‘The Terrorists with Highlights’: Kurdish Female Suicide Bombers in Mainstream Turkish Media

Abstract

In April and May 2007 two female suicide bombers affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (Partiya Karkerana Kurdistan), a Kurdish guerilla organization listed as a terrorist organization by NATO, the United Nations, the European Union, and the United States, were caught in Adana, a major industrial city in the East Mediterranean region of Turkey. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, better known as PKK, has been active in the country since the late 1970s. Although it is not the major form of activity in their armed struggle against the Turkish state, PKK had begun shifting from conventional bombing to suicide bombing in the mid-1990s, with 11 of their 15 attacks having been performed by women. However, there was a difference in the media coverage of these two cases. First of all, the level of media interest was of particular significance. Although a male suicide bomber was also caught in May 2007, he was barely mentioned in the press. The media focus was on these two women, particularly their bodies. Ayfer Ayçiçek and Hatice Arat were presented in mainstream Turkish media as ‘murderers with highlights’ (Kibritoğlu 2007), ‘bombers with highlights’ (Hürriyet 2008), ‘terrorists with highlights’ (Milliyet 2007) or ‘suicide bombers with highlights’ (Gezer 2007) wearing ‘the latest fashions’, with the terrorist using the name Ebru Kara looking ‘very well-groomed with her grey tank top, denim skirt, yellow flip-flops, white nail polish and highlighted hair’ (Kibritoglu 2007).