Bombshell by Mia Bloom

Author:Mia Bloom
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Canada

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY MARTYRDOM

In a region where women’s rights were few, the LTTE had the highest number of female suicide bombers in the world (and a significant percentage of female frontline fighters) because of its verbal support of gender equality. Military roles were gender-neutral, and the glory of martyrdom was bestowed equally upon men and women. But unlike the men, who usually sought to become martyrs for the glory of the community, some of the female bombers took on the role out of desperation or as a last resort.45

Not only did women constitute an important part of the LTTE’s military leadership, but they also had their own combat divisions and participated at almost every level of fighting. They died in battle just like the men, and the Sri Lankan government targeted them for assassination regardless of their gender. From the point of view of the LTTE, there was even a psychological advantage to be gained by using women to defeat the Sri Lankan military in a country where women were seen as second-class citizens.

The organization trained the women in karate, hand-to-hand combat, the use of automatic weapons, and the techniques of suicide bombing. They even showed the women how to walk and sit as if they were pregnant, while carrying explosives around their waists. Once the female operatives were trained, the LTTE held them in reserve, to release whenever they wanted to flex their muscles. The organization enforced a strict code of personal conduct. Cadres were forbidden to drink alcohol, take drugs, or engage in premarital sex. They were all issued a glass vial of cyanide to wear around their necks and instructed to bite down on the cylinder in the event of capture. The cadres followed these strictures willingly and esteemed Prabhakaran with an almost cult-like devotion.

Prabhakaran was personally credited with establishing the separate unit for female cadres. He was confident that women had the potential for military training and combat. Prabhakaran was determined that women should have equal opportunity for participation in all aspects of armed struggle and issued a statement of equal rights on International Women’s Day, March 8, 1992:

Today young women have taken up arms to liberate our land. They have made supreme sacrifices to this cause, to the amazement of the world. I am proud to say that the birth, growth, and expansion of the women’s military wing is a remarkable achievement, which marked a historical turning point in our struggle.46

Four years later, Prabhakaran further empowered Tamil women, saying, “For the awakening of a nation and the salvation of womanhood, the Tamil Eelam revolutionary woman has transformed herself into a tigress! Fierce and fiery, she has taken up arms to fight injustice.”47 The LTTE was adept at contextualizing the notions of martyrdom and selflessness into Tamil society. Peter Schalk, a professor of religion at Uppsala University, described the ideology of self-sacrifice employed by the LTTE as tiyäkam or “abandonment (of life),” a rather specifically Indian form of martyrdom cultivated in both male and female fighters. The

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