Afghans slowly come around on the notion of female soldiers
ALLISON LAMPERT, The Gazette
Published: Friday, January 11
Once rejected by a culture that denies women basic freedoms, Canada's female soldiers and military police are now in demand in Kandahar province.
Initially barred from working with male Afghans for fear of upsetting southern Afghanistan's conservative sensibilities, female security forces are now badly needed to search women at checkpoints.
With insurgents dressing up in burqas to escape detection, the demand for female officers at police stations and Afghan military outposts is rapidly growing.
"We are always worried about people who disguise themselves," Canadian Forces Colonel St?phane Lafaut said. "The use of Canadian women at police stations will help us. What we are hoping to have one day are female Afghan police officers" at the stations.
There are now three Canadian women working as mentors to Afghan police officers at stations in Kandahar's Zhari district. One female soldier is working in a similar capacity with the Afghan national army, said Lafaut, commanding officer of the Canadian mentoring team that's working with Afghan police and soldiers in Kandahar.
It's a dramatic change in attitude since November, when Quebecer Jennifer Lettre, 26, became the first female Canadian military police officer assigned to mentor Afghan forces. She works at a police substation in Pashmul, a cluster of mud-walled compounds in the Zhari district.
In September, Afghan resistance to the notion of a woman mentoring a male officer was so great, Lettre and two other women had to be separated from the men in their platoon. While the men were sent to mentor the fledgling Afghan police force - long plagued by underfunding, poor training and corruption - the women were sent to work with prisoners at a detention centre.
Lettre quickly grew irritated. As a reservist and a woman in a predominately male profession, she said, she's used to having to prove her abilities to soldiers and other military police.
But the frustration of not being able to work with the guys she'd trained with for a year, combined with the annoyance of not being able to fulfill many of her tasks at the detention centre - like accompanying men to the showers and bathrooms - made Lettre yearn to go home to Granby.
"I couldn't work at the police station because I'm a woman and I couldn't really work with prisoners because I'm a woman," she recounted. "I just wanted to follow my platoon."
At the same time, Lettre's platoon wanted her back.
"We all know that she is capable," said a friend, military police Cpl. Eric Dagenais. "I would trust my life in her hands, just as I'd trust my life in the hands of any of the guys."
Dagenais, 30, and other members fought to bring her to their police station, where they wanted a female to search women at their checkpoints. In September, a Canadian soldier - one of Dagenais's closest friends - was shot in the head during a patrol with Afghan police after being ambushed by two insurgents who were hiding assault rifles under their burqas. The friend survived.
When Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche, commander of the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan, came to visit his police station, Dagenais told him they wanted a female officer to search women at checkpoints. His police commander, Mohammad Khan Safai, also recognized the need for a female officer to search women. It was at the insistence of the Afghan police that the Canadians agreed to assign women as mentors.
Safai, 28, said he's been happy with Lettre, whom the Afghans call "Jean." She plays soccer, conducts checkpoints and walks side-by-side on patrols with his Afghan policemen. "She does her job very well," Safai said.
alampert@thegazette.canwest.comhttp://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=0478e921-9a10-4456-bb79-de4e467e6a6d&p=1
