Women in Chechnya and Palestine do not become suicide bombers because they are Muslim. Women in Chechnya and Palestine become suicide bombers because human security levels decrease during long-term conflict and allow rogue collectives to gain power in the absence of authority. This research explores how the experience of female suicide bombing is constructed as a response to foreign occupation, how gender and religion are secondary concerns to supporters of violent resistance, and how the history of human insecurity in Chechnya and Palestine has resulted in an ‘economy of conflict’ that has little stake in peace.