Mick Hartley

Here's the reality behind the myth of the heroic martyrdom-seeker – an interview on Al-Baghdadiya TV with a 15-yr old girl:

Interviewer: Do you remember what the explosives belt looked like?

Ranya: I don't remember what it looked like. They took it away.

Interviewer: Who strapped it on you?

Ranya: Umm Fatima.

Interviewer: Who is this Umm Fatima?

Ranya: [My husband] Muhammad said: “This is my cousin."

Interviewer: His relatives? It was his cousins who strapped the belt around your waist?

Ranya: Yes.

Interviewer: Did you know where you were going, and what you were going to do?

Ranya: No, I left the house with them.

Interviewer: They were with you?

Ranya: Yes, one of them was.

Interviewer: Where did they tell you to go?

Ranya: They didn't tell me. I was with her, then she stayed in the market to do the shopping, and I left.

Interviewer: This strange thing that they strapped on your waist – you didn't know what it was?

Ranya: No, I didn't know.

Interviewer: You didn't ask them why they were putting the belt on you?

Ranya: No, I didn't ask, but before she put it on me, she gave me a can of peach juice and some bread.

[…]

Interviewer: After you drank the peach juice and ate the bread, you felt dizzy?

Ranya: Yes.

Interviewer: When you were dizzy, could you still see clearly? Could you see people clearly?

Ranya: No, I saw double.

Interviewer: Did your husband know you were putting on the belt?

Ranya: He was in the same house, but I don't know whether he knew.

[…]

Interviewer: Ranya, were you aware of the outcome of your actions?

Ranya: No.

Interviewer: Were you aware that as a suicide bomber, not a single piece of your body would remain intact, and that you would be killing innocent people? Could this Ranya, this little child who loves everybody, possibly kill 50 or 60 people? Could you imagine this happening because of your doings and the belt you wore?

Ranya: But they said to me: "You won't blow up. So long as you don't play with it, you won't blow up." When I saw the wires, I asked them. They said: "It won't blow up. So long as you don't play with it, it won't blow up."

Interviewer: But didn't you ask them what the belt was for?

Ranya: No

I don't know how typical this kind of presentation is on Iraqi TV, but the contrast with the kind of martyrdom glorification you see on Hamas TV, or in Iran, is quite striking.