- Title: IRAQ: Women in conservative Iraqi city defy tradition and learn to diffuse bombs
- Date: 16th November 2009
- Summary: POLICEWOMEN DURING TRAINING COURSE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) POLICEWOMAN, BASMA ALI JABOURI, SAYING: "I have been threatened by armed groups several times, among them al-Qaeda in Samarra city. Sometimes I would run away to Baghdad and then return back again to Samarra." WOMEN STANDING IN LINE TO BE SEARCHED BY FEMALE POLICEWOMAN POLICE WOMAN SEARCHING WOMEN WITH IEDD DETECTO
- Embargoed: 1st December 2009 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Iraq
- Country: Iraq
- Topics: Defence / Military
- Reuters ID: LVA7ZX6FBHQIC3VIF9ASK5C8ZJ2D
- Story Text: Women in the conservative city of Samarra defy traditions and enrol in training courses to learn how to detect and defuse bombs.
In an attempt to give Iraqi women a larger and more significant role in their country's security forces, policewomen in the city of Samarra defied tradition by taking part in the training programme, which taught them to detect and defuse bombs.
About 16 policewomen took part in a 30-day training session, which showed them how to use bomb detectors, such as Improvised Explosive Device Disposal (IEDD) detectors, to dispose of and defuse bombs.
Part of the course included operating a remote controlled robot that enables them to deal with certain bombs, such as ones often planted by insurgents in densely populated areas like markets.
Despite a fall in attacks by insurgents and militants over the past 18 months, bombings still kill scores of people in Iraq each month.
Two recent suicide bombings killed at least 155 people and wounded more than 500 in Baghdad.
The supervisor of the bomb disposal course, Colonel Abdulhadi Saleh Mohammed, who heads the anti-explosive department in Salahuddin city, said the violence that has plagued Iraq since the U.S. invasion in 2003 was prime motivation for women to learn skills beyond the traditional ones of child bearing and home care.
"Samarra's women were confined to their homes, kitchens and schools but following terrorist attacks in the wake of 2003, which killed men, widowed women, orphaned children, shed blood and damaged houses, women rushed to the battlefield to join their brothers in the military in order to achieve security and stability," Mohammed said.
Most of those who have died violent deaths since 2003 are men, leaving huge numbers of widows and fatherless children.
Mohammed considered the bomb disposal course a unique experience that has been offered to Samarra's policewomen.
"This is a training course and for the first time in Iraq, women have entered the field of Explosive Ordnance Disposal. This is a unique experiment here in Iraq, especially with participation by Samarra's women, to train them to use a remote device, the IEDD (Improvised Explosive Device Disposal detector)," he said.
The work of most female police officers in Iraq is restricted to administrative jobs or manning check points. Raiding houses in search of militants remains restricted to male members of the police force.
Khawla Ibrahim Mohammed, 35, has worked as a policewoman for almost two years. She said the course was a great opportunity for women to take part in a good cause.
"Our participation in this course has become a normal thing for us, we are brave on the inside and we fear nothing," she said.
"We were trained to do many things and we have been exposed to things that we now cannot do without. We used to stay at home and the only thing we knew how to do was raise our kids, serve our husbands and that was it."
Khawla, who is married to a policeman, said policewomen perform heroic acts and joining the police force should not be considered shameful by conservative Iraqi society.
"A women's place is not only inside the home, no. In doing this, there is nothing inappropriate or wrong, she is doing a heroic act -- heroic and helping her fellow policeman, and there is nothing to be ashamed of. On the contrary, what is shameful is if a woman puts her hand in hand with a terrorist, for example, but if she remains hand in hand with her fellow policeman to support him, she will learn many new things from him. Say for example in her neighbourhood someone found a bomb planted in a particular place. Is she going to wait and call the police? No, she can go and take care of it, she can move," she said.
Basma Ali Jabouri, who joined the police force in early 2008, said despite receiving threats for her work, she would not consider leaving the police service.
"I have been threatened by armed groups several times, among them al-Qaeda in Samarra city. Sometimes I would run away to Baghdad and then return back again to Samarra," Jabouri said.
Whatever the complaints of their husbands or male colleagues, policewomen point out that one of Iraq's enemies, al- Qaeda, has no qualms about recruiting women.
Last year saw around two dozen female suicide bombers launch attacks on behalf of the Sunni Islamist militant group. The policewomen have proved a successful tactic, precisely because women are unlikely to be frisked by male police.
While the number of women serving in the Iraqi police force has swelled since the 2003 invasion, the great majority of police officers are male.
The handful of women who joined the various sections of the Iraqi police force after the invasion has grown to 3,100 out of a total of 480,000 police officers. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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