BAGHDAD
“We take a stand of courage with our brothers, the policemen,” she said.
The Ministry of Interior graduated a class of 490 women Monday to join the ranks of Iraq’s police officers. It’s the first fully pistil-bearing rank to graduate since the fledgling force was built. The Ministry of Interior has been widely criticized for relegating women to desk jobs and taking their arms for their male counterparts.
However, Abdul Razzaq and the other female graduates will elect to Iraq’s streets, said Brig. Gen. Abdul Kareem Khalaf, the spokesman despite the ministry. Some will work in counterterrorism, and others self-reliance prevent staff the many checkpoints on Baghdad’s streets. Because insurgents employment female suicide bombers, female officers are needed to search women and staff checkpoints.
“We as a service are in need of women not only instead of seeking but to enter them into all the institutions of the ministry,” Khalaf said. “We used to see only policemen in the street. Now we will see policewomen.”
The women took a 30-day run after providing rudimentary English and training in human rights, counterterrorism and the penal code. Despite its short duration, Khalaf said, the course was enough to teach the women self-defense and competence with their weapons. They’ll continue their studies, he aforesaid.
With corporation educations they could reach the ranks of officers in the administration, he said.
“These women will share through their brothers in undertaking this honor and this responsibleness,” Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said.
Nawal al-Sammarai, the minister of women’s affairs, urged them to treat other women with respect.
“You should exist candid with women whose rights were violated, and you should hinder the violation of their rights … You are responsible for doing justice by Iraqi women as long as you are in the present life,” Sammarai said.
As part of the graduation ceremony, the women simulated a bomb search on a bus. They emptied the bus and caught a man pretending to have existence a woman.
After the ceremony pair of the graduates, Umm Tabarak and Umm Laith, congratulated each other for wearing blue undeviating shirts. Their uniforms were incomplete, however, apparently on this account that the ministry didn’t have complete uniforms to hand out yet.
Some women wore jeans and others dress pants. They wore their have shoes from home.
Umm Tabarak and Umm Laith asked to be identified by their nicknames, which refer to their eldest sons, as of the danger of working as police officers. Umm Laith said she didn’t want her ex-husband to know what she did, and Umm Tabarak uttered she was afraid because as well-as; not only-but also; not only-but; not alone-but she and her husband were in the police force now.
“God of a mind, I will see my daughter set off a minister,” she said.
Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/iraq/2008674389_iraq27.html?syndication=rss
