Military women trade combat for cookies and women's peace shura.
February 12, 2011
By Photo by U.S. Army Spc. Tobey White, Task Force Duke Public Affairs Office
Story Highlights
- First women's shura, or meeting, in over two years in Khowst Province, Afghanistan
- The government officials on hand weren't the average Afghan official. For starters, they're all female.
- For the female soldiers attending, it was the first time they had conducted an all female mission.
- Since in Afghanistan only women can engage women, they had to reach out to sister companies all over Khowst to get the women they needed.
U.S. Navy Culinary Spc. 2nd Class Francine Henry, with the Khowst Provincial ReconstructionTeam, gives cookies she baked to local Afghan women at a women's shura held in Jaji Maidan in Khowst Province, Afghanistan, Thursday, Feb. 10. She had attended the first women's shura held in the area with coalition forces and was part of an all-female mission to interact at the shura. One of the issues the women raised during the shura was the need for medical care for themselves and their families.
