I stumbled upon this documentary film from 2007 (haven’t seen it yet). It explores “what happens to a population that has experienced more than a generation of warfare,” and “how people become suicide bombers, a choice that seems completely incomprehensible to most of us”:

In Sri Lanka’s brutal civil war, some rebel women end their lives as suicide bombers that have killed hundreds over the years. A Norwegian documentary film that follows two 24-year-olds training to do just this has enraged the Sri Lankan government, but raises important questions about the conduct of war and its consequences.

The women are from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), often called the Tamil Tigers, a rebel group that has been fighting for an independent homeland for the Tamil ethnic minority since the 1970s. The demand has arisen, they say, in reaction to abuses and discrimination by the Sri Lankan government.

A third of the Tigers are women.

More here.  (Watch the trailer; the movie is not yet available in the US.) From the movie site, I also discovered the relatively new Society for Terrorism Research (STR), which invited a screening of this film at its first annual conference last year.

The Society for Terrorism Research (STR) is an international, multi-disciplinary organization of theoretical and empirical researchers in such behavioral sciences as anthropology, biology, economics, political science, psychology, sociology, and others. Its mission is to enhance knowledge and understanding of terrorism. Research on terrorism should include and integrate theoretical frameworks and findings from multiple disciplines. Thus informed, more effective policies worldwide will be able to reflect diverse models of complex causation.

Sounds promising, even though Scott Atran is conspicuous by his absence from its governing, advisory, and journal editorial boards.