Word: hasna
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Hasna was distraught - not because her brother was dead, but because he had not completed his mission. "She had been ready to hear about his death," says Sadiya. "But the idea that he would not be a martyr was too much for her to bear." Hasna locked herself indoors for a week, until the neighbors called Sadiya, certain her sister was dead. They broke down the door and found her, comatose and surrounded by feces. Under Sadiya's care, she regained some of her health, but she continued to be haunted by the shame of Thamer's failure - she referred...
...Soon after, Hasna approached her brother's former colleagues with a proposal. If they could get her a belt, she would bomb Kilometer 5 herself. The group was initially skeptical - they had never worked with a woman, and felt certain she would lose her nerve at the last moment. But Hasna wore them down with her insistence, and they sent her to Syria to be vetted by senior jihadi commanders and fitted for a bomb belt. (Iraqi officials in Ramadi say she made several training visits to Syria...
...next time Sadiya saw her sister, Hasna was almost giddy with anticipation. She told funny stories about her experiences in Syria. The jihadis' religious beliefs forbade them from touching her so, she said, they had no idea how to measure her for the belt. She offered to give them her brassiere, but they had to first check with an imam whether Islam allowed a man to touch a woman's underclothes...
...week after Hasna's death, Sadiya received two DVDs. She says she can scarcely recognize the woman in the recordings. "It is Hasna, but without Thamer," she says. "When he died, she became half of herself, and you can see half a person on the video." It is common for suicide bombers to videotape a wasiyeh or will; many are posted on jihadi websites. In the recordings, the bombers, usually masked, are shown praying from the Koran, extolling the virtues of martyrdom and damning their enemies (typically the U.S.) to hell...
...Hasna's wasiyeh, her face is uncovered, her long dark hair is loose. She stares straight at the camera and speaks in a low, unchanging voice. Although she doesn't seem to be consulting any notes, the speech seems rehearsed - she never pauses to collect her thoughts. The 15-minute monologue is entirely about her little brother - about how he was an obedient child who grew up to be a respectful young man, one who loved his family and would do anything for their happiness. Hasna relates anecdotes about Thamer's precociousness in school, his skill at drawing, his talent...