Black Widows

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For the spider see Black widow spider.

The Black Widows are Chechen rebel female suicide bombers, known in Chechnya as shahidkas (female martyrs), who made themselves known at the Moscow theater hostage crisis of October 2002. The commander Shamil Basayev has referred to the shahidkas as a part of subunit of his, called the "Garden of the Righteous" (Riyadus Salihiin).

The term of "Black Widows" probably originates from the fact that many of these women are widows of men killed by the Russian forces in Chechnya (the toxic connotation of black widow spider is intended). In 2003, the Russian journalist Yulia Yuzik coined the phrase "Brides of Allah" ("Невесты Аллаха") when she described the process by which Chechen women were recruited by Basayev and his associates; the phrase was also used again after the Beslan attack, as the title of an installment of the Russian NTV programme Top Secret (Совершенно секретно)

References

Yuzik, Yulia, "Невесты Аллаха. Лица и судьбы всех женщин-шахидок, взорвавшихся в России" 2003, Ультра Культура, ISBN 5-98042-034-7

External links

[Women’s question] by F. Shamileva in Chechen Times, 29 March 2004

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