Expect sharp rise in suicide attacks by women in Iraq: US expert

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The number of suicide attacks by women in Iraq has risen sharply this year and can be expected to spike again in the coming months, a US expert in terrorism said Monday.

"Between January and April, there were 12 suicide attacks by women in Iraq. That marks an exponential increase," Farhana Ali, a US international policy analyst of Pakistani origin, told AFP after a symposium on terrorism at the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting in Washington.

More women carried out suicide attacks in Iraq in the first few months of this year than in between 2003 and 2007, when there were just 11 suicide bombers in the country, according to Ali.

"So long as this conflict continues, you will see greater instability in Iraq and women will be greatly victimized -- you will see more women in Iraq choose suicide terrorism in the next few months," she predicted.

Ali, who worked as an adviser to the US government before joining the private sector as an international policy analyst, blamed the rise in female suicide bombers largely on the marginalization of Iraqi women since the US invasion in 2003.

"Iraqi women, slowly, over the course of the conflict have been marginalized," she told AFP.

"They were at the forefront of their society. They were in the Iraqi cabinet, in government, in NGOs. We stripped them of those opportunities.

"Many have left but those who stayed behind are also victims of rape and torture and kidnapping. So they are being victimized twice," she said.

"Women use attacks as a protest. In Iraq, they are protesting at the loss of their men, the loss of their society and the loss of their country," said Ali.

Some 19,000 psychiatrists and other mental healthcare practitioners from around the world are expected to attend the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting, which runs until Thursday.

The psychological effects of war and campus violence will feature prominently on the agenda of the meeting.

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