the body of a suicide bomber

Achille Mbembe says: “the body [of a suicide bomber] is transformed into a weapon, not in a metaphorical sense but in the truly ballistic sense” (36). These past years, we have seeing an increase of suicide bombers – including the people who immolated themselves in the airplanes that crashed into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. I have not read any scholarly article or study on this topic, even though I have researched suicide for a theater piece I made three years ago. Mbembe made me think about the bodily/material aspect of suicide bombers in a way I have not thought about before – even though it seems extremely obvious. I have always thought about them in terms of psychology, asking questions about “what is in their minds” to make such a decision. Maybe my thinking comes out of the portrayal of media that usually categorizes suicide bombers as religious fanatics. I would like to research the concept of body in suicide bombing.

Resources
Reuter, Christoph. My life is a weapon: a modern history of suicide bombing. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004.
Victor, Barbara. Army of roses: inside the world of Palestinian women suicide bombers. Constable and Robinson, 2003.