Iraq has lately seen an increase in female suicide bombers even as acts of terrorism have declined in the past two years.  The development had some analysts puzzled as to how the terrorist networks got women to agree to martyr themselves, as most of their recruitment efforts had focused on radical young men.  Samira Jassam, self-described as “the mother of all believers”, masterminded an effort to rape women as a means of shaming them into suicide for Islamist terrorists:

A WOMAN suspected of recruiting more than 80 female suicide bombers has confessed to organising their rapes so she could later convince them that martyrdom was the only way to escape the shame.

Samira Jassam, 51, was arrested by Iraqi police and confessed to recruiting the women and orchestrating dozens of attacks.

In a video confession, she explained how she had mentally prepared the women for martyrdom operations, passed them on to terrorists who provided explosives, and then took the bombers to their targets.

It’s a particularly despicable scam.  Jassam didn’t just step in as some sort of Islamist rape counselor to advise suicide as an answer to shame.  She arranged the rapes of dozens of women, and then presented herself as an advisor to the victims to recruit them for suicide missions.  It’s one of the most ghoulish plots I’ve ever known, and a stunning betrayal of her own gender.

Hopefully, the Iraqis will make sure that Jassam doesn’t live long enough to set up another such ring in prison.

Update (AP): Via Weasel Zippers, the Sun claims that it’s not just women who are being raped into jihad. Too bad to check? Danger Room thinks so but I’m agnostic. If it’s propaganda, it’s a crafty way of using Muslims’ homophobia against AQ. Is it propaganda, though? I’m not so sure.