EUGENE,
Ore. -- (April 15, 2009) - As Mia Bloom researched the evolution of suicide
terrorism, she discovered a distinct increase in the recruitment of women for
the act. She will talk about the
personal backgrounds, motives and recruitment of suicide bombers during the
lecture, "The Evolution and Innovation of Suicide Terrorism: The
Increasing Role of Women," on Monday, April 20, at the University of
Oregon.

The
talk, part of the UO Department of Political Science speakers series, is at noon in room 129, McKenzie Hall, 1101
Kincaid St.

"Recruitment
of suicide bombers has been changing, and developments are shocking," said
Bloom. "For example, a woman named Samira Ahmed Jassim recently
coordinated the rape last month of 80 young women so she could recruit them as
suicide bombers for Ansar al Sunnah in Iraq.
This, and other new recruitment techniques, will be discussed at this
talk."

Bloom,
a professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at the University
of Georgia-Athens, will also talk about the similarities and differences in
suicide terrorism in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel-Palestine and Sri Lanka. By
better understanding the spread and increase of suicide terrorism and the
change in methods used to recruit women, Bloom hopes policy makers will better
understand how "hearts and minds" are influenced and why women and
men are willing to become suicide bombers.

Bloom
is the author of "Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror" and
"Living Together After Ethnic Killing." She is currently writing
"Bombshell: Women and Terror" and "Gendercide: The Strategic
Logic of Rape and War." She is a former member of the Council on Foreign
Relations and has held research or teaching appointments at Princeton, Cornell,
Harvard and McGill universities. She will join the faculty at Penn State
University in September.

Bloom
has a doctorate in political science from Columbia University, a master's degree
in Arab Studies from Georgetown University and a bachelor's degree from McGill
University in Russian and Middle East Studies and speaks nine languages.

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