UC San Diego

The phenomenon of "suicide bombing" is not new, and yet the involvement of Muslim women in this violent political activity has received much media attention, especially since the Second Intifada. This dissertation challenges interpretations of female bombers in academic writing and in media presentations. Through the lens of performance studies, this dissertation offers a nuanced view of what violence means in present-day Palestinian culture. Viewing female bombers as political performers, I argue that their actions are evidence of the emergence of a new generation of Muslim women whose relational agency over their bodies allows them to claim a socio-political status equal to that of men. By transforming their bodies from visible signs of oppression to a tool of political activism as weapons of destruction, these women have gained new identities and challenged the norms of Muslim patriarchy as well as Orientalist views of women. The female bombers have manipulated their assigned gender roles as mothers and daughters and have become the mothers of the whole nation. While their virtual presence in their farewell videos presents a deadly threat to their enemy, their performances of power and commitment contribute to the pedagogy of resistance and self-sacrifice. The semiotics of resistance illuminates the pedagogical purposes of the bombing attacks these women carry out. Palestinian resistance organizations create spectacles of resistance that feature the actions of women bombers prominently and turn public spaces into stages where the public can display its commitment to the struggle. The spectacles of resistance, aiming at reaching the Palestinian youth, are a response to spectacles of occupation created by the Israeli military that cast shadows on the daily lives of the residents of the occupied territories. Spectacles of resistance seek to recruit Palestinians as spectactors who will become the next generation of fighters. They also (falsely) present the Palestinian community to the global audience as a unified body of supporters of violence