Not Exactly Ladies Home Journal

Just because al-Qaeda and other jihadists want to relegate females to the status of property doesn't mean there's not a place for women in the jihad. As today's Washington Times reports, there is now a magazine designed to meet the needs of the female suicide bomber in your life:

Al Qaeda has introduced an online women's magazine with articles including dietary advice for suicide bombers and tips on how to "dominate the passions" before blowing yourself up, according to Italy's SISDE secret service.

SISDE analysts disclosed the existence of Al Khansa, the unusual monthly Internet publication for female militants that is hosted by several Islamist Web sites, in the Italian spy service's quarterly review Gnosis.

As you might suspect, this is not your typical women's magazine:

"If you want to read up on the latest model of hijab [veil] or abaija [tunic], don't let yourself be taken in by the rosy image on the front of Al Khansa," the newspaper La Stampa of Turin quoted one SISDE analyst as saying.

"Among the Web pages of this newly born female review in Arabic, you won't find the usual fashion features that fill the pages of ladies' magazines the world over, except for a section dedicated to fitness with advice on diet and training to follow so as to acquire not a catwalk waistline, but martyrdom in the holy war."

With its bizarre format including articles on "breathing gymnastics to conquer the passions," evidently essential knowledge for those tempted to have a final fling before strapping on an explosive-laden corset, Al Khansa could indicate that al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden has made a strategic choice in favor of "women's emancipation through martyrdom," according to the Gnosis report.

"Women's emancipation through martyrdom". Not quite what Betty Friedan had in mind, I suspect. The article itself is well worth a look:

Women's magazine offers tips to terrorists

(Link courtesy of Jihad Watch)