Jordan Times
Friday, July 9, 2004
Iraqi women soldiers graduate
from training course
ZARQA (AFP) — A group of 39 Iraqi women soldiers graduated Thursday from a
US-led training course held in Jordan and were preparing to head home hoping to
form the nucleus of a female contingent in a new army.
During the past 10 weeks the women, including mothers and university graduates
ranging in age from their early 20s to 44, underwent strenuous physical training
and learned to fire weapons.
But the jobs they will be given when they return Friday to Iraq have yet to be
defined by the defence ministry, which will decide whether to deploy them in the
field or give them administrative duties.
“I am not sure what is going to happen with them. I hope that it will be a
combination of those things that suit the individuals,” US Army Reserve Major
Trish Morris told AFP.
“I hope that over time they will prove that they can contribute well beyond the
soldiers in the field,” she said Wednesday at the training base in Zarqa,
northest of Amman.
Thursday's graduates were the second group of Iraqi women to complete a military
training course in Jordan since June, when 11 graduated. Another group of 40
women are expected to earn their ranks in September
The course includes lessons in military law as well as computer studies and is
conducted by the female branch of the Jordan Armed Forces in cooperation with
the US-led multinational force in Iraq.
“I hope that we will be able to form the nucleus of a new Iraqi women's army,”
said Samira Ahmad, an Iraq Kurd.
Under the regime of former leader Saddam Hussein, Iraqi women held several
prominent civilian and political posts. But they were kept out of the defence
ministry and did not have a role in the military except for a volunteer force.
Bushr Manaf, a mother of two grown boys, is at 44 the oldest graduate and has
chosen to start a new life as a soldier.
“Since the end of last year's US-led war on Iraq, women's conditions have
changed. There are women's rights groups, and women have been appointed as
cabinet ministers,” she said. But women's freedom of movement has been
restricted because of the precarious security situation in the strife-torn
country, where women are often victims of rape and harassment, she added.
“Iraqi women have gained a lot but they have also lost a lot,” since the end of
the war, Manaf said.
Several other graduates said they were aware of the perils that lie ahead in
Iraq, where members of the new army and police have been the targets of repeated
attacks by insurgents opposed to the new order.
“We are not afraid. We know what can happen. We know that soldiers die,” said
23-year-old Horan Shallal, whose father, a retired military academy professor,
encouraged her to enlist.
“I know that he is now waiting for my return. He wants to show me off to the
family in my new military uniform,” she said.
Zeinab Nasser, who graduated last year from the faculty of engineering in
Baghdad, and 23-year-old Shirin Fadel are also excited at returning home to play
a role in the reconstruction of their country.
“Our country needs us and we are ready to offer everything we can,” Fadel said.
“I will do everything that is asked of me without hesitation.”
These women “understand what it is like to die. They have relatives who died or
were injured,” said Major Morris, whose course is part of plans to create a
35,000-strong new army for Iraq, including 1,400 officers, by September 30.