Women as Victims of Violence and Terrorism

Abstract

The media often portray women as caught up in a situation of terrorism—not as protagonists but as bystanders or victims. Osama bin Laden’s wives, discussed in Chap. 1, are often discussed collectively, along with their children, as a being influenced by terrorism but not related to it. In 2012, Pakistan placed three of bin Laden’s wives, who were present during the Abbottabad raid, under house arrest for having illegally entered Pakistan. After serving their sentence, it was unclear where these women and children would go. While they were not believed to be active in Al Qaeda, their home countries, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, did not jump to get them back from Pakistan. The two Saudi wives, Khairiah Sabar and Siham Sabar, lost their citizenship along with Osama bin Laden in the 1990s, yet, on humanitarian grounds, Saudi Arabia eventually accepted them and bin Laden’s younger, Yemenese wife, Amal Ahmed al-Sadah. These women and their children were portrayed as passive, bending to the will of governments. In a sense, they were “victims” of association with bin Laden, not actors with their own agency.