Hamas Parliament Member Encourages Female Suicide Bombers

By J. Solomon

Alleged Female Suicide Bomber Captured in Tel Aviv on July 6th, 2006.

Dr. Yunis Al-Astal, a Palestinian MP representing Hamas, gave a TV interview which aired on Al-Rafidein TV on June 17, 2007 explaining that the individual duty of Jihad applies to women, according to MEMRI.

In explaining his rationale for female martyrdom Al-Astal drew on historical events dating back to Mohammed’s Aunt.  As Al-Astal continued his examples through to modern times and in so doing referred to the Jews as “the brothers of apes and pigs”,

Al-Astal recounted, “In the second Al-Aqsa Intifada, females martyrdom-seekers emerged. These are young women, in the prime of their life, at a time when girls like these think only about jewelry and preparing for marriage. Nevertheless, they went to their martyrdom, advancing head-on with a great fighting spirit. This Intifada of ours has recorded more than 15 exemplary cases of girls who were martyred for the sake of Allah. But not before making the Jews - the brothers of apes and pigs - taste the bitterness of death, and not before avenging the blood of the martyrs, the wounded, the bereaved, the prisoners, the displaced, those whose homes were destroyed, those whose lands were bulldozed, and all those who were affected by the earthquake of the sons of Zion.”

Dr. Al-Astal placed such a high priority on female martyrdom that he explained how women on such missions did not need to ask permission from their husbands or even wear a veil.  Al-Astal, “"When jihad becomes an individual duty, the husband's permission or consent is not required, because jihad becomes like prayer.…jihad is a duty, and so is wearing a veil, but the duty of jihad is ten times great[er] than the duty of wearing a veil."

Additional excerpts of this interview are available through MEMRI, The Middle East Media Research Institute.