When I think of a “mother”, the images that come to mind are those of a nurturing, protective, loving soul. But one woman, 50-year-old Samira Ahmed Jassim nicknamed ‘Umm al-Mumineen,’ (’the mother of believers’) is the antithesis of that. This Iraqi “mother” was recently arrested and confessed to recruiting more than 80 female suicide bombers. She also admitted to being the mastermind behind 28 different suicide bombings. It seems the cowardly insurgents have started recruiting females as suicide bombers as the women are less likely to be searched because of Islamic modesty laws, and the ease with which bombs can be hidden under their long black robes.

Samira’s job was to actively seek out potential candidates from the depressed and dispossessed, and then

“to persuade the women to be bombers, then escort them to an orchard for insurgent training and finally pick them up and lead them to their targets.”

Even more egregious is the fact that she admitted to AP reporters that

“she was part of a plot in which young women were raped and then sent to her for matronly advice. She said she would try to persuade the victims to become suicide bombers as their only escape from the shame and to reclaim their honor.”

Then you have Itisam Adwan another 38-year-old Iraqi woman nicknamed “mother of the female suicide bombers” or “Umm Fatima” (the mother of Fatima) who was captured last September, 2008. Hardened and unrepentant, Itisam told police there were so many willing to follow in her footsteps, her arrest would make no difference. Captain Ahmed Jasim, of the Baquba police said, Itisam

“had described how a group of women, mainly widows of terrorist “martyrs”, who are grooming younger relatives and acquaintances for death.

“She said she is just one of many mothers who do the same job,” he said. “And there are many girls who are willing to die. The mothers tell them that they will go to heaven, where they will sit by rivers of honey and have lunch with the prophet Mohammad and live in comfort.

“The girls are the wives of al-Qaeda members, so their husbands tell them that their martyrdom would be glorious and the husbands too will automatically get to heaven as a result of their wives willingness to kill themselves in the name of religion.”

Some suicide bombers have been as young as 13.

Do these people have any conscience whatsoever? Do they have hearts or Souls? Do they truly believe that Allah will welcome them in heaven when it’s their time to go? Even animals have more maternal instincts than these women.

They deserve to rot in hell, and they certainly have no right to call themselves “mothers”.