Shahidka

Shahidka (Russian language ("шахидка") feminine gender derivation from "shahid"), sometimes called "Black Widow", is a term for Chechen female suicide bombers, who made themselves known at the Moscow theater hostage crisis of October 2002. The commander Shamil Basayev had referred to the shahidkas as a part of subunit of his suicide bombers called the "Gardens of the Righteous" ("Riyad-us Saliheen)".

The term of "Black Widows" probably originates from the fact that many of these women are widows of men killed by the Russian forces in Chechnya (the toxic connotation of black widow spider is intended). In 2003, the Russian journalist Yulia Yuzik coined the phrase "Brides of Allah" ("Невесты Аллаха") when she described the process by which Chechen women were recruited by Basayev and his associates; the phrase was also used again after the Beslan attack, as the title of an installment of the Russian NTV programme Top Secret ("Совершенно секретно"). It is worth noting that the Chechens were the first to use female suicide bombers even before the much discussed suicide bombers of the Israeli conflict.

Background

The ranks of the Shahidkas are filled mainly with 15-19 year old girls. According to journalist Julia Jusik many of the girls have been sold by their parents to be used as shahidkas, others have been kidnapped or tricked. Another group come from wahhabist families and are pressured to become shahidkas by their family. Only one out of ten act out of conviction or want revenge or want to die. Many have been prepared to the suicide by way of narcotics and rapes (making them ineligible for marriage). Several have been pregnant at the time. Mainly they are given no training at all in preparation for the suicides as no weapon skill is needed to strap on the explosives. Many don't even blow themselves up, but are blown up by remote control [Julia Jusik: The brides Allahs. Suicide assassin inside from Chechnya] [de icon [http://www.facts.ch/dyn/magazin/ausland/442372.html Sie explodierten per Fernzündung] ] [no icon [http://www.kulturmeglerne.no/kulturmeglerne/views/3955 Allahs sorte enker] ] .

Notable examples

* Khava Barayeva is renowned as the first known 'Black Widow' after blowing herself up at a Russian Army base in Chechnya in June 2000.

* Medna Bayrokova, a resident of Grozny says she remembers the day a middle aged woman came to her front door asking to speak to her 26-year old daughter. Medna Bayrokova let the woman in. Her daughter, Zareta Bayrokova then spent an hour in her bedroom with the woman, before leaving the house, ostensibly to walk the woman to the bus stop. One hour later her mother was visited by several men in camouflage uniforms who said that they had taken her daughter away as she had agreed to marry one of their membersFact|date=February 2007.Little under a month later Medna and her husband saw their daughter again, on the TV news during the Moscow Theater Siege. Zareta's unmistakable dark eyes were visible above the Niqab worn by one of the female terrorists. Her hands were clasped firmly below a belt of explosives.

* In May 2003, Shakhida Baimuratova, a Black Widow suicide bomber killed 14 people and wounded 150 in an assassination attempt on the Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov at a crowded festival in Ilashkan-Yurt. A second woman bomber was also present but her explosives failed to detonate.

* On June 5th 2003 a woman wearing a white coat and an explosive belt threw herself under a bus carrying members of the Russian military. 17 soldiers were killed in the blast and 15 were severely injured.

* On July 6th 2003, two suicide bombers killed 16 people at a rock concert at Tushino Airfield in Moscow. The two women had been acting suspiciously at the entrance to the festival and then tried to enter, but had been denied entry by the security guards. One of the women detonated her bomb immediately, the other one ten minutes later as evacuees were filing past. Police found a third bomb that was defused without causing harm.

* In December 2003, a male and female suicide bomber killed 46 people and injured 100 others by detonating explosives on a packed commuter train, which had just left Yessentuki in Southern Russia. The woman is believed to have carried explosives in a bag, whereas the man had grenades strapped to his leg.

* On 9th December 2003 a bomb exploded outside the "National" hotel in Moscow just a few hundred metres from the Moscow Kremlin. It is thought that the target was the Duma building and that the bomb had detonated prematurely. Six people died and 13 were injured in the blast. The suicide bomber was later identified as Khadishat Mangeriyeva.

* On February 6th 2004 a Russian Bomb Disposal officer was killed as he tried to defuse a device at a Moscow cafe. A woman in her 20's had tried to enter the cafe but was prevented from doing so by security staff. The woman started shouting at the security officers and screamed 'I'm gonna blow this place up'. The security staff grabbed the woman and took her bag from her, before covering it with Flak jackets and calling the police. Efforts to defuse the bomb remotely failed, and a bomb disposal officer was sent to defuse the bomb, which detonated as he approached it. The failed bomber, ethnic Ingush Zarema Muzhikoyeva, was sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment for terrorism in April 2004. [ [http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?docsid=465081 "Now we all are going to be blown up"] , Kommersant, April 9, 2004.] In 2005, she participated in the trial of the Beslan hostage crisis terrorist Nur-Pashi Kulayev as a witness for the prosecution, but she withdrew all her statements about Kulayev that she made in pre-trial depositions and said she didn't know he was a militant. [ [http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?docsid=638055 "Zarema, whom should we kill now?"] , Kommersant, December 23, 2005.]

* Two Russian passenger aircraft disasters in 2004 are believed to have been the work of the Black Widows. The smaller of the planes, a TU-134 which crashed near Tula had been carrying a Chechen woman called Amnat Nagayeva who had bought her ticket just an hour before the flight took off. The larger plane exploded near the city of Rostov killing 46 people. Among the wreckage, investigators found traces of Hexogen, a powerful explosive. Another Chechen woman, Satsita Djerbikhanova was also a last-minute passenger on this flight.

* On September 1st 2004, two Chechen women, Roza Nagayeva and Mairam Taburova, were involved in the attack on a Russian, North-Ossetian school (the Beslan school hostage crisis). The attack which killed 334 civilians, including 186 children, was masterminded by Shamil Basayev. According to some reports the Chechen women complained bitterly when they found out the target were children, whereafter they were blown up by remote.

Notes

References

* Yuzik, Yulia, "Невесты Аллаха. Лица и судьбы всех женщин-шахидок, взорвавшихся в России" 2003, Ультра Культура, ISBN 5-98042-034-7: [http://www.zeit.de/2004/51/jusik Zur Hochzeit mit Allah] (excerpt, German translation)

External links

* [http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1189&id=1046022004 The women with death at their fingertips - martyrs or victims?] . The Scotsman, September 5 2004. Last accessed August 2 2006.
* [http://www.chechentimes.org/en/chechentimes/?id=15195 Women’s question] . Chechen Times, March 29 2004. Last accessed August 2 2006.
* [http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/10/acdd90e6-ac42-43ea-8a51-0bafc6a215fb.html Nord-Ost Anniversary Recalls Ascent Of Female Suicide Bomber] . Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty feature article (27/10/2006). Last accessed 30/10/2006.