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WOMEN'S MAGAZINE OFFERS TIPS TO TERRORISTS
By John Phillips
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
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ROME — Al Qaeda has introduced an online women's magazine with articles
including dietary advice for suicide bombers and tips on how to
"dominate the passions" before blowing yourself up, according to Italy's SISDE
secret service.

    SISDE analysts disclosed the existence of Al Khansa, the unusual
monthly Internet publication for female militants that is hosted by
several Islamist Web sites, in the Italian spy service's quarterly review
Gnosis.

    Khansa is a popular name for Arab women, recalling a 7th century
female poet, Tumadir bint Amr, who was known by the sobriquet of Al
Khansa — meaning "gazelle" or "snub-nosed" — because of her beauty and
exquisite, petite nose.

    She became "the historic symbol of the woman warrior, and, at the
same time, of all the mothers of the martyrs," according to SISDE, which
is responsible for preventing terrorist reprisals against Italy's
deployment of troops in Iraq.

    "If you want to read up on the latest model of hijab [veil] or
abaija [tunic], don't let yourself be taken in by the rosy image on the
front of Al Khansa," the newspaper La Stampa of Turin quoted one SISDE
analyst as saying.

    "Among the Web pages of this newly born female review in Arabic,
you won't find the usual fashion features that fill the pages of ladies'
magazines the world over, except for a section dedicated to fitness
with advice on diet and training to follow so as to acquire not a catwalk
waistline, but martyrdom in the holy war."

    With its bizarre format including articles on "breathing gymnastics
to conquer the passions," evidently essential knowledge for those
tempted to have a final fling before strapping on an explosive-laden corset,
Al Khansa could indicate that al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden has made a
strategic choice in favor of "women's emancipation through martyrdom,"
according to the Gnosis report.

    "This is a turning point in the project planning of international
terrorist networks, which until now, unlike in the Palestinian intifada
or in Chechen nationalist extremism, were limited to the exclusive
employment of men in operations," the SISDE analysts said.

    But, the Italian spy review said, it is not clear whether al
Qaeda's call to arms for women represents "female emancipation," or rather "a
tactic to involve all components of the [Islamic community] in the
global jihad."

    The enhanced role for women evidently reflects a sense of urgency
to drive foreign forces from Islamic territory, Gnosis concluded. It
noted that as recently as May 2003, the influential Egyptian sheik Yussuf
al-Qaradawi issued an edict blessing "aspiring [female] kamikazes for
use in the interests of the holy war, freeing them of the duty of
modesty and public invisibility."

    An aspiring female martyr, or "mujaheda," must learn the Koran by
heart, have basic first aid training [and] be able to prepare an
emergency kit "in which natural honey and water from the Zemzem spring at
Mecca are indispensable since they flow directly from Paradise," Al Khansa
advised.

    A female militant must also "be content with what is strictly
necessary, sending televisions and air conditioners to be burned." She
should offer her own money for the cause and know how to shoot and "how to
carry munitions on her shoulder," the Web site said.

    "This is obviously an 'emancipation' that is light-years distant
from what the West means" by the word, the SISDE essay said.

    "The portrait of the new heroine is of a woman paladin suspended
between tradition and renewal, capable of protecting the family and the
community against both outside aggression and the moral degeneration
that insinuates its way inside society dominated by the 'corrupt' Saudi
royal family."

    Al Qaeda's concept of emancipation does not extend to "the
promiscuity of Arab television stations," SISDE's analysis added. Al Khansa
considers "as a form of prostitution the presence of female announcers
without burqas on the Saudi television network Al-Ekhbariya."

    In Al Khansa, the theorists of al Qaeda offer women "a path to
reach freedom that would be denied in every other way — using the dominion
of religion to oppose the dominion of men," the Italian secret service
report said.