Second Son

Shoot The Women First isn’t the misogynist tome you’d expect. Probably because it’s written by a woman.

The book explores the idea that female terrorists are more passionate and ultimately more dangerous than their male counterparts. Consequently anti-terrorist forces across the world are taught to shoot the women first.

The book is essentially a series of interviews with the most notorious female terrorists of the last 40 years, including operatives from the PLO, the IRA, ETA and the Baader Meinhof / Red Army Faction. The first half is pretty turgid but by the end there’s some pretty interesting themes emerging. It would seem that the women are more dangerous for many reasons. Firstly soldiers and armed police (who are predominantly male) find it far more difficult to shoot women. Likewise people are more trusting of women. Fewer women choose to become terrorists but those that do have a conviction that far outweighs that of the men who often sign up for shallow, macho reasons such as getting to shoot guns.

The majority of those interviewed come from societies in which women are repressed: Catholic countries - Spain, Ireland,  Italy - where women are expected to be mothers and nurturers of God-given life, and Arab cultures where women are still largely seen as the servants of men. In these societies women are very unlikely to turn to terrorism, but those that do, are doubly angry and doubly dangerous; they see themselves as victims not only of what their male comrades would call political oppression but also of male oppression. I hadn’t realised that until 1975 it was legal for Italian men to beat their wives.

Then there’s Germany, the country that bucks the trend. As one of the world’s most emancipated countries it has pretty much the highest proportion of female terrorists; in 1991 something like 75% of their most wanted terrorists were ladies. The reason behind this is pretty fascinating - apparently it’s that prick Hitler’s fault again. It would seem that women played little or no role in Nazi Germany. The women, whose voice was never heard at that time, have had to share the national guilt of Hitler’s crimes, and now they want to put things right and overturn the male dominated society that got things so badly wrong.

The women interviewed are hard as nails as you’d expect. Though surprisingly many of them speak of the hurt caused by words and jibes from soldiers and police, especially those that focus on their womanhood. ‘Tart, whore, slut’ cut deep apparently, even for a woman who’s cold enough to blow up a passenger plane.

Lastly, everyone including the female terrorists concur that if you’re in jail and your torturer’s a woman then you are doubly fucked. It would seem that Kipling was right ‘the female of the species is more deadly than the male’.

Copies are going on Amazon for 14 pence. Worth a pop, though beware it does get you some pretty strange looks on the tube.