"Women as Terrorists: Mothers, Recruiters, and Martyrs" is the first post-September 11 book to examine women's multifarious roles in terrorist organizations of all stripes around the world. It covers political, religious, ethno-separatist, and Maoist groups in countries as diverse as Iraq, Palestine, Chechnya, Sri Lanka, Colombia, South Africa, the Philippines, and Northern Ireland.

Modeling terrorist organizations as purposive organizations that depend for support, recruitment, and rationale on a culturally defined community of sympathizers, the authors explore why women become...