughout the film “The Terrorist” Malli’s feminine habits keep showing, they gradually become quite strong, they even sometimes take over her trained instincts of a cold-blooded murderer and a soldier. Malli experiences a struggle between two of her sides – the warm and caring woman and the detached and goal-oriented fighter. As soon as the girl enters a new world and gets to talk to kind-hearted farmers, interact with children, and live in peace, her feminine nature starts to wake up which contradicts her mission.
Journal Entry
Terrorism is one of the most widely discussed issues of the world nowadays, it is studied from various perspective, its different aspects are researched and examined. Gender roles in terrorism are often overlooked and the concept of terrorism rarely is associated with women. Yet, it is a well-known fact that today women play quite an important role in this phenomenon acting as soldiers, spies, and suicide bombers.
Many cases of female terrorists have been studied these days, the world knows about young women that are often recruited as child soldiers or trained for the kamikaze missions. Some of such suicide bombers failed and were caught, this is how the world became familiar with various causes that enforce this happening in terrorism and also the reasons that bring women into various social movements related to terrorism, armed conflicts, and diversions.
The participation of females in terrorism, their roles, duties, and stories are mysterious issues, the contemporary experts and theoreticians studying terrorism do not have much information to analyze and learn from. The documented statistics of female participation in terrorism counts only three percent all around the world. Even though the involvement of women in terrorism-related social movements, females are mostly known to be hired for passive roles and in small numbers (Cunningham, 2003). Women in terrorism is a big issue today ever since the act when one of the female Tamil Tigers committed a suicide bombing killing Rajiv Ghandi in 1991. Female terrorists were also present at the tragically famous act in Beslan, Chechnya, when a group of terrorists occupied a school on the first of September.
Many of the contemporary experts share an opinion that female participation in terrorist movements is stimulated and enforced artificially through such aspects as a political ideology and ethnic self-identification, more seldom – religion and spirituality (Ness, 2006). Traditional believes state that women by nature are weak and soft, this is why they are more often seen as victims of violent acts, but not their producers, while in reality, this idea is old-fashioned, as women can be the victimizers and the perpetrators of violence. The mechanisms that help various terrorist movements recruit, train, and use women are fighters are not known very well.
Some of the techniques employed to add female fighters to the movements are based on gender discrimination and oppression. In many cases, women that lost their husbands or families have no other way than to become suicide bombers. An act of suicide is psychologically complicated; this is why such bombers need to be prepared for operations of this kind. Religion is a powerful tool for motivation, manipulation, and enforcement. Young uneducated women can be convinced that a mass murder such as an act of bombing in a public place that also includes a suicide of the executor is the best and most guaranteed way of going to paradise and uniting with their dead family members and beloved people.
Female involvement in terrorist movements today is studied in a broad social sense. The factors of self-identification, nation, and ethnos play a big role in the process of preparation of dedicated and reliable female fighters that are ready to risk their lives and murder innocent people for a certain idea or a belief, just like Malli from “The Terrorist” was prepared to kill anyone, even herself and her unborn baby for the idea of freedom of her nation.
Faith and patriotism this strong are normally enforced and stimulated with the help of special training and propaganda. Besides, there is a variety of social traditions, rules, and policies that strengthen the possibility of females to join the armies of terrorists. In many Islamic countries, social conditions do not allow lonely women to live a happy and fulfilling life. Besides, if a woman ends up alone after a war, for example, she does not stand a chance of surviving on her own.
Wives, sisters, and daughters of terrorists are often encouraged to follow the paths of their men and join the fighters because ever since early childhood they are taught to believe that being a terrorist is an inherited right. Moreover, cultural framing in such social circles does not leave both males and females any chance of growing up with different sets of beliefs or ideas.
Social conditions, cultural upbringing, religious traditions, and political ideology are the most important factors that enforce the participation of females in social movements related to terrorism. Earlier women were mainly employed for passive roles, their lack of education, and absence of independence made them perfect targets for the terrorist head hunters and recruiters. Besides, obedient and misinformed women are easy to manipulate, control, and direct.
Enforcing social policies that support these conditions meant creating better opportunities for terrorist movements. This is why, logically, the best way of stripping terrorism of its sources of female fighters can be done through strengthening the rights and freedoms for women, improving social policies protecting women of various categories, creating opportunities for independence, and building the way towards the equality of genders.
The Sri Lankan film “The Terrorist” is a good illustration of a traditional female role and nature and their clash with the concept of terrorism. The film shows that a woman is naturally meant as a creator and protector of life, she tends to care and love, she appreciates beauty, she generates love, whereas terrorism, war, and fighting are naturally destructive activities that are not typical for females. Malli’s nature fights the girl’s upbringing and ideological values. Her heart was battling her mind and the result of this battle was an immense risk for the young girl and her unborn baby.
Reference List
Cunningham, K. (2003) Cross-Regional Trends in Female Terrorism. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 26(3), 171-195.
Man, K. (2013). 1997 film [English subtitles ]. Web.
Ness, C. (2005) In the Name of the Cause: Women’s Work in Secular and Religious Terrorism. Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 28(5), 353-373.