KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan - As Soldiers and officers of both the 1st Cavalry and 101st Airborne Divisions continue to operate under the Resolute Support mission in Train, Advise, Assist, Command - South, advisors have observed improvements relating to the integration of women in Afghan governance and society, as well as the security forces as a whole. TAAC-S has established gender integration focal points within the Afghan National Police, Afghan Border Police, and the Afghan National Army to reinforce the Afghans' progress.
During a recent engagement along the governance line of effort, the TAAC-S gender advisor and Roqia Achakzai, the Director of Women's Affairs for Kandahar, discussed the progress from Achakzai's perspective. Achakzai said that "women have taken on much larger roles over the past decade."
She added that many women in Kandahar went from rarely leaving their immediate residence to being elected to seats on the Provincial Council, openly serving the public on the workforce, and attending university. There are now more than 12,000 girls in school, 248 women working in official capacities across the province, 347 women working with local area non-government organizations, 8 school principals, and 12 female doctors and 41 nurses working at Mirwais Hospital, the only advanced medical center in the area. If there has ever been a time in Afghanistan's history in which women prove integral to society, that time is now.
Those exact feelings and thoughts are even evident amongst the leadership of the Afghan National Defense Security Forces. Col. Raham, the Director of Human Rights at the ANP Provincial Headquarters, said that without women in the police forces, they all "could not be effective at their jobs." He went on to explain the significant and encouraging advancements he has seen during his multi-decade tenure as a police officer.
In 2001, the Kandahar ANP had one woman on the force. Col. Raham personally knew the officer, Lt. Col. Malalai Khakar, the first woman to graduate the Kandahar Police Academy and become an investigator. Raham described her as a "very strong and brave lady who was committed to our country just like the men; she would leave her house and children in the middle of the night to help people wherever she was needed. She is still an inspiration to all of us." However, along with the many upswings in gender integration, there are still setbacks. Lt. Col. Khakar was assassinated outside her home in 2008 by those opposing her efforts to improve women's rights and status in Kandahar, but the legend of Malalai will not die, and young women continue to press on and serve their country.
Now, 14 years after the first woman joined the police, Kandahar has the second largest number of women in their police forces in all of Afghanistan. This may be due to many factors, but Col. Raham believes it is due to the fact that the leadership realizes the operational importance and advantage they bring to the fight because of the cultural sensitivities of only allowing women to physically search other women.
One of his assistant officers in the human rights department, a female second lieutenant named Fatima, excitedly and zealously explained that even the Afghan special operations police forces include women in their missions to prevent male subjects from hiding evidence in rooms occupied by women. With a huge and proud smile, she specifically recalled one of these missions during which a female police officer recovered several incriminating SIM cards a man had stuffed into his wife's shirt, not realizing the forces had a trained female police officer to search all women in the compound. Advisors in TAAC-S have also witnessed the direct coordination between the ANA and ABP forces to cross-level female police at checkpoints and the International Airport in order to deter insurgents from using burqa-clad women, or men dressed as women, to transport weapons or explosives through the country.
Initiatives aimed at cultural change require courage, patience and commitment. While it is clear that progress has been made, especially from the Afghan perspective, they still realize there is work to be done to further the integration and acceptance of women in Afghanistan. This work continues daily through the combined and sustained efforts between coalition forces and their Afghan partners.
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